GDC08: The Uncharted post-mortem

by Andrew Yoon { Feb 25th 2008 at 4:15PM }

At Game Developer's Conference, our pal, Richard Lemarchand from Naughty Dog hosted a post-mortem on Uncharted entitled "Amazing Feats of Daring." His talk covered the various challenges the team encountered on their first PS3 project, and the tricks they've learned along the way. The audience was jam-packed, as representatives of gaming's most proclaimed development teams attended the session.

One of the unique aspects of the Naughty Dog team, Richard explained, is the team's autonomous freedom. With every member of the team able to contribute to the game's design, it becomes a much more iterative process.

It's obvious that the game took very strong inspiration from the "spaghetti" genre of action stories. Here are some specific stories the team took note of during the production of the game.

The game didn't always have over-the-shoulder aiming. In fact, the game was much more like Tomb Raider in its early days, with lock-on aiming. That proved problematic, however, and the team needed to work on a new solution.

"Aiming was harder than we'd thought it would be," Richard admits. In fact, our first play test at E3 reaffirms the trouble Naughty Dog had fine-tuning the controls: "combat proved to be difficult, due to its rather cumbersome controls, and buggy performance."

Interestingly, the main character of Nathan Drake was based off of Johnny Knoxville. (Seriously, the Jackass guy?) Honestly, he looks more like Naughty Dog's Jason Rubin, if you ask us.

Here's the cast of the game. Remember, these aren't just voice actors. They actually physically performed the roles as well.

A scary, but funny image of the graphics engine glitching during the production process.

Finally, here's an early production video meant to visualize the game. This is from when the game was simply called "Project Big." It's incredible to see how much of pre-production and early visualization made it into the final product.

Tags: gdc08fanboy, joystiqfeatures, naughty-dog, uncharted

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

mberkowitz @ Feb 25th 2008 4:38PM

Still the most underrated game in the last 5 years

sean @ Feb 25th 2008 4:45PM

lol i guess he does kinda remind me of knoxville a lil.lol.

balaam @ Feb 25th 2008 4:53PM

shame that underwater swimming section didn't make it into the game
but from ammount of underwater ideas they had there, it will deffo be in the sequel

Daniel @ Feb 25th 2008 5:31PM

I heard the second one will feature the lost city of Atlantis, so I'm sure there will be some swimming involved.

JAH75157 @ Feb 25th 2008 4:57PM

pretty game, but kinda repetitive.

oh hey a new room *ducks for cover *shoots using a not so good combat system

Oh hey another room *climbs *jumps *climbs *jumps

repeat

yeah i know i'm gonna get flamed for this but whatever, if the combat system was improved i'd like to play the second one if there is one.

Deadpool @ Feb 25th 2008 5:39PM

If that's what you think about it then so be it, not everyone is going to like the game. To each his own.

But if you thought this game was repetitive, what games do you play that aren't? I would really like to know because I want to play them.

dartmerc @ Feb 25th 2008 5:50PM

umm the combat system is as flawless as gears. I'm guessing you haven't played this game, and are only making your comment based off complaints you've read, and misinterperated this post (as ND saying they think the final combat system was flawed).
Can't wait until the sequel, or to see this tech built into their next games.

JAH75157 @ Feb 25th 2008 5:45PM

honestly it wouldn't of been so bad if the combat system wasn't so clunky, i would of enjoyed it alot more. i thought assassians creed was repetative as well but it was a good game, even though it needs some refinements, as well. games don't suffer from variation

Hyams @ Feb 25th 2008 5:58PM

I actually enjoyed the flexibility of the combat system.

You have three different means of fighting available to you (hand-to-hand, cover and fire, run and gun), the different guns are best suited to either cover and fire (pistol, sniper, grenade launcher) or run and gun (machine gun, shotgun).

Hand-to-hand is useful against already weakened enemies (one punch kill), enemies that haven't yet seen you (stealth kill), or any nearby enemy that isn't in line of sight of another enemy (a powerful combo will yield you double ammo - useful if you're low on it for your favourite gun).

Also, grenades are also useful for killing multiple enemies, and the ability to hang and fire is life saving in some situations.

I mean, c'mon, the combat is way more flexible than your average shooter.

Josh Taylor @ Feb 25th 2008 6:16PM

i've definatly played the game, i rented it for awhile. like i said it was pretty but i felt it was flawed and honestly i haven't read anything but praise for this game so i wasn't aware that the combat system was an issue. like i said i'm looking forward to the second one because maybe by then they will have all the flaws ironed out. that's the same way i feel about assassians creed.

Dahk @ Feb 25th 2008 6:59PM

I don't think Uncharted gameplay was repetitive at all. You're never in the same room, so different types of cover are all available to use. There's so many ways of approaching each room that it makes it fun that way.

If I'm feeling for a good brawl, I'll jump up through the pews in the church thing until I get close up and go for a couple good smashes. If I'm feeling conservative I'll hide behind the walls in each door and pick them off with a wellesley or the .45. And then there's always the mad shotgun rampages and nade throws.

PLUS, the AI is so well done, because everytime you repeat a certain battle scene, each guy does something different most times. Sometimes they'll ambush you other times, they'll try and pick you off from afar. Lotsa different scenarios.

I thoroughly enjoyed it =P I'm almost done my second time through grabbing all the treasures and everything.