Jason Schreier documents development of Uncharted 4
Blood, Sweat, and Pixels
Jason Schreier of Kotaku fame has written a new book that documents the long development cycle of Uncharted 4 by Naughty Dog alongside other various games. Like any big production (as can be seen currently in Star Wars film land), Uncharted 4 had its ups and downs before being released to critical praise across the board and stellar sales.
Still, it’s clear to those who pay attention to such things that there was some turmoil internally at Naughty Dog which eventually led to the departure of Amy Hennig, lead writer and creative director on Uncharted 1–3.
Here’s an excerpt from Blood, Sweat, and Pixels, the book by Schreier:
Uncharted 4, as Hennig envisioned it, would introduce the world to Nathan Drake’s old partner, Sam. We hadn’t seen Sam in previous Uncharted games, because for fifteen years Nathan had thought he was dead, left behind during a Panamanian prison escape gone awry. In Hennig’s version of Uncharted 4, Sam would be one of the main villains, bitter toward Nathan for leaving him to die.
Over the course of the story, as Nathan tried to pull away from his roots as a treasure hunter, the player would find out that he and Sam were actually brothers. Eventually they’d heal their relationship and unify against the game’s real antagonist, a nasty thief named Rafe (voiced by the actor Alan Tudyk) who had served time with Sam in prison.
Some say the Uncharted 4 team didn’t get the staff and resources it needed to survive, because The Last of Us and Left Behind had vacuumed up so much of Naughty Dog’s attention. Others say that Amy Hennig had trouble making decisions and that the nascent game wasn’t shaping up very well. Some who were working on Uncharted 4 wished that there was a more cohesive direction. Others thought it was perfectly understandable, considering how small the Uncharted 4 staff was, that the game hadn’t coalesced yet.
Several people who have worked for Naughty Dog say Druckmann and Straley stopped seeing eye-to-eye with Hennig, and that they had fundamental disagreements on where to take the Uncharted series. When Hennig left, she signed a non-disparagement agreement with the studio that would prevent both her and Naughty Dog from making negative public comments about what had happened, according to people familiar with the arrangement.
For those fascinated by the internal workings of the industry and behind-the-scenes making of video games, there’s sure to be some interesting stuff in here regarding the development of AAA games. However, it’s worth noting that as far as I can tell, none of the top players like Amy Hennig, Neil Druckmann or Bruce Straley are on record on this book which makes some of the personal drama heresy at best.
I’ve never met Schreier (I’m sure he’s a swell guy), nor have I read his book, so I could be wrong about the on the record aspect but from all the digging I’ve done on the book thus far, I believe it to be true. If that’s the case, the relationship aspects of this book (and what transpired to Hennig’s departure) shouldn’t be taken as gospel.
Developing video games — hero’s journey or fool’s errand? The creative and technical logistics that go into building today’s hottest games can be more harrowing and complex than the games themselves, often seeming like an endless maze or a bottomless abyss. In Blood, Sweat, and Pixels, Jason Schreier takes readers on a fascinating odyssey behind the scenes of video game development, where the creator may be a team of 600 overworked underdogs or a solitary geek genius. Exploring the artistic challenges, technical impossibilities, marketplace demands, and Donkey Kong-sized monkey wrenches thrown into the works by corporate, Blood, Sweat, and Pixels reveals how bringing any game to completion is more than Sisyphean — it’s nothing short of miraculous.
Taking some of the most popular, bestselling recent games, Schreier immerses readers in the hellfire of the development process, whether it’s RPG studio Bioware’s challenge to beat an impossible schedule and overcome countless technical nightmares to build Dragon Age: Inquisition; indie developer Eric Barone’s single-handed efforts to grow country-life RPG Stardew Valley from one man’s vision into a multi-million-dollar franchise; or Bungie spinning out from their corporate overlords at Microsoft to create Destiny, a brand new universe that they hoped would become as iconic as Star Wars and Lord of the Rings — even as it nearly ripped their studio apart.
Documenting the round-the-clock crunches, buggy-eyed burnout, and last-minute saves, Blood, Sweat, and Pixels is a journey through development hell — and ultimately a tribute to the dedicated diehards and unsung heroes who scale mountains of obstacles in their quests to create the best games imaginable.
Let me know if you plan to pick up the book.
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