The Ratchet and Clank franchise is defined by its comedic, unique weapons. How Insomniac Games, the developer behind the franchise, has successfully done this was all on display Friday at their “Weapons 101” Penny Arcade Expo panel.

Brian Allgeier, who is the creative director on the Ratchet franchise, said that his team has three strategic “pillars” for a Ratchet and Clank weapon: comedic, strategic, and fantastic.

Not all of the weapons have to meet all three of the criteria, but “each had to be 10 or 11 in one of those categories,” Allgeier told the crowd.

To get to the “10 or 11”, Allgeier told the audience that developing the weapons is an extremely iterative process. Once an idea for a feasible weapon is spawned, it goes through prototyping, animation work, and play-testing to see if the weapon makes sense to include in the game.

From concept to completion, Allgeier said that the process takes anywhere from four to six weeks to complete.

Even when the weapons have been completed, there’s even more to test, primarily balancing the powerful weapons in the game.

Allgeier pointed to two in particular: the R.Y.N.O (affectionately titled Rip You a New One) and the Groovitron. The R.Y.N.O. was a weapon from PS2 era Ratchet and Clank (which is making a return in Ratchet and Clank Future: A Crack in Time as the R.Y.N.O. 5000) that dealt massive destruction. It was meant as a reward to those that saved up their bolts and wanted a big, powerful gun.

But some people complained that it was tantamount to a “win” button. Yet, Insomniac didn’t want to get rid of these “uber-weapons” entirely.

“How do you make a weapon powerful, but not a win button,” Allgeier asked.

Their solution? Do two things: Continue to add new weapons to your arsenal, to keep things varied. Then, they forced players’ hands by limiting ammunition on these higher strength weapons, making you experiment with some of the other weapons.

To vary things further, Allgeier said that they spread out weapons throughout the games that make previous weapons obsolete, forcing you to switch things up.

Perhaps the best indication of why Insomniac has successfully been able to create the incredible amount of fun weapons is their tremendous sense of humor. From this hour long panel, Allgeier was genuinely funny, and it would stand to reason that the collective humor of him and his team is channeled to and spawned in the Ratchet and Clank games.

Because of that, Ratchet and Clank continues to produce some of video games’ most humorous, memorable weapons.