Tune in into ABC-TV’s hit show “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” on Sunday, April 22 at 8 p.m./7 CST to witness how Insomniac Games produced a digital replica of a young boy with a passion for videogames and turned him into a playable character for their upcoming, much-anticipated PLAYSTATION 3 game Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction.
When the design team for “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” asked 9-year-old James Westbrook what his favorite activities included, playing and designing videogames were at the top of his list. Learning of James’ interests, Insomniac Games, a 160-person independent console videogames developer, wanted to help turn one of his dreams into a reality. The studio rallied together and created a digital version of James for insertion into the game, producing what normally amounts to one month’s worth of work in approximately one week’s time.
The Westbrook family has been hard hit by two separate incidents. In April 2004, then-SFC Gene Westbrook was hit by a mortar at an American camp mess hall in Baghdad, Iraq which left him paralyzed. Then, last July, another tragic accident struck the family. While en route to visit friends in Oklahoma, the family van lost control, touched an oncoming vehicle, and flipped into a ditch. The accident left James paralyzed and caused internal injuries to one of two Westbrook daughters, who later lost a kidney. The day after the accident, Gene Westbrook suffered a stroke, leaving him with further damage to his right arm and some memory loss. Since the accident, Peggy Westbrook has been faced with the daunting task of trying to rehabilitate both her husband and son, a task made even more difficult by a lack of wheelchair accessibility in their home.
Ensuring James has the opportunity to play his special character when Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction launches, Sony Computer Entertainment America has gifted the Westbrook family with the complete PlayStation lineup including a PS3, PSP, PS2 and a large quantity of games.
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