STACK Aug #154

GAMES FEATURE

visit stack.com.au

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

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 Level Design

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."

from start to finish, the game was completed in just over a year

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 For me, finding and researching the historical reference point has always been the fun part of graphic games.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 Story Creation 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!”

• Uncharted: The Lost Legacy is out Aug 23

as opposed to when the art gets done. But it’s an ongoing

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."

UNCHARTED

The four console Uncharted titles have sold over 38 million units.

060

AUGUST 2017

jbhifi.com.au

st154_058-060_GAMES-Uncharted.indd 3

21/7/17 2:14 pm