The highly anticipated platformer shooter hybrid Uncharted 3 has finally hit store shelves, and the game’s lead effects artist, Keith Guerrette had a lot to say about Naughty Dog’s experience in developing this massive PS3 exclusive.
Speaking with IGN AU, Guerrette shared his feelings towards the reviews that have been trickling in since the game has shipped, pointing out a little rivalry between Naughty Dog and Rocksteady.
Perfect reviews, for me, are weird because I’m like, ‘What? Really? It’s not perfect, come on’, but we’ve been getting a lot of really good reviews and a lot of cool reception. We’re close friends with a lot of other developers so, like, Rocksteady with Batman, they’re beating us [Uncharted 2: Among Thieves] by one point on Metacritic right now so we talk a lot of sh*t back and forth. But it’s fun; it’s a really light-hearted, fun time for us and really personally rewarding.
He then went on to discuss the team dynamics at the studio, emphasizing the collaborative group mindset that everyone on the team must have.
There are no producers, there’s no management, it’s really just us working as a team. I can walk up to anybody and say, ‘Hey man, I’ve got a really cool idea, what do you think of this?’ and then we talk about it and then we like it and we sit down and try it. Two days later we have it in the game and realise, ‘Oh, that was a terrible idea, what a waste of time!’ But at other studios that sort of experimental process is not allowed and they try to really run it like a contained business… I see that a lot of studios that have producers in-house from the publisher, their creativity is very, very stifled.
There’s no doubt that Naughty Dog has created something really special with Uncharted 3 and their ability to communicate and work as a team to bring the title together as one seamless unified whole is pretty remarkable.
