Finished Ratchet and Clank (2016): How It “Re-Visions” the Original Game

 

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Ratchet & Clank (2016) Box Cover Art with Ratchet and Clank standing on a planetoid. Image Source: Amazon.com 

Word Count (What I’m Writing); Updated every 2-3 Days (mostly)

Project Ship of Shadows (Graphic Novel) Page Count: 19 (+2)

Goal = 5 Pages a week.

Actual = 3/5 Pages done so far this week. I added a page to the 1st issue last night.


Whale Song Revision (Fantasy Short Story) (2nd Draft)

(Researched an article on Whaling, No Writing so far)

Currently Reading (What I’m Reading); Updated Weekly (mostly)

For Fun:

Transhuman edited by Mark L. Van Name and T. F. K. Weisskopf

Just started this anthology – it was given to me at a LibertyCon some years ago, but I’ve just now gotten around to reading it. I may not finish it/read all the stories, but so far, I’ve read the first story and liked it.

Traveller RPG: FINISHED!
For School:

Afrofuturism (by Ytasha Womack) : This book describes the academic genre of Afrofuturism (essentially African American Science Fiction that deals with social issues in culture).  I just finished Chapter 3 today and I’m at the beginning of Chapter 4 (this book has 10 chapters).
For Research/Personal Development:

Great Aircraft of WWII by Alfred Price and Mike Spick (for Project Skye)

Great Aircraft of WWII is a book that I’ve had in my collection for sometime–I’ve glanced at it periodically, but never read it cover-to-cover.  Now, with Project Skye, I intend to do just that.

Insomniac Games and the Ratchet and Clank Universe

Last Saturday, while I was feverishly trying to find and coral a “structure” for my paper that I needed to turn in Sunday, I finished a game called Ratchet and Clank. While it is for the PlayStation 4, it is a “re-imagining” of the original game which debuted on PlayStation 2. I actually could have finished it the week prior, but held off on the final boss fight as it looked fairly complex and I’d already been playing for a while and was starting to get frustrated by the boss fight. I’m glad I took a break because the boss fight was nearly as hard as I’d first envisioned and I beat it after about half an hour.

Re-imaging = Re-visioning

So, one of the reasons why I wanted to talk about this here and now was because of my previous post on drafts and revisions. Ratchet and Clank (2016), (which will be referred to now on as R&C 2016) represents one way (a great way, in my opinion) of “re-seeing” a work to make it much better. There was a R&C animated movie that debuted with this game and while this game was released to take advantage of the movie, it still was very much its own creation. One of the things that I liked that the designers did was “translate” the game for modern audiences (gamers). Games, their systems, and what gamers expected in 2016 is markedly different than what they expected in 2002 when the first R&C was released. Insomniac, the makers of the R&C series, understood this and revised their game to bring it in line with modern expectations of gaming. In essence, they looked at the advantages of the new technologies they had available to them and used those to their advantage when shaping the new game. The core storyline of the R&C 2016 game is the same as the original R&C game, but the controls, graphics, effects, and music & sounds have all been upgraded to such a level that it doesn’t feel like a “remaster,” but an entirely new game.

Re-visioning Leads the Way

This is what I hope to accomplish with my writing projects and my new process of going through the outline/rough draft, 1st draft, & revision draft stages. Something that remains true to the original vision of the story that I had in mind and that excited me when I originally wrote it, but that, by using techniques and experiences that I learned/engaged with since the original story was written, I can create something that retains the flavor of the old, but is light years beyond the old. Re-visioning, or simply revision has that power. Through revision, one can shape a story and mold it into something beautiful. The problem with revision is that it can be ever on-going. There has to be a point when it comes to a stop so that one can market it and move on to other projects and ideas. For me, I’ve stopped the process too soon, ending at the first draft stage and not really going back to “re-vision”/revise the project as deeply as I could. I’m hoping that 3 really strong passes at a story will help me 1) get past the 1st draft on the market syndrome that I’ve fallen into in the recent years, and 2) not get stuck in the mode of continuous revisions, however, where I keep picking at it and picking at it, while not actually submitting the stories.

Sorry for such a long blog entry–perhaps it will make up for the one I missed yesterday. Will try to get back on a regular schedule as soon as my schedule becomes a little more regular.  Have a good day.

Sidney

Read Skin Deep for Free at Aurora Wolf
Read Childe Roland for Free at Electric Spec



Read Faerie Knight in the anthology Fae, Rhonda Parrish, Ed. or the Kindle Edition
Read Ship of Shadows in the anthology Visions IV: Space Between Stars, Carrol Fix, Ed. or the Kindle Edition.
Read WarLight in the anthology Visions VI: Galaxies, Carrol Fix, Ed. or the Kindle Edition.
Read Dragonhawk in the magazine Tales of the Talisman, Vol. 8, Iss. 3, David Lee Summers, Ed. or the Kindle Edition.

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