Sam Maggs Speaks Out After Insomniac Lead Designer Mark Stuart Dismisses Her & Rest Of Team's Contributions To Rivet During GDC Talk

[SweetNicole]

IGN ran a story today talking about how Rivet was created largely containing details from a GDC talk "Lombax Lessons: A 'Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart' Design Postmortem," given by Insomniac lead designer Mark Stuart.

Ratchet & Clank: Rejected Names for Rivet Included Rachette, Gadget, and...Ratchet - IGN

In his GDC talk: "Lombax Lessons: A 'Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart' Design Postmortem," Insomniac lead designer Mark Stuart walked attendees through the story of Rivet's naming and design.

www.ign.com

It did not take long before the one of the major contributor to Rivet, Sam Maggs (now narrative lead at Wizards of the Coast, then lead writer at Insomniac), got wind of this and began to tell her side on Twitter which paints Mark in a pretty bad light:

Long thread with more context:






There's an additional thread by Sol Brennan (former Insomniac employee) as well:

 

[Nakenorm]

Sigh ... Fuckin hell.
Really hope Insomniac improves on this front. Hell, the entire Fu kin industry needs to improve but this thread isn't about that.

Loved Rivet and now I know who I should give my thanks to.

 

[cartoon_soldier]

Looks like nothing has changed at Insomniac.

 

[AuthenticM]

gross. This needs to change.

 

[Deepwater]

I was going to make this thread actually but this DOES NOT look good when you remember that designers at Insomniac had to be talked down from overtly feminizing Rivet's design. The fact that they're erasing the woman who came up with the name suggests a trend!

 

[RockmanBN]

Don't expect change unless they've actually shown change.

 

[Azerth]

Insomniac donest care. I dont think they ever did anything about the original issues that popped up.

But hey wolverine...

 

[Lant_War]

Yikes

 

[Zebesian-X]

Credit people's work!! How is it not blatantly obvious that this is something you should be doing?

 

[SweetNicole]

I was going to make this thread actually but this DOES NOT look good when you remember that designers at Insomniac had to be talked down from overtly feminizing Rivet's design. The fact that they're erasing the woman who came up with the name suggests a trend!

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Goes into detail on that here and thanks Xavier:

 

[Zebesian-X]

GOAT behaviour tbh

 

[Yerffej]

Gross and insulting.

 

[platocplx]

Isn't it typical if you don't work at a company at the time of certain things they don't really mention you? I don't think I'd be credited really for stuff if I'm gone from the company, but I think stuff like that should change when it comes to project contributors even if they leave the company after the project is over.

However, yeah they prob should go all the all the way behind the scenes of it there. Honestly the crediting it prob the least worse thing here vs the whole creative process being typical dude ideas on how women characters should be portrayed

 

[9wilds]

I can't remember the last place I've heard anything positive about Insomniac's culture. Sounds like Blizzard 2.0 over there — great games, bad people.

Hopefully Sam Maggs gets the credit she deserves.

 

[cartoon_soldier]

Isn't it typical if you don't work at a company at the time of certain things they don't really mention you? I don't think I'd be credited really for stuff if I'm gone from the company, but I think stuff like that should change when it comes to project contributors even if they leave the company after the project is over.

However, yeah they prob should go all the all the way behind the scenes of it there.

Click to shrink...

You don't credit the person literally responsible for the name of the character when talking about naming the character?

 

[mentallyinept]

How hard is it to just give people credit for shit they did?

This isn't rocket science, hell, it's not even science, it's trivial paperwork.

The ease at which this is solvable speaks to the misogyny at play here.

 

[Pyro]

Credit not being guaranteed is another reason why unionization is needed. It's ridiculous how your contributions are erased from record if you leave a company or in some cases are removed from the credits roll because you aren't there for the shipping of the game.

 

[Babu93]

Insomniac is just utterly gross.

Not that anyone seems to care.

 

[Lnds500]

Glad you made the thread and glad her story was told in some way. These stories should be aired again and again and we need to remind ourselves that we still have a looooong way to go.

Insomniac really needs to start taking these things more seriously. It's gonna catch up to them eventually.

 

[PlanetSmasher]

Isn't it typical if you don't work at a company at the time of certain things they don't really mention you? I don't think I'd be credited really for stuff if I'm gone from the company, but I think stuff like that should change when it comes to project contributors even if they leave the company after the project is over.

However, yeah they prob should go all the all the way behind the scenes of it there. Honestly the crediting it prob the least worse thing here vs the whole creative process being typical dude ideas on how women characters should be portrayed

Click to shrink...

This is a trend in the industry and it's one that needs to die, honestly. The idea that a creative lead, heavily responsible for a huge chunk of a game, can leave for ANY REASON and then be wiped off of the credits is something that really, to my knowledge, only happens in gaming. Even Hollywood is better than this and Hollywood has a ton of problems.

 

[just_myles]

Hahaha lombax titties out loud in a meeting. Way to go.

 

[Vimes]

 

[Xeonidus]

Gross. Credit should be given to where it is due.

 

[PRrambo_]

Without Sam it seems, Rivet would have been Ratchet with Boobs and Lipstick 😬

 

[Deleted member 34949]

I was going to make this thread actually but this DOES NOT look good when you remember that designers at Insomniac had to be talked down from overtly feminizing Rivet's design. The fact that they're erasing the woman who came up with the name suggests a trend!

Click to shrink...

Was just about to say, I recalled reading about that.

 

[effingvic]

GOAT behaviour tbh

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Lmao. Lombax Tiddies is a great band name.

Rivet has a great design. Glad she fought to keep all the make up and stuff out of it.

 

[rare]

Spoiler: Screenshot

 

[Khanimus]

Canon

 

[Neoxon]

Welp, looks like nothing's changed over at Insomniac. Sadly, I'm not surprised.

Props to Sam, Sol, & Xavier for speaking up.

 

[Mzen]

Insomniac leadership can fuck off straight to the moon with this shit. One more company to add to the trash pile as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Temascos]

That's some horrible shit and it's good they're calling it out. It's not that hard to credit key people who were involved.

 

[AuthenticM]

LOMBAX TIDDIES

 

[PlanetSmasher]

Welp, looks like nothing's changed over at Insomniac. Sadly, I'm not surprised.

Props to Sam, Sol, & Xavier for speaking up.

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I mean this is all the same stuff we've been hearing about for the past year. Not to diminish Sam and everyone else's stories, because they 100% deserve to be heard, and credited for their work, but I don't think we're going to get signs of Insomniac "changing" from the same troubled project that these stories were always about.

Time will tell if they actually improve their company culture or not, but it certainly seems blatantly clear that Ratchet had a lot of problems behind the scenes.

 

[elenarie]

Click to shrink...

Pretty unbelievable and disrespectful gatekeeping by some studios. Nobody on my team will ever get special thanks of any sorts. If they even simply farted in the general direction of the game, they are going to end up in the credits in an official and proper manner that won't minimise their involvement. This gatekeeping really needs to stop, it helps nobody, and certainly hinders people's future careers and success.

 

[Bane]

Well, that's incredibly fucked.

I look forward to this being forgotten about or ignored when the next Insomniac trailer is released.

 

[TortoiseTesticleOil]

Fuck insomniac.

 

[PlanetSmasher]

Pretty unbelievable and disrespectful gatekeeping by some studios. Nobody on my team will ever get special thanks of any sorts. If they even simply farted in the general direction of the game, they are going to end up in the credits in an official and proper manner that won't minimise their involvement. This gatekeeping really needs to stop, it helps nobody, and certainly hinders people's future careers and success.

Click to shrink...

It's incredibly shitty how common the trend of "if you weren't there when it went gold, you don't get to be in the credits" has turned out to be across the industry. The fact that it's so normalized that it even happens in indie games, not just big AAA publisher productions, really blows my mind.

 

[ghostcrew]

This one was the one that I think gives a lot of context. Not only did she name her - she fought to keep her getting completely cut from the game.

 

[RoboPlato]

This lack of crediting in the industry as a whole is such bullshit and is a very common practice. Glad she spoke out and talked about the process. Sam is a great writer I've been a fan of for a while and she should be able to talk about the work she did freely

 

[Lotus]

Jesus, talk about insulting

Canon

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That's dope

 

[DC5remy]

Why the fuck wouldn't you give credit to a person that created success, no matter how large or small? I love working with teams and calling out the talents, it feels natural.

Fuck ass hat leaders.

 

[Dmax3901]

Rivet was so refreshing in a lot of the ways Sam is describing, disheartening but ultimately not all that surprising that it was something so hard fought for.

 

[Neoxon]

Rebekah Valentine (who wrote the article for IGN) did the right thing & gave Sam Maggs the credit Insomniac denied them.

 

[Griffy]

Leadership at Insomniac needs to get their act together.

 

[Mass_Pincup]

How can you treat the people you worked with for years like this ?

 

[Aiqops]

Canon

Click to shrink...

I haven't played the game yet, but is it made clear in the game or is this just another case of saying it afterwards and not having the courage to do it in the game itself?

 

[ghostcrew]

Rebekah Valentine (who wrote the article for IGN) did the right thing & gave Sam Maggs the credit Insomniac denied them.

Click to shrink...

Awww, this is great.

 

[demosthenes]

I haven't played the game yet, but is it made clear in the game or is this just another case of saying it afterwards and not having the courage to do it in the game itself?

Click to shrink...

Not in the game. I've played ratchet a long time and I don't think romance has ever been in it really? I don't remember the ps2 games. Hell even the ps3 games. Jeez.

 

[Firmus_Anguis]

Jesus, Insomniac...!!

This is so fucking disheartening.

And good on IGN for giving Sam the credit she deserves!!

 

[Griffy]

I haven't played the game yet, but is it made clear in the game or is this just another case of saying it afterwards and not having the courage to do it in the game itself?

Click to shrink...

Probably not the thread to say the person who created Rivet is lacking in courage for what did or didn't make it into the game...