The inspiration for Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales started bubbling up early in the development of its predecessor – Marvel’s Spider-Man, said Insomniac Games creative director Bryan Intihar.

“During the early days of the development of Marvel’s Spider-Man, we discussed various ways on how to make our universe feel unique from other Spider-Man experiences,” Intihar said. “One idea included having both Peter and Miles live in the same universe and have their paths cross. The more we learned and read about Miles, the larger his role became in the game. So, when the idea of him having his own game came up, at that point it felt like a no-brainer. 

“The Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales development team exceeded every expectation we had for the game; he’s a character that’s very important to our studio, and we can’t wait to show fans what’s next for Miles.”

In tackling the 2020 sequel, Insomniac Games wanted to build on the success of Marvel’s Spider-Man, and also add to the experience of the original 2018 game. 

“Our goal was to create a coming-of-age Super Hero story where Miles learns to embrace his identity to become an explosive new Spider-Man,” said Brian Horton, also a creative director at Insomniac Games. “We leveraged Miles’ unique powers: bioelectricity and optical camouflage to create new gameplay opportunities in combat, stealth, and environmental puzzles. We took advantage of the power of the PS5 featuring: raytraced reflections, lightning-fast loading times and smooth 60 FPS gameplay.”

In the follow-up title, players take on the role of Miles Morales about a year after the events of Marvel’s Spider-Man and in a New York City where Peter Parker is absent, as he joined MJ abroad on an assignment to cover the Symkarian Peace Talks for the Daily Bugle. This gave developers a chance to drop a less trained Spider-Man into the hands of players, Horton pointed out.

“Because Miles isn’t experienced like Peter, we wanted to showcase his youthful energy, making his web-swinging less refined, but more expressive with an expanded tricks system,” he said. “To reinforce the Friendly Neighborhood feel, we created an app where the people of the city could request help. Our missions gave Miles and the player an opportunity to get to know and help the residents of East Harlem. When Roxxon’s experimental reactor threatens to destroy the neighborhood, it’s up to Miles to protect the people he loves and earn the name Spider-Man.”

The sequel also offered the team working on the game the opportunity to not just explore Spider-Man through this different context, but also dig deeper into a different part of New York.

“Miles and his mother Rio move from Brooklyn to East Harlem, her childhood home,” Horton said. “This was the perfect setting to make the story personal and specific to Miles. Our team worked closely with cultural consultants and members of the community to ensure every detail was authentic. It was so rewarding to hear feedback from fans, praising the Puerto Rican representation, colorful murals reflecting the culture and community spirit. Setting the game in winter only heightened the beauty of the city and festive spirit.”

With Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales now on Epic Games Store, as well as the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5, the Insomniac Games team is digging into its next big title: Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, due out on the PlayStation 5 in 2023.

With the tremendous success of its Marvel titles, and the potential of its next Marvel games, it might be easy to forget what it was like when Marvel’s Spider-Man hit in 2018.

“Marvel’s Spider-Man was quite the departure for Insomniac, but that’s part of what got us so excited (not to mention our studio is full of Marvel fans),” Intihar said. “We’ve been overwhelmed by the community’s reaction to both Spider-Man titles and, if anything, that reassured us that we want to continue this Marvel journey with upcoming experiences like Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 and Marvel’s Wolverine.”

Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered and Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales are both available now on the Epic Games Store.