Developers not properly crediting people who have worked on their games is one of several issues the games industry has been plagued with for years at this point, and it seems similar issues have surfaced at Insomniac Games as well.
Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart lead designer Mark Stuart recently held a GDC talk focused on the action platformer’s design, part of which also covered the design and naming process of Rivet, one of the game’s two main playable protagonists. Shortly after IGN published an article on the talk, former Insomniac developer Sam Maggs – who was the lead writer on Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart and currently serves as narrative lead at Wizards of the Coast – posted a series of tweets slamming Insomniac – and the aforementioned Stuart in particular – for not crediting her work on the game.
In her tweets, Maggs wrote that it was “pretty upsetting and frankly offensive” that her role in Rivet’s conceptualization and creation has never been mentioned, and accused Insomniac Games of having her work “erased”.
Maggs stated that as lead writer on Rift Apart – a role she served for a year and a half – she was instrumental in the naming, design, and characterization of the game. In one of her tweets, she said she had to “fight tooth and nail to stop Rivet from being cut from the game entirely.”
Maggs, who has been mentioned in the “special thanks” section of Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart, wrote: “This speaks to a broader issue of game devs being entirely erased from the narrative of their own work once they leave a studio. I’m not even credited as a writer on this game despite dedicating a year and a half of my life to it and creating Rivet’s personality from scratch.”
Shortly after Maggs published her tweets, fellow former Insomniac dev Xavier Coelho-Kostolny – who was a 3D character artist at the studio for nearly four years until 2019 – said that he, too, has been credited in the game’s credit’s “special thanks” section, in spite of “doing lead work on the project for a year.”
“The fact that people like Sam had all their involvement erased in favor of keeping the narrative that Insomniac is a friendly and supportive studio makes my blood boil,” Coelho-Kostolny wrote. “Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart was a deeply troubled production from the start, it finally launched almost a year later than it was supposed to, the direction and resources assigned to the project were an absolute mess, and I’m astonished they even got the damn thing running.”
Insomniac and Sony haven’t yet issued an official statement in response. Stay tuned for more updates.
Seems like Mark’s GDC talk makes it sound like a bunch of this stuff sprung up from nowhere? I was one of like 4 people in the room for most of Rivet’s development. I was the one who said “We can’t call her RACHETTE.” Gadget and Rivet were me. Sucks to have my work erased.
— Sam Maggs (@SamMaggs) March 29, 2022
“At a time where story treatments were being rapidly iterated on” — who wrote every single one of those story treatments? It wasn’t Mark! It was me, actually. I worked my ass off on this game for a long time and it’s misogynist erasure like this that makes my blood boil.
— Sam Maggs (@SamMaggs) March 29, 2022
“Someone”????? I guess I just don’t even deserve a name or the memory of having been part of senior leadership on this project for years huh pic.twitter.com/I2l0XxcV8e
— Sam Maggs (@SamMaggs) March 29, 2022
Mark had a massive issue with me the entire time I was on this project and consistently attempted to undermine me so I’m not surprised he’s decided to take unilateral credit for my work now that it’s been praised as successful 🙂 this is what it’s like being a woman in games.
— Sam Maggs (@SamMaggs) March 29, 2022
This total erasure would make me less furious if I didn’t have the memories of SOBBING in offices for hours after fighting tooth and nail to stop Rivet from being cut from the game entirely weren’t BURNED into my brain. pic.twitter.com/MlnfrztZBf
— Sam Maggs (@SamMaggs) March 29, 2022
Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart was a deeply troubled production from the start, it finally launched almost a year later than it was supposed to, the direction and resources assigned to the project were an absolute mess, and I'm astonished they even got the damn thing running.
— Xavier (@xavierck3d) March 29, 2022
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