after finishing work on the "spyro the dragon" series on the playstation, insomniac originally intended to launch a game codenamed "i5" (insomniac game #5) for the playstation 2. the developers, however, were never enthusiastic about it, and the idea was dropped after six months. "ratchet & clank" was based on an idea by brian hastings, which would feature a space-traveling reptile alien who would collect various weapons as he progressed through the game; ratchet's final form was decided upon after insomniac considered a space lizard with a tail and various terrestrial creatures, including dogs and rats; feline features stood out to the developers because of the associated sense of agility. another early idea was to have three small robots attached to ratchet, which would perform different functions. however, insomniac realized that having the robots was both complicated and created confusion about ratchet's appearance, leading them to have only one robot, clank.