Insomniac: “The PS3 is easier to Develop for than the PS2″

Nathaniel Bell – Senior Environment Artist for Insomniac Games had a chance to sit down and talk with me at the Triangle Game Conference about what it’s like to develop on the Playstation 3 console. He has as first hand experience developing environments for several Ratchet and Clank games as well as both Resistance titles for the PS3.
The conclusion that he reached was that because of Insomniac’s amazing engineering teams, and since they make all of their own development tools in house, they as a company have been able to learn from their past experiences and develop new tools to improve on them. This has led to his job becoming increasingly easier over time to the point where “it would be a nightmare to try to develop without the tools we have now”. In the end, he just came out and said that he has had nothing but great experience developing solely for the PS3 now, and because of the tools that he has at his disposal, “The PS3 is easier to develop for than the PS2″.
This will hopefully lay to rest all of the arguments about how “hard” it is to develop for the Playstation3. If you put the time and effort into learning the architecture, then amazing games are possible, as is evident from what Insomniac has released.
Keep checking back for more Triangle Game Conference updates!