Uncharted: Drake's Fortune Chat Transcript - Thursday, November 15 at 4:00 PM PSTOn Thursday, November 15th, 2007 the PSU held a special event chat with select members of the Naughty Dog team, who were with the PSU to discuss the upcoming Uncharted: Drake's Fortune game. Below you will find the transcript of the chat.
Note: All credit for this transcript go to Patriot. I just transfered and recoded.
Patriot: The waiting queue is now open, as away
Tropic: How many overall man hours did it take to develope this game?
Evan_Wells: It's hard to say exactly how many man hours were put into the game, but we had a team of about 75 internal employees working for 2 years. We put a lot of hours into it and for several months most people were working 70-90 hours a week!
Light_Jak: What made you decide the name "Uncharted: Drake's Fortune"?
Evan_Wells: Naming the game was a very long and difficult process! Everybody at Naughty Dog and Sony had an opinion so it was tough to get a consensus. We wanted a one word title that captured the essence of the game and we thought "Uncharted" really did that. And then the subtitle worked really well because the Drake referred to Sir Francis Drake as well as our hero Nathan Drake and the "Fortune" could mean either money or destiny. Pretty deep, huh?
XxBigP123xX: Is uncharted coming out tomarrow? i got a phone call from gamestop 10 minutes ago.
scout21: Hey XxBigP123xX - we're looking into it, but if it's available earlier than expected, we're happy to get it into people's hands! We expect that'll make a lot of people's weekend much more enjoyable if it's out earlier ;-)
Italianstallion: Any plans for downloadable content in the future?
Christophe_Balestra: Unfortunately, we didn't have the time to try to incorporate any downloadable content for Uncharted. I don't think we'll patch Uncharted to support it but it is something we might consider for our next game.
NastyNelson: Hi Evan and Chris...thanks for spending time with us today. Having played the demo a few times thru I can't wait for the release. I guess my 1st question would be.
What was the inspiration/motivation behind Drake's Fortune? and on a development standpoint what can we expect from the enemy AI, is there a standard routine or does it adapt to the current situation. Also are there any plans for a sequel?
Thanks,...
Evan_Wells: I'm glad you enjoyed the demo. Our inspiration came from the last 100 years of classic pulp action adventure stories from TV, books, comics, and movies. These stories had all of the ingredients to make a really fun video game and it was a genre that just hasn't been used by the industry very much. As for the AI, it definitely adapts to your play style. If you rush forward they will try to mow you down, but if you hold back and squat behind the same piece of cover they will try to flank you or flush you out. And in regards to a sequel... quite possibly. We hope the game is received well and warrants another episode! We certainly built the game to become a franchise.
jasquarefan: When did the development process start, and were there any major obstacles when programming for the PS3?
Christophe_Balestra: It's been a long process for us. We had our own programming language on PS2 so we had to restart everything from scratch. The most difficult part was more about our production because in next-gen games everything is bigger and more complicated. Beside that we really enjoy working on PS3 and I don't think it's harder than any other machine.
001: How do you feel about the critical reception the game has been getting lately?
Evan_Wells: We are very pleased! We are consistenly getting very positive reviews. In fact we just got a 10/10 from gamer.nl!
CRAPYKAUH: What is the hardest award to achieve?
Evan_Wells: The last unlockable you can achieve is the "Doughnut Drake" costume. I won't tell you what it is exactly, but it is very cool and totally worth the 1000 medal points (perfect score) that you need to earn to unlock it!
Supagohan: Its been stated that Drake is an "everyman" but where there any influences from other people that shaped his looks?
Evan_Wells: We used lots and lots of photo reference of many different actors as well as everyday people. But we were mostly directed by the concept art that we had designed. The end result really did achieve the "everyman" look because I am constantly being told that he looks like 100 different people!
WolfMoonstrike: What Made you decide to go in such a different direction with Uncharted compared to your previous games?
Christophe_Balestra: It was a natural evolution for us. It's been a long time we wanted to do a game like Uncharted but it wasn't possible with the previous hardware. When we started the project we were hoping the PS3 would enable our ambitions and luckly for us Sony delivered.
RicanJoe: Hi, My question might be a bit silly but about how many hours does this game take to complete?
Evan_Wells: It will vary from player to player and depend on how much exploring you do or how many treasures you look for. But I think the average time for an average player is going to be between 10-12 hours. We've also been getting a lot of great feedback on the replayability with the 4 difficulty levels and the huge amount of unlockable content we included (lots of really cool behind the scenes videos and a TON of concept art)
aguba: Will there be any references to the Jak & Daxter series in this game?
Evan_Wells: Yeah, we have several references to Jak and Daxter and other "inside" jokes. See if you can find them
NO FEAR!!: First let me say welcome to the Forums, What about this game are the dev's most proud of...what big trick did you nail and high five over in the office.
Evan_Wells: I have to say that it's getting Drake wet! I really didn't think we were going to be able to pull it off like we did and had written it off as never happening. But one day one of our programmers pulled me over to show me some new effect he had created and it blew me away!
Skaloper: What was the most difficult part you encountered while making Uncharted: Drake's Fortune?
Christophe_Balestra: We spent a lot of time at the begining of the project catching up with the next-gen technology. We'd been doing PS2 for 6 years and the concept of shaders and new lighting techniques were new to us. It's been quite a challange for us but I feel we did more than catching up today.
Light_Jak: How well does the music tie in with the game?
Evan_Wells: The music turned out fantastic! It completely exceeded my expectations. Greg Edmonson (composer from the TV show Firefly) did an amazing job. It was his first video game ever but he completely nailed it. The music transitions perfectly from gameplay to cinematic back to gameplay and it never cuts off or pops. It really helps to immerse you in the world.
yellomello: Does Uncharted have many puzzle sort of missions or is it just a third person shooter?
Evan_Wells: Uncharted is not just a 3rd person shooter. We tried to blend our 3 pillars of gameplay as evenly as possible. We have gunplay, traversal/platforming, and hand to hand melee. There are also some really cool puzzles that you have to solve with the help of Sir Francis Drake's 400 year old journal. And finally we have some really cool vehicle sections as well!
Italianstallion: When can we expect additional updates on the official game site, including adding more to the explore feature?
scout21: Early next week =)
sketch470: Can you explain some of the hurdles you had to overcome developing Uncharted for the PS3?
Christophe_Balestra: Everything was new on Uncharted. The universe, the characters, the story, the hardware, the technology, etc... I think it was the amount of new things we had to deal with that made the begining of the project very difficult.
erikgolson: How important was the Blu-ray format in making this game?
Christophe_Balestra: Huge!!! We couldn't have made it without the Blu-ray or at least not at the quality we wanted it to be. We filled 91 percent of the disc. Everything is compressed and nothing is duplicated.
D_Pyro: How difficult was it to create smooth animations that looked and performed realistically?
Evan_Wells: It was extremely difficult. That's why we started working on our animation system right away. We knew that we were going to get an automatic boost in our ability to render realistic characters and backgrounds just from the hardware alone. But we knew that the illusion would be instantly broken if our charcters moved stiffly and in a non-lifelike manner. So we spent a TON of time and energy on creating these animations. It helped that we had a talented team of animators working with some very clever programmers too!
Playstation360: Christophe - I read that Uncharted only uses about 30% of the cell and that you guys used some innovation to lighten the load on the RSX. Did you guys run into any difficulties developing with the way RAM is set up on the PS3 (like other developers have claimed.)?
Christophe_Balestra: We're using 30% of the SPU's. We use the SPU's for a lot of things and one of them is mesh processing which reduces the amount of data we send to the RSX. We had no problem with the way the memory is set up on PS3.
CaptainHarlock: My question is many people have compared this game to Tomb Raider, do you feel that it's an unfair comparision? And I've noticed many similarites between Nathan Drake and Clive Cussler's Dirk Pitt, is anyone at Naughty Dog a Cussler fan?
Evan_Wells: Well I do understand why people are quick to make the comparison. Both games feature treasure hunters as the main protagonist and there are very few games that are in this exact genre. But once you play the game and understand the characters you will realize that they couldn't be more disimilar. And it is interesting that you bring up Dirk Pitt because we did read a lot of those books as we were doing our research into the genre.
thedragon098: Are there any unlockable weapons or difficulty levels we could look forward to after beating Uncharted?
Evan_Wells: Yes! You can unlock Eddy Raja's golden Desert Eagle and there is a "Crushing" difficulty mode that you can unlock after beating the game on Hard. It will really test you skillz as a gamer!
Midpipps: How hard comparatively is it to program for the ps3 compared to the ps2 for something like this and what were you able to do on the ps3 that you couldn't have with the earlier systems?
Christophe_Balestra: I think it is easier to develop on PS3 than PS2. Sony has been giving more tools and the machine is more powerful. Everything we made on Uncharted was made for the PS3 and it would have been impossible to make Uncharted on previous generation hardware.
Patriot: We're going to be closing the queue for questions shortly, please get your questions in!
Aurablade77: Hey Naughty Dogs, how much more do you guys feels you can make out of the PlayStation 3? Has Uncharted opened up a great level of depth in games that you thought was not possible before?
Evan_Wells: We can still do a lot more with the PS3. We have a very strong base to build on now and I think that you're going to see a bigger difference between Uncharted and our final game on this generation than you did between Jak 1 and Jak 3 (or X).
Patriot: Thanks for your questions everyone, we're going to let Evan and Christophe answer those that are left. Stick around!
360socks: For online content do you think it's possible to have the music scores as download content on the PSN Store?
scout21: We'll have info soon on the music and it's availability - It'll be available on iTunes very soon. Keep an eye out!
GoHerd35: What made Greg Edmonson, composer of "Firefly", as your go to composer for Uncharted: Drake's Fortune?
Evan_Wells: We chose Greg because we loved the work that he had done on Firefly. He used a lot of really cool and eclectic instruments that brought a really multi-cultural vibe to his music. We thought this would fit Uncharted really well because of the clash of cultures that you find on the island.
mario14: what year or time frame is the game's story set in?
Evan_Wells: Uncharted is set in the real world and the present day.
Jules1337: Does the game have a seamless experience? So after the end of a level you go straight to the next without loading?
Christophe_Balestra: There is a little bit of loading time when you start the game but then there's absolutly no loading time. It was very important for us to this otherwise Uncharted would have been very different. We're using the hard drive constantly to load levels, sounds, objects and animations to avoid any loading screen.
scout21: Side Note - Keep an eye out for the next PLAY Magazine.It's got a killer article on Uncharted!
DarKaoZ: Who is the person/group behind the amazing acting/dialog/direction of Uncharted Cutscenes? I have to say those are the most wonderful and enjoyable cutscenes I have seen in a game.
Evan_Wells: We did all of that work in house at Naughty Dog. Amy Hennig our Game Director worked with a few others to create the narrative. We also worked with Gordon Hunt to direct our motion capture sessions which were done at House of Moves. I'm glad you like them!
Hasselhoff: How many chapters are there in Uncharted?
Evan_Wells: There are 22 chapters in all.
Ziaholic: The AI in the demo was impressive and I was actually suprised a few times by the actions of some of the adversaries. How difficult was it to pick the locations and quantities of adversaries throughout the game ... while not turning this adventure into an FPS.
Christophe_Balestra: During the developement we do a lot of focus testing - letting people play our game and watch what they're doing. It helped us a lot to get the right balance.
CRAPYKAUH: If I go back through the game and play it on crushing will the last level make me want to pull my hair out?
Evan_Wells: If you can make it to the last chapter on Crushing, then I think you have skills to finish it w/o pulling your hair out. After beating it on Hard, I think Crushing presents a nice, non-frustrating challenge.
Caribbean CLANK: Who wrote the story for Uncharted?
Evan_Wells: It was all done here inside Naughty Dog. Primarily Amy Hennig with help from several others.
Chronik: Did you have any fun making this game? Or was it all mainly work "just get the job done"
Christophe_Balestra: I have to admit we had a hard time at the beginning. Everything was new but once we started controlling Nathan Drake and seeing the beautiful environments then everything clicked. It's been a lot of hard work but it was worth it.
DaPinChin: The island seems to have a misterious past behind it....And in a few videos I saw what seemed to be "non-human" footprints....Is there any type of monster or creature in the game that we don't know about?
Christophe_Balestra: The only way to answer this question is to play the game
Tropic: Is the sixaxis used in any major way in Uncharted?
Evan_Wells: We chose to take an understated approach to the use of the SixAxis controller. We didn't want it to feel gimmicky or tacked on so we only used it where we felt it complemented the control that you had using the Dual Analog sticks.
jordan199311: What was the funniest thing that happened during the making of this game?
Christophe_Balestra: Probably our wrap-up party last night
Light_Jak: Was there a big pressure on you, as a whole team, to make this new franchise better than your previous games? Did you feel that this game would succeed and do as well as your other games?
Evan_Wells: We always put pressure on ourselves to make our next game better than the last one. I do think this game will succeed. I'm very proud of what the team has accomplished.
Tripred: A fun fad of the last generations of game systems has been polygon counting. How is the comparison in poly-count of the characters in Drake to the Jak and Daxter series of games?
Christophe_Balestra: Polygons are not that important anymore. The thing that matters the most is the quality of your pixels. Lighting and shaders are where we spent a lot of efforts. And that's something we couldn't do on PS2.
Patriot: Alright, that concludes the chat. Thanks for all of the great questions everyone! A huge thanks to Christophe and Evan for stopping by!
Evan_Wells: Thanks everybody for stopping in! This was a lot fun and some really good questions!