One of Insomniac’s next big titles appears to be a multiplayer-focused game. The studio tweeted that it is hiring for assorted positions for “a multiplayer project,” including roles for a Creative Director, Story Lead, and a Systems Designer for the multiplayer aspects.
Insomniac is hiring! We have five new job openings for a multiplayer project. Come join us and be part of the #PlayStationStudiosFamily as we work on exciting things!
Apply today: https://t.co/WpJzOR39tK pic.twitter.com/eBJzEEtCsR
— Insomniac Games (@insomniacgames) June 24, 2021
The job postings themselves don’t offer much in the way of additional details on the Insomniac multiplayer project, but there are a few points that stick out.
The Story Lead position’s responsibilities include developing “episodic and nonlinear storylines.” This is likely not referring to episodic games as we know them on the consumer side (like with past Telltale games, etc.), but rather evolving narratives told over time via live games, as well as stories with branching and interweaving plots. This role also requests “Experience with multiplayer narratives,” once again hammering the point home that this is a multiplayer-focused project of some kind.
The Creative Director role requirements talk about “brand extensions like movies, books, graphic novels, web, DLC, and mobile games.” This position also “ensures consistency across the brand’s mythology and universe,” perhaps implying that Insomniac is looking for it to be bigger than just this single game. Whether this is maintaining consistency across an existing brand mythology or a whole new IP is unclear. It also says “Multiplayer experience a plus,” in regards to previous experience in games.
As far as the Multiplayer Systems Designer position, it doesn’t really get into specifics about what Insomniac might be making, aside from using overly broad terms like “combat, navigation, progression, and economy.” However, it does also say they’d like this role to have “Thorough understanding of melee combat systems, enemy design and boss design,” suggesting this probably isn’t a shooter like Resistance.
Similarly, the other roles don’t say much about the project, except once again calling out that multiplayer focus with requirements like a “demonstrable understanding of Art Direction for multiplayer games.”
While Insomniac may be known at a glance for its single-player games like Marvel’s Spider-Man and Ratchet and Clank, the company certainly has dabbled with multiplayer components in the past. Resistance had online multiplayer. Ratchet and Clank: All 4 One had four player co-op. And Fuse was a four player co-op new IP—Insomniac’s first venture outside of PlayStation console exclusivity—released in 2013 that was a critical and commercial failure.
Insomniac has been an absolute machine pumping out games for the PS5 recently. Within less than a year, the developer has already released three games—Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, and Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart—and is expected to be working on yet another follow up in the Spider-Man franchise. That’s on top of this newly revealed multiplayer project that we as yet know very little about, except that it’s multiplayer, will feature an evolving ongoing and non-linear narrative, and will have melee combat. Perhaps Insomniac is making Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 a multiplayer co-op title? Let the speculation commence.
What do you think the Insomniac multiplayer game is? Are they working on an established franchise, or creating a whole new IP? Join us in the comments below and let us know what you think.
[Source: Insomniac]
