

However, while Rivet is certainly ripped in Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, Coelho-Kostolny originally wanted to make her even bigger. Hopefully this means that we will be seeing more of Rivet in future games.Įlsewhere, 3D character artist Xavier Coelho-Kostolny has previously chatted about how he interpreted Rivet, saying that he "made arms beefier than Ratchet's."

In fact, in the final product, she makes up about 50 percent of the playtime." Her inclusion was meant to be inspirational representation and not a bonus mechanic. This was something that the team had to work hard on, to ensure they got the balance of gameplay between Ratchet and Rivet just right. Fungi, a fungi-like companion that spits poison at enemies.Īnd, while Rivet may not be in the game's title, she is definitely an integral part of the overall experience. Instead, these ideas morphed into some of the game's final weapons, such as Mr. Making set exclusively nature-based put unnecessary constraints on us." "Ratchet's weapons can shift, cut, bomb, and transmute. "Moreover, constraining the theme of weaponry stifled the creativity the franchise was known for. "Think FernGully, Pocahontas, or Krystal from Star Fox," said Staurt.

Initially, the idea was for her to be a "survivalist beastmaster." However, this was soon scrapped as many felt that the idea of a nature-loving female lead was a bit of a "trope." In addition to chatting about her name, Staurt also touched on the gameplay ideas the team had for Rivet. Thankfully, the name Rivet was eventually suggested and, needless to say, it stuck. However, many felt that this name was too 80s, citing Inspector Gadget and Gadget from Chip 'n' Dale: Rescue Rangers as examples of the name in other media. Other names for Rivet included Ratchette, but the team decided this was "too diminutive", and it only reduced "her existence to a gender-swapped Ratchet".įinally, the team used the codename of Gadget for a period of time.

"At a time where story treatments were being rapidly iterated on, it was hard to tell what dimension you were in, but also which Ratchet you were talking about." "For example: 'Ratchet needs to rescue Clank from Ratchet, who doesn't trust Ratchet and has a long history battling Nefarious,'" explained Staurt. "Despite falling into the trope of a disabled character who 'overcomes' their disability by using a robotic prosthetic," wrote VG247's Ty Galiz-Rowe, "Rivet is still a better than average example of disability representation.However, this soon made the game very confusing, so this idea was ultimately scrapped. Though protagonists such as Senua from "Hellblade" stand out as exceptions, Rivet, who lost one of her arms before the events of "Rift Apart," further breaks from the norm. Insomniac's decision to make Rivet a protagonist helped bridge the gap between the growing number of female players and their in-game counterparts.īeyond her gender, Rivet also represents a demographic rarely seen in games: people with disabilities. While the number of featured female characters in video games reached a new high of 18% last year (via Wired), overall progress has proven slow. This quest for inclusivity produced Rivet, who Smith described as "the perfect representation for us."Īs reported by Forbes, women accounted for nearly 41% of U.S. "Personally, I have an 11-year-old daughter and I see the way she plays games and she gravitates towards things that represent something she can relate to," Marcus Smith revealed in an interview with Console Creatures.
