Haven’t posted in a while. I’ve was in a dark place called videogame crunch. We’ve been putting the finishing touches on Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune and the game is really turning out to be something special. I wrote a short article about level-design for the Uncharted website. Check it out here and then click on “TECHNOLOGY” at the bottom.
-Neil
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I’ve been trying to push my characters in a more stylized approach. Here is one of the more finished pieces I’ve made lately:
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Sony held it’s Gamer’s Day this week where they showed a bunch of their titles to the public. Our very own Uncharted was shown as well. We’ve been working very hard to get the game to this point and it’s great to see the reception it is getting. This will be my first project at Naughty Dog since I made the switch from programming to design and I couldn’t wish for a better one. Here’s some of the coverage:
And now back to the crunch to finish the best Naughty Dog game ever.
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I finished God of War II last night. Even though the game didn’t stray too far from the formula of the original, everything felt much more polished. The team really put together a great cinematic experience.
Favorite bit: fighting Perseus from Clash of the Titans. There’s nothing like seeing a childhood icon and beating the crap out of him.
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It’s on the stands. Quickly, run out and buy it. There’s a 10 page article on our game, Uncharted. I can’t wait until we can show more =)
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So the game I’m working is finally getting unwrapped pretty soon. There is a short teaser over at the Game Informer site. We’ll have a cover story in next month’s issue. Check out the very cool 3d screen shot we made.
I love reading forums and seeing how people react to whatever information is put out there. This particular thread is quite fun to read. I can’t wait until I can speak more freely about the game.
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Testing Performancing add-on for Firefox. It lets me post to my blog with an embedded interface within Firefox. Since you can’t have a post without an image, here is a new layout from a short story I’m working on with boy Edwin:
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My PS3 finally came in the mail today. I’ve hooked up the little beast and jumped right into some Resistance single player. So far I’m really enjoying the game. The pacing and the load screens are a litttle annoying, but the action is good and the graphics, while not Gears of War quality, are pretty impressive. I can’t wait to try some co-op. Either way, it’s great to finally own the system that I’m developing for. Now I can’t wait until we can show more of the next Naughty Dog game.
I’ve been playing the Nintendo Wii nonstop since it came out. The wife and I just love Wii Sports; we own the computer in Tennis. However, most of my time has been spent on Zelda. I finally finished the game this weekend and I clocked in at just over 40 hours. Here are some random thoughts about the game.
1. I liked Wind Waker’s art style much better. With the Cell Shaded style of the previous game hi-res textures weren’t necessary. In Twilight Princess the graphical limitations of the Wii stood out.
2. The story in Wind Waker was more dramatic and I enjoyed it slightly more than Twilight Princess.
3. The pacing and length of Twilight Princess was great. The game never felt padded for length like the shard quest in Wind Waker. Whenever Twilight Princess exhibited fetch quest they ended up being short and spread out throughout the game.
4. Although the sword swinging felt a little tacked on, everything all the other Wii enhancements were for the better. Aiming with the remote felt intuitive and precise.
5. Overall this was the best Zelda ever. Twilight Princess is a new classic.
I’ve been struggling with these pages for quite some time. I’m not completely happy with my proportions and I’m definitely not satisfied with my backgrounds. However, I have to force myself to put a page down and keep going to the next page. Staying on the same page and noodling for too long can make the process too frustrating and that leads to my arch nemesis, procrastination. It is important to find ways of keeping the process fresh. I can always come back later and polish a bunch of these pages. Anyways, here are a couple of new pages:
