Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

A Brain Dump of What I Worked on for Uncharted 4

allenchou.net

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 52 posts

Re: A Brain Dump of What I Worked on for Uncharted 4

#11

Post by 67726e »

criddell wrote: post #9
epaga wrote: post #4

8 mentions of Last of Us shows how influential some of the mechanics in that game were for future games - this is obviously especially the case for Naughty Dog themselves, but there were so many innovative takes on that genre in Last of Us that I'm sure many other dev studios have been impacted by the ideas and near flawless execution. Haven't played Uncharted 4, but Last of Us is a masterpiece.

> but Last of Us is a masterpiece Really? I bought and played that game on the PS3 and thought it was pretty good and that's about it. I didn't think any part of it was especially novel.

I have to agree, there wasn't anything particularly innovative in terms of gameplay or experience. I actually went out and bought a PS3 just so I could play Last of Us. Mechanically it's not much different than other games in the genre. It was great because it presented a story that made you wish you didn't have to put down the controller, and made you wish it didn't end. That is not to diminish the work in making the game play well, if the mechanics were shit I likely would have not liked the game as much.

Re: A Brain Dump of What I Worked on for Uncharted 4

#12

Post by jsmeaton »

criddell wrote: post #9
epaga wrote: post #4

8 mentions of Last of Us shows how influential some of the mechanics in that game were for future games - this is obviously especially the case for Naughty Dog themselves, but there were so many innovative takes on that genre in Last of Us that I'm sure many other dev studios have been impacted by the ideas and near flawless execution. Haven't played Uncharted 4, but Last of Us is a masterpiece.

> but Last of Us is a masterpiece Really? I bought and played that game on the PS3 and thought it was pretty good and that's about it. I didn't think any part of it was especially novel.

It felt like playing an interactive movie to me. There was nothing particularly amazing about the gameplay, but everything felt right in that game. There was nothing I could fault in it (from memory, so within reason).

I still remember my room mates watching me play from the other room like it was a TV show they were invested in. One of my favourite all time games.

Re: A Brain Dump of What I Worked on for Uncharted 4

#13

Post by bhaak »

epaga wrote: post #4

8 mentions of Last of Us shows how influential some of the mechanics in that game were for future games - this is obviously especially the case for Naughty Dog themselves, but there were so many innovative takes on that genre in Last of Us that I'm sure many other dev studios have been impacted by the ideas and near flawless execution. Haven't played Uncharted 4, but Last of Us is a masterpiece.

I'm not sure that you can take that as an example of how influential TLoU is (disclaimer, I played Uncharted 1-3 and TLoU but not yet Uncharted 4). Technically, TLoU wasn't that impressive (just look how Ellie used to hide in plain view of enemy humans and zombies).

The impressive bits were IMHO the setting and the story.

Re: A Brain Dump of What I Worked on for Uncharted 4

#14

Post by epaga »

criddell wrote: post #9
epaga wrote: post #4

8 mentions of Last of Us shows how influential some of the mechanics in that game were for future games - this is obviously especially the case for Naughty Dog themselves, but there were so many innovative takes on that genre in Last of Us that I'm sure many other dev studios have been impacted by the ideas and near flawless execution. Haven't played Uncharted 4, but Last of Us is a masterpiece.

> but Last of Us is a masterpiece Really? I bought and played that game on the PS3 and thought it was pretty good and that's about it. I didn't think any part of it was especially novel.

Well, it's subjective, of course. What was novel to me was the listening-for-sounds system which really made the stealth parts far more immersive and enabled them to play with dark and cramped stealth levels without it becoming impossible to beat.

Also I felt it was the pinnacle of Naughty Dog storytelling, driven by the lessons they had learned in the excellent Uncharted series. The fact they were able to create a game in which nearly the entire time is spent side-by-side with an AI-driven character you start to really care about was quite an accomplishment.

One more thing that sticks out for me is that I'd say Last of Us has the most gripping prologue / first ten minutes I have ever seen in a video game, and that that narrative is held quite taut throughout the game.

The game has an average rating of 95 on Metacritic, so I realize this is the mainstream take on it, but I still think the hype is justified in this case.

Re: A Brain Dump of What I Worked on for Uncharted 4

#17

Post by vvanders »

Graham24 wrote: post #8

Is it still commonplace for them to get a percentage of sales as a bonus? I know someone who worked on Tomb Raider 2, 3 and 4. he's not poor.

Royalty payments work somewhat like the music industry where your publisher "advances" you the ~40M+ gamedev budget + 40M+ marketing budget. Once the game has made more than ~80M is when you start to see royalties.

Don't go into game development looking for a good wage, industry usually pays 60-70% what you see for equivalent SE jobs.

Re: A Brain Dump of What I Worked on for Uncharted 4

#18

Post by illumin8 »

xiphias wrote: post #7
partisan wrote: post #6

I love the way this article is written. Sometimes these types of articles go deep into personality and politics and you really get that anywhere you go. Here you get a peek into the nitty gritty while keeping it at a layman level. Plus, it gives you a chance to imagine how you might solve the problems he faced.

This looks like a CV to me that he can use in the future whenever he applies for a job/promotion

This is probably the best type of CV imaginable - actual project work for a AAA game title, with screenshots and easy to understand commentary on what worked and what didn't.

Re: A Brain Dump of What I Worked on for Uncharted 4

#19

Post by Retric »

rndstr wrote: post #5

I don't play games but have always been into 3D graphics and Visual Computing. Interesting read and watching the gameplay trailer afterwards was fun and very impressive: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sB0xy74Zrj8

So, is this guy supposed to be secretly kryptonian or something? Because bullets, body armor, fences etc seem to be a non issue.
Post reply on HN