Ratchet & Clank is one of sagas who wear the success of the PS5 on his shouldersbeing one of rare latest console exclusives. The game immersed after a long creative process and was as much critically acclaimed only by the players, thanks to a narration deeper and new charactersbut’original author has just given a major rant regarding studio and game director Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart
Ratchet & Clank : the origin of Rivet is controversial
There are few games that are still PS5 exclusives, and Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart is the first of them. Creating a game of such magnitude is a very long and complicated creative process that began in 2018, taking advantage of the takeover of the studio by Sony to boost development. At the scenario level, the game can boast of having succeeded in creating a new Lombax character, in the presence of Rivet. A very important character in the story since it is one of the rare Lombax known in the world of video games. Rivet is a fan-favorite character because she embodies a very strong and independent woman, while being a perfect mirror to the character of Ratchet. Unfortunately for her, the world of work has caught up with fan expectations of the character with a controversy of invisibilization of the creator of the character.
In fact, last week was the GDCWhere Game Developers Conference. A place where video game creators express themselves on their work and can exchange with people on the spot. One of the conferences run by Insomniac Games was titled “Lombax Lessons, a Ratchet and clank: Rift Apart design Postmortem” in which game director Mark Stuart reflected on the creation of the character of Rivetcompletely obscuring the fact that the character is a creation of another colleague of his from the studio at the time: Sam Maggs who held the position of head writer. The employee worked for a year and a half on the game before slamming the door, and is not credited in the credits as an author. Here is what she explains on Twitter:
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.
March 29, 2022
Sounds like Mark’s GDC speech makes a bunch of this stuff seem like it popped up out of nowhere? I was one of 4 people in the room for most of Rivet’s development. It was I who said “We can’t call him RACHETTE”. Gadget and Rivet was me. It sucks that I erased my work.
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.
March 29, 2022
Mark had a huge problem with me the whole time I was on this project and constantly tried to undermine me, so I’m not surprised he decided to unilaterally take credit for my work now that it was hailed as a success 🙂 that’s how it is to be a woman in games.
“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.
March 29, 2022
“At a time when story treatments were rapidly iterating” – who wrote each of these story treatments? It wasn’t Mark! It was me, actually. I worked on this game for a long time and it’s a misogynistic erasure that makes my blood boil.
A problem beyond the person
In a long thread, she explains how she is behind the current design of Rivet and how she fought not to be over-stereotyped as a woman, where Mark Stuart wanted to over-makeup her or give her a more generous chest. Beyond the character of Rivet, she explains that after a year and a half of working on the character, the team would have completely erased her from the creative process of the game. She does not hesitate to treat this misogynistic treatment on the part of her colleague and equal Mark Stuart, and that the latter had a real grudge against her. It does not surprise him that the latter has tried to reap the fruits of his own labor. Moreover, she makes it clear that her years at Insomniac Games were some of the best she’s had., with exceptional employees and talents. The only problem according to her comes from the direction and her departure would be due to these creative differences. She will also end her two threads on this subject (one on Mark Stuart, the other on the development of Rivet’s character) by mentioning an element that would have been completely erased from the creative process: sexual orientation. de Rivet who should have been a lesbian.
also Rivet is canonically a lesbian
March 29, 2022
Also, Rivet is canonically a lesbian.
Sam Maggs is not well known in France and that’s a mistake. This is’a very popular author across the Atlantic having already worked on many stories for comics Marvel (Captain Marvel), DC (Wonder Woman), Rick & Morty, Tell Tales, as well as games like call of duty vanguardthe remake of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Anthem as well as the very recent Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands. She is also the Director of Narration at Wizard of the Coast concerning the stories of the licenses Dungeons and Dragons and Magic: the Gathering.
