Naughty Dog’s Richard Lemarchand Talks to Bone-idle : Interview With Video

Posted on by

Developer Naughty dog

Publisher Sony

Platform PS3

Release Date 4th Nov 2011

Time is ticking down now for the release of arguably the most anticipated title of the year Uncharted 3 Drakes Deception on the 4th of November. On his recent trip to Ireland Richard Lemarchand took some time out of his packed schedule to chat with Bone-idle. Below is the transcript from our chat. Plus a video shot on the night by Sony at the bottom.

BI: How do you see the future of 3D in the gaming industry, will it last? 

RL: Yea I see stereoscopic 3D as something that is here to stay, I wouldn’t be surprised if it evolves ultimately into an interesting new direction but for now 3D is very interesting. We planned from the very start to include it in Uncharted 3 and things went very smoothly. We had to do something with our rendering as it has to be rendered twice for a 3D image, once for each eye and we are already pretty maxed out, so what we did was reduce the render slightly then use the PS3 up-scaler to scale it back up. That lets us not only do the stereoscopic 3D for single player but also the 3D for the split screen mode where two different people are viewing different images on the one screen. Which we think people will enjoy sitting and playing in the one room.

BI: What do you see the future holding for Drake will you follow the pattern emerging this year and finish up on a trilogy?

RL: Well we have said that as long as people continue to buy and enjoy the games we will continue to make them, Uncharted 3 isn’t really a trilogy in that sense we just see this as the latest adventure and just another part of the story. 

BI: With the upcoming movie version have you guys had much input into the movie and will the same writers of the game be involved in the film or will it be franchised out? 

RL: Oh heavens no, no that would never happen. The movie has been announced and we have been talking a lot to the producers who are a fantastic bunch, they are the guys behind such films as Iron Man. So they really know what they are doing, no actors have been announced yet but recently the director Neil Burger who did Limitless with Bradley Cooper.  So we think that’s great news for the movie. 

BI: The original game was a great format that you only needed a small bit of tweaking for the Uncharted 2, do you think you can do that again and make it even better for Uncharted 3? 

RL : We were really blown away by both the critical and fan reaction to Uncharted 2, but our philosophy when it comes to making games has always been to apply ourselves, working hard and trying to come up with the best ideas we can, so we did the same this time and are pretty happy with it. 

BI: Talking a little bit about story for Uncharted 3, it does seem a little darker this time (especially looking at the trailer), will it ever get too dark or will it still hold that humour and sense of fun? 

RL: I don’t think we will ever go too dark, the world of Uncharted is a world of colour and adventure, of romance and action, so we are staying true to that tradition, but this game does present Drake with a more insidious opponent than he has faced before someone who has a lot of mussel at their disposal also uses physiological tactics and intimidate with fear. So we think Uncharted 3 will have some new territory that you haven’t seen before. 

BI: One last question, after the opening of Bioware Ireland recently do you see an opportunity for Naughty dog to perhaps spread out and use Ireland as a hub for Europe? 

RL: We are a much smaller type of studio than Bioware so we have no plans as of yet, but I’m very optimistic for game development in Ireland, the Irish people have a great tradition of being artistic and of storytelling as well the technical ability which is the right balance for making games.

 

Thank you.

 

 

Please Join us on your Social Platform of choice