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Great level design and compelling plots –
they’re the two pillars on which Uncharted
built its success. Crafting The Lost Legacy’s
story was Josh Scherr and Shaun Escayg’s job.
“Shaun and I co-wrote the game. For me,
finding and researching the historical reference
point has always been the fun part of graphic
games. In so far as the artifact in The Lost
Legacy goes, it’s something called the Tusk of
Ganesh and the idea is that it’s a symbol of the
Hoysala empire, which was the empire that
existed around 13 th Century in South India.
“These people were known for their art
and their architecture, which is probably the
reason we were drawn to it; we were literally
blown away by the amazing temples. We just
looked at the intricate and incredible carvings
and thought it would be awesome to explore
them further.
"So once you have a starting point, then you
just start reading up on it. We started reading
up on the various kings and the intrigues
that went on in the empire at that time. We
discovered that the Persians were enjoying
making little raids into India to sack the
treasures and then we learned how the
Persians interacted with the Hoysala
Empire in general. All of this research
ended up figuring into the backstory for
the Tusk in this game. It’s really exciting to
see all these discoveries we unearth while
researching the history come together."
Story Creation
060 AUGUST 2017
visit GAMES FEATURE
was introduced into the franchise in Uncharted 2:
Among Thieves . Voiced and motion-captured by
Australian voice actor Claudia Black, Frazer is a
vehemently independent and sensuous character
conceived by the Uncharted 2 writer, Amy Hennig,
as the perfect complement to Drake.
In The Lost Legacy, Frazer is joined by mercenary
Nadine Ross, from Uncharted 4 , on an adventure
through India in an attempt to find an ancient
mythical artifact.
Scherr says once the studio determined that The
Lost Legacy was going to be more than just DLC,
the full team were brought on board to complete the
game.
“With The Last of Us 2, in the early stages of
development, we were able to put the whole team
on the game, so from start to finish, the game was
completed in just over a year."
So how long can we expect to get out of the
game? (Devs hate this question and do everything to
avoid it, but given it initially started out as DLC, it's
a valid one.)
“All I can say is that it’s a sizeable game," offers
Scherr. "We’re still focus testing and the times really
do vary, so I’d hate to say at this stage. What I can
say is that it’s a lot of game for the price tag!”
Whether it’s scrambling up cliff
faces, navigating mudslides,
seeking cover from gunfire or
working methodically to crack
a puzzle, the level design in the
Uncharted titles has always raised
the industry bar. But what goes into
creating them?
"Generally the way it works out is
the designer will go take a first pass
and do what we call block mesh
level, which is just basically simple
shapes in cubes," explains Scherr.
"You start prototyping that so that
you can figure out if it’s fun before
everybody starts throwing the art
in it and we spend lots of money
doing that.
"At this stage, it can be shifted
and evolved a lot more easily
as opposed to when the art
gets done. But it’s an ongoing
process. Sometimes you’ll get to a
certain point and you’ll realise that
although it looks fine in block mesh,
when you throw all the art in, the
leaves actually make it too difficult
to see where you’re supposed to be
going. In that event, it gets paired
back.
"Ideally you help the player
through the level, just through
the interior design and being led
by lighting, but you can have that
extra help, too, using dialogue. If
someone is stuck you can get one
of the characters to say, 'I think
we’re supposed to climb up that
hill' or whatever it may be."
Level Design
from start to finish, the game was
completed in just over a year
The four console Uncharted titles have
sold over 38 million units.
UNCHARTED
• Uncharted:
The Lost
Legacy
is out Aug 23
st154_058-060_GAMES-Uncharted.indd 3 21/7/17 2:14 pm