Fireside Chat: All Things Insomniac
summary
Insomniac describes concrete practices: almost 30 years old, about 400 staff across Burbank and Durham, simultaneous projects with a matrix structure and three leadership tracks, and announced Spider-Man 2 and Wolverine. Production uses short slices, a pre-alpha checkpoint plus a planning week before milestones, and shared core teams to avoid pull‑people mistakes. Remote tooling and a portable VO studio enable shipping three PS5 launch window titles while remote. HR moves include diverse‑candidate requirements, no degree rules, telemedicine and 30/60/90 check‑ins.
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chapters (16)
- 0:00Fireside chat intro
- 1:12Hosts and Insomniac Games
- 2:16Ted Price’s role
- 4:47Managing AAA projects
- 7:35Insomniac’s production evolution
- 10:45Key moments in Insomniac history
- 13:49Culture in game dev
- 16:57Culture challenges in AAA
- 21:53Excellence vs team well-being
- 26:12Addressing diversity in the game industry
- 28:41Harassment and safety
- 31:30Feature creep vs well-being
- 36:06Pandemic response and remote work
- 41:19Advice for new devs
- 43:44Sharing Insomniac’s learnings
- 45:48Culture and legacy closing
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