Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we continue our series on 2002's Insomniac action shooter platformer Ratchet & Clank. This week we talk about the weapons systems, watching a game evolve over a few years, level design, and other topics. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.

Sections played:
Up to Blarg Station Nebula G64 or thereabouts

Issues covered: propulsion, stretch and squish, humor along the lines of Warner Bros, comedy and timing, matching comedy style to the game, weapon upgrade systems and the many levels of weapons, contextualizing upgrades and gadgets, the zaniness of weapons, gold bolts, having help with the collectibles, getting a lot of trophies, the ways gadgets improved, improving usability, third-person shooting on consoles, early 3D still, filling in the gaps for Nintendo, collection-focused mechanics vs generosity of bolts, failing forward, channels of reward, skill-based leveling systems, adding behaviors to weapons as they level, the variant gameplay forms, looping back to the beginning of sections in level design, taking over Clank, ordering a small squad of robots, a series that blends together, Ratchet being a little irritating, good enemies, music with zany sci-fi, world-building on the nose in a good way, why Gau is a great character, CRTs vs monitors, picking favorite RPG characters, hidden mechanics, an announcement of Brett and Tim working together again.

Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Marvin the Martian, Warner Bros., Disney, Hanna Barbera, Jackass (film series), the 1619 Project, Nintendo, Oddworld, Stranger's Wrath, The Mask, Sly Cooper, LucasArts, Crash Bandicoot, Spyro, LEGO Star Wars, Elder Scrolls (series), Ready at Dawn, High Impact Games, Full Throttle, Anachronox, Space Quest, The Incredibles, Michael Giacchino, David, Bergeaud, Disruptor, Resistance, mysterydip, Final Fantasy VI, Pokemon, zachary, SNES Classic, Blarg42, Chrono Trigger, Dragon Quest, Dragonball, Sebastian Deken, BioWare, Planescape: Torment, Mass Effect, Dragon Age (series), Ni No Kuni, Freddy Prinze Jr, Baldur's Gate, Dungeons & Dragons, JRR Tolkien, Mikael Danielsson, Gears of War, Starfighter, Republic Commando, Jak & Daxter, Resident Evil (series), Death Stranding, Calamity Nolan, Twin Suns Corp, Harley Baldwin, Greg Knight, Paul Pierce, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia.

Next time:
Up through the Bomb Factory!

Link:

CRT vs Monitor in Pixel Art

Hidden Mechanics

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