It’s almost here! On March 9 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco the Game Developer’s Conference officially kicks off and Naughty Dog plans to have a big presence. Many of our folks will be participating in numerous sessions, panels, and tutorials. For the full list, please see below, but first let’s talk about one session in particular.
On Thursday, March 11 from 4:30 – 5:30 PM PST, Naughty Dog’s co-lead Game Designer, Richard Lemarchand, will be participating in a session with Baiyon, graphic artist and composer of Q-Games’ PixelJunk Eden, and they want to take your questions to be answered during the panel!
The session will take form as a lively discussion on the inherent similarities of artistic endeavor and will encompass conversations on Richard’s and Baiyon’s games, and the nature of creativity and process in games. We’re hoping to use a number of questions submitted by the community to lead the conversation. If you have a question you’d like to have answered during this panel, please submit it in the comments below and we’ll do our best to get it answered at GDC. We welcome all kinds of questions, serious, fun, etc…we’re looking for variety! Get your questions in before Friday; we’ll close all submissions after that.
Finally, if you’re planning to attend GDC, we hope to see you in the audience or around Moscone!
Naughty Dog at GDC
Thursday (March 11, 2010) 1:30pm — 2:30pm
Among Friends – An UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves Post-Mortem
Richard Lemarchand (Game Designer, Naughty Dog)
Room 134, North Hall
Thursday (March 11, 2010) 3:00pm — 4:00pm
Behind the Scenes: UNCHARTED 2’s Unique Cinematic Production Process
Josh Scherr (Cinematics Animation Lead, Naughty Dog), Amy Hennig (Creative Director, Naughty Dog, Inc.)
Room 303, South Hall
Thursday (March 11, 2010) 4:30pm — 5:30pm
Micro or Massive: It’s Fricking Tough to Achieve a Vision
Baiyon Tomohisa Kuramitsu (Graphic Artist/Composer, PixelJunk/Eden), Richard Lemarchand (Game Designer, Naughty Dog)
Room 135, North Hall
Friday (March 12, 2010) 9:00am — 10:00am
GDC Microtalks 2010: Ten Speakers, 200 Slides, Limitless Ideas!
Richard Lemarchand (Game Designer, Naughty Dog), Ian Bogost (Associate Professor, The Georgia Institute of Technology), Chaim Gingold (levity lab), Gary Penn (Guru, Denki), Sam Roberts (Festival Director, indiecade.com), Margaret Robertson (Consultant and writer, Lookspring), Kellee Santiago (President and Co Founder, thatgamecompany), Suzanne Seggerman (President, Games for Change), Jesse Schell (ETC Carnegie Mellon, Schell Games), Jane Pinckard (Business Development, Foundation 9 Entertainment)
Room 134, North Hall
Friday (March 12, 2010) 1:30pm — 2:30pm
Creating the Active Cinematic Experience of UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves
Bruce Straley (Game Director, Naughty Dog), Neil Druckmann (Co-Lead Designer, Naughty Dog)
Room 305, South Hall
Friday (March 12, 2010) 4:30pm — 5:30pm
UNCHARTED 2 Art Direction
Erick Pangilinan (Art Director, Naughty Dog), Robh Ruppel (Art Director, Naughty Dog)
Room 306, South Hall
Saturday (March 13, 2010) 10:30am — 11:30am
UNCHARTED 2 Character Pipeline: An In-depth Look at the Creation of U2’s Characters
Richard Diamant (Lead Character Artist, Naughty Dog Inc.), Judd Simantov (Lead Character Technical Director, Naughty Dog Inc)
Room 135, North Hall
Saturday (March 13, 2010) 1:30pm — 2:30pm
Animation and Player Control in UNCHARTED: Drake’s Fortune and UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves
Travis McIntosh (Lead Programmer, Naughty Dog Inc.)
Room 135, North Hall
Saturday (March 13, 2010) 1:30pm — 2:30pm
Getting Noticed: Why You Need an Online Portfolio and How to Make One
Jacob Minkoff (Game Designer, Naughty Dog Inc)
Room 306, South Hall
Saturday (March 13, 2010) 3:00pm — 4:00pm
UNCHARTED 2: HDR Lighting
John Hable (Programmer, Naughty Dog)
Room 305, South Hall
when will you teach the noob 3rd party devs how to properly develop on PS3? get valve in there…
Whats going to be the next game Naughtydog is going to make?
Sounds groovy :D
I have a question…..
Why is Uncharted 2 so such a great game?
I LOVE ND!
1) What are some of the difficulties making it into the gaming industry?
2) Where do you get your inspiration for game design?
3) Are degrees more important than diplomas or a good portfolio in order to get your foot into the gaming industry?
4) What piece of advice can you give someone like me who will be graduating this year and is looking into a career in game design?
5) How difficult is it to go from a great idea in your head into actually realizing it in a game?
6) Have you ever read a game design book? If so can you recommend one for starters.
good games guys and congrats on all ur awards.
1) With the growth of games striving for a cinematic quality, like Uncharted 2 and Heavy Rain, at what point does a game stop being a game and become an interactive story? And if there is such a point is it really a bad thing for games to focus heavily on story instead of gameplay?
2) Can we ever expect to see a new Jak game on the PS3?
3) The Pistole [DELETED] rules.
1) If you were going to employ someone what would you look for (im in college atm)
2) I heard a rumour that you may start a new IP.
3) When are you going to fix Uncharted 2’s patch. – Just do what you originally had (damage wise reduced by say 1/2 or 2/3rds or something) – Headshots should do alot more damage than leg shots for example..
4) How do you plan on ‘stepping up’ the Uncharted saga. You have done so so far with refinments, improved graphics, enhanced melle + multiplayer alogn with various others. What is your next target?
What’s next for Naughty Dog? Uncharted 3 or a new Jak & Daxter?
7) Is it tough to come up with a fresh new ideas to push the game design? and do you guys often go through trial and error in order to arrive at a great idea?
8)Does being a game designer, level designer or producer require you to be an artistic person/drawer?
9) Is it difficult for new graduates to find job in the gaming industry? specially after seen news of many studios closing down
Why are you guys the greatest devs ever?
10) What is your ultimate goal as game designer?
After the unbelievable success of Uncharted 2, where, as a developer, do you go from here? How do you plan to be bigger and better than what is already incredible?
P.S. Jeff or Chris…i’ve been having some trouble logging in to PSN on the blog. I can go over to the official Playstation site and log in from there, but clicking on the link at the top or the link under the “Leave a Comment” section won’t do anything for me. I’ve tried both Firefox and Chrome.
I know we all love Uncharted 2 and Pixel Junk Shooters… they were both amazing games! What did you like about them the best personally?
Do you work with schools in order to give those of us who are looking for a career in the game industry and idea of what the game development process will be like?
1. When do you think we will see an uncharted 3
2. Will we see a new Jak before uncharted?
3. How are you going to take uncharted 3 to the next level in regards to story?
What do you think of the new technology such as motion controllers or Project Natal?
How tough is it to create games now that they require a lot of time, money/resources and people?
1. Will we get to create our own character in uncharted 3 multiplayer?
2. Are you considering raising the amount of people allowed in a multiplayer game. I would love to see 16-32 player matches.
1) Every 4. installment of the previous Naughty Dog franchises has been a Kart-racer (Jak X and CTR was both 4.). Will Uncharted get a Kart-racer game?
2) Budgets have steadily increased over the years in the game industry, and this brings more and more problems. Do you think it is or will ever be hard to make profit of AAA-games as they require better graphics and presentation over the years?
3) Considering the massive leap games have had the last 15 years, where are we in another 10 years? It’s hard to give an answer, but do you think games will reach near-photo realism by then? And how will this affect the industry?
Bonus question: Oh god, will you ever make a new Jak and Daxter game? I am dying to see what you could do with the Uncharted engine in a Jak game (which already looked fantastic on PS2).
Here’s a question:
After doing the Crash Bandicoot series on the PS1, which was primarily platformer type games, and then following up on the PS2 with Jak and Daxter which had platforming elements, you guys went on to do Uncharted on the PS3 which didn’t have any platforming in it? What was the decision behind that?
good job Naughty Dog, you have set the bar for what WATER and SNOW should look like in a game.
Heres my question:
Why do you guys rock?
question for anyone here:
What is GDC? Is that liek a mini E3 with surprise annousements? or is it for asking questions?
Toward ND:
1. With GOW3 around the corner and with its massive scale of bosses,levels, will we see uncharted or any of your other games doing something like that?
2. Will Jak and Daxter ever come to Ps3?
3. With Uncharted 2 being out for month now gamers have finally gotten a chance to play the game, and the experience of the game is amazing how exactly do you guy plan on topping that witht he next installment of drakes adventure?
4. Is your team currently working on any other franchise?
5.So what was Uncharted original idea before the team came up with what it currently is?
6.So how exactly is it that 1st party developer like your self and santa Monica are able to utilize the PS3 potential and channel it into a game that has some of the best graphics to date, no loading screens, smooth framerates, and have absolutly no installs compare to 3rd parties devs?
Here are my Questions for ND
1) Have you guys ever considered letting players control (even if for a brief moment) the other characters in the game?
2) Were there any particular gameplay elements or story elements that just didn’t make it throughout the production of Uncharted 2 that you would be willing to share?
here’s my question. When are you going to fix the uncharted 2 MP because you guys broke the online.
Question
1: Is the “Uncharted for PSP” rumor true? are you guys actually thinking about making it?
2: Will you be continuing the “Uncharted” Series?
3: will you be doing anything to compete with all the sand-box style games that are coming out, such as Just Cause 2?
Here ya go.
1.Will you guys keep updating the game in the future just like you’re doing now?
2. Wil there be a SP DLC for Uncharted 2?
I think that’s ALL.
1.) I really beleive animation is the next big thing that devs have to tackle and Naughty Dog really seems to get it and has some of the best animation in gaming. How hard is it to balance that animation and playability, and are there ways like your layering tech, to achieve both, to really capture all the subtleties and detail of the way things move without having to stop and animation to do something? What are your thoughts on this?
2.) What are ND’s thoughts on sequels in the gaming industry as opposed to orginal games each release. In film, directors often switch between a trilogy they love and also other original standalone projects. Do you think the mindset of “this gen we got to set up a trilogy.” is hurting the industry, or helping. What would it take for a team to do different games every release trying new things? What are your thoughts on this?
Naughty Dog is the best! (the online was great before you doubted yourself btw.)
Wow I was finally able to login to the blog
How much raw project data was stored on the studio’s server while working on Uncharted 2?
(GB’s? TB’s?)
I get the impression that just about everyone in the industry is a disgruntled employee. What benefit can a consumer really get from some outspoken director that a PR specialist could not provide? (Other than boneheaded views that don’t impact on what the game is about.) Movies have become about who’s directing it and who’s in it. Since gaming is still considered a new form of media and still has time to change. Would it not be better for everyone to be known ONLY as a group?
Why do you keep messing with Uncharted’s multiplayer? it was perfect before the updates.
what would you look for in a employee?
How come you guys decided to go in a different direction in “sequels”? most games pick up right where the other one left off, but Uncharted 2 tells another story with the same cast of character a few years later.
speedy comment go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What are some of the things that you we start doing in order to better our chances to get into the gaming industry?
Will Uncharted 3 be called the Revenge of the Clowns?
In your opinion what is the toughest part during game development?
have you thought about making a survival-horror game?
When can we plan on seeing the next dlc,and what will be included in it? you won a lot of game of the year awards you cant just keep giving us small things like maps and skins. Give us new chapthers for story mode or new modes for multiplayer.
Can we see a true PlayStation Home Gaming Launching with Uncharted 2 Muiltiplayer?
And still be with your friends the whole time?
How can you possibly top Uncharted 2? R u worried at all about out doing urself?
First off, Uncharted 2 is an amazing game so congratulations on all its critical acclaim and success. My question is why did you decide to leave out offline coop in Uncharted 2 and instead included only the online coop? This is a trend I see growing in the gaming industry as far as developers leaving out offline coop or even competitive and relying solely with online coop/comp. Personally, I would like to have both and I have been under the assumption from keeping up on the industry that online coop/comp is more difficult to build then offline.
Where do you see the Uncharted series heading in the future, if anywhere? Naughty Dog has received much acclaim due to this new IP and I was also wondering if Naughty Dog was working/interested in developing another new IP or simply continue on with your existing IPs?
3 words… Jak And Daxter! ^_^
The Uncharted series is magnificent. A large part of this is the engine used for the game. What are the possibilities of seeing this engine used in other genres? Not an Uncharted game, but maybe a dungeon crawler, hack & slash loot fest.
I have a small question that I would REALLY like to know.
Do you have any plans to bring the PS2 Jak Trilogy to the PS3 in a Collection like the God of War Collection?
It would be really awesome!
I <3 Naughty Dog :)
With the emergence of new technologies such as motion control, voice/facial recognition, full body tracking, the pseudo 3D head tracking effect, and actual HD 3D visuals, do you think that the extra load placed on the hardware to pull off these things will have a negative effect on the quality of experience you are able to create?
What are your thoughts about Playstation Home? can you think of any improvements?