Creative director Neil Druckmann and writer Josh Scherr talk about the writing process for Uncharted 4 and how they're evolving the character of Nathan Drake.
Kojima and Druckmann are hands down my favorite game directors. I particularly love how they take pretty opposite approaches to writing, and yet both create stellar and deeply moving games like no others.
47Mortuus I don't agree at all, and I love the games those studios produce. I am talking about story and characters, of which Naughty dog are the best.
47Mortuus So you are going to tell me the elder scrolls games have better characters and story than the Uncharted games? Because that would be.... silly.
Uberslick Have I? No. But they are superior to ND in a wide variety of aspects, I didn't know you were explicitly talking about story & characters. And who knows? Maybe they ARE better at it but have to produce about 5000% of the content compared to a ND game, per game, so quality obviously suffers. Also only picking 1 game series out of the three sudios i've listed is silly. Especially since the stories and characters actually ARE way deeper an better written than Uncharteds', just not as well produced, due to technical limitations. It all comes down to subjectivity, stating such a thing and claiming it to be a "fact" is just insanely ignorant... Let's get dem Fanboys some education!
Yann Soulet yes , even if it hurts A FUCK TON that he kills off Joel , we knew this ... I think Ellie will be even more complex than Joel in the first one , I think if the story is not going to be what we want , the way they say it which I’m sure it’ll be amazing , will make up for it , idk I still have hope , as much as you hate Neil right now , he’s never let us down before YOU HAVE TO ADMIT
TheStickyDynamite Not because of U3...that was still an amazing game by any other standard, only suffered in comparison to U2. Unless they mean something else.
+Alex Townley To be fair I don't expect most of the top Sony execs to get it either, considering the kind of people they are judging by the PSX conferences and E3 shows.
Alex Townley Yeah, as in... if ANY of the big time creators as mentioned above even remotely cared about it on the level of naughty dog, they would have better games. But I didn't want to type out the whole paragraph lol
Matias Calderon can’t wait to see your shity faces June 19th when this game will get 10/10 everywhere. After seeing the reviews y’all will buy it day one, you hypocrites lmao
Having just replayed Uncharted 123 I feel like he's commenting on how they were often written, on the notion that exposition should be handled properly. All of the games have these exposition dumps where Drake geeks out over whatever historic figure he's chasing or some myth he's trying to decipher. The good thing in all those scenes were how Drake was really into it, one characters would cut to the chase "here's what he's saying, alright?" and Sully or someone else would be the wisecrack going "Pretend I don't care for a sec, will ya?" It made sure that there was a version of the plot-exposition for everyone. Going on forums you always see fans that are really into the mythos of a series discussing the canon and lore like it was real history, and to those, these exposition dumps might be totally fine, but for others it's nice that there's a character to relate to that think like themselves and just cut straight to the point. That said, what I got from this is that I guess Neil has been trying to scatter exposition out differently in Uncharted 4 than in the other 3 games, perhaps like The Last of Us where the invested gamer can pick up extra lore-tidbits of written pages and maybe Drake and Co. will just sort of give us the basic rundown or let you know why it's important to know about Marco Polo's secret lover from 1299 or something.
Definitely agree with throwing out jokes, it can end up being dull or repetitious. This is where i felt The Avengers 2 failed, it became 2 witty 2 the point every character felt exactly the same. No serious characters at all.
+unchartedrocks1 That's where EVERY Marvel movie since Avengers 1 failed. God, I couldn't stand Avengers and I haven't watched or even thought of watching another Marvel movie since. They're dumb movies made for dumd people IMO.
I love how the guy from God of War said complex characters. Hopefully they can do something with Kratos in the new one. Looks like game of the year material.
Honestly I think they should make more than four uncharted games cause it is so amazing plus your learning a little bit of true history or social studies as u play the story and the guns and multiplayer is just terrific
It will be really damn hard to top Uncharted 2, but if they can just get the game to be equal to 2 I will be fine with that. P.S. they should have got the creative team to write Indy IV. Every Uncharted game has been way better.
+vala Having just replayed UC2, I agree when it comes to gameplay and setpieces but not the story itself. All UC2 really has is fun characterization and a perfectly composed story but very generic themes and subtext. Uncharted 2 was great but it wasn't "deep" when it comes to story. I didn't take anything away from it besides "that was a great ride, that was fun!" and that I liked Elena and Drake a lot.
Linkenski The story is simple but engaging, that's all I wanted. These adventure stories aren't supposed to be particularly deep, none of the Indiana Jones movies are. It was also straightforward and well-paced, without major plot holes, all problems that UC3 had. It even had one of those "too bizarre to be fiction" plot points: the SS really did got to Tibet in 1939 to investigate occult powers.
vala I agree. UC2 not being deep isn't even a problem. It's a fun ride and that was all it was trying to be, and personally I found it slightly jarring that UC3 tried to go into places I felt it shouldn't, like take Drake and explore his motivations and stuff because it's clear when you play UC1 or UC2 that it's all just a stylised realism like a Star Wars movie. You're not supposed to question why Drake is obsessed with Treasure. That said, I'm not actually that afraid of UC4's direction since it's gonna be even more exploring the characters and dissecting them, because the trilogy has ended, it's a new generation and I see it as if UC123 is a tv-series and UC4 is the movie.
Would anyone be surprised if they remastered Uncharted 1-3 before they released 4? Would anyone buy it (I would, since I only played the first one and never got a chance to play after that...)
Evans Sarpong I had Uncharted 1, it came with my PS3 but I haven't played it in 5 or 6 years and I lost it since I've moved to two different states, which is why I want them to do a re-release. But yeah, I could always play them on PS3.
Lol I highly doubt it. Troy would've had to cough up an extraordinary amount of money for Neil, who cares so much about stories in games, to alter the story of the game itself just to include him.
Well it seems she is writing a star wars game. That alone would get 99% of the best writers to leave there current projects. Especially now it's rumored that she is writing a Han solo game uncharted like gameplay. Seems to suggest she was offered that and now's Neil could take care since he worked with her on uncharted 2
Reece Walton Nah she loved Uncharted if she was leaving for personal reasons she would have released a statement to the fans. Neil wants "complex relationship derp" in all ND games now because TLoU and its annoying because I like Uncharted how it was so did Amy thats probably why she left or got fired.
Because people get fired now due to two writers disagreeing on what the story should be. As if naughty dog would EVER fire the lead writer for such a horrible reason
enthony cichocki I totally agree!! Kojima does a good job in the story department, and Neil wants complex characters? He would be wiped off, (no offense) if he compared Uncharted 2 with the MGS characters. Talk about complexity, I don't find Uncharted or any of its story "amazingly complex", it's just "ok".
I wouldn't say the MGS characters are very deep, but more symbolic. The characters represent multiple themes, and convey the philosophies effectively. The Uncharted characters are... almost regular people, just caught in extraordinary circumstances. They are irrational, humorous, and flawed, but the plot isn't exactly the most insightful. MGS characters represent larger and more abstract ideas that make them extremely interesting, but not necessarily the most relatable. I would argue though that those codec conversations with Otacon, Paramedic, and SIGNET do a great job of fleshing out the characters, but you never really see them in-game, cutscenes aside.
I known the story will be great with Neil at the helm just like it was in TLOU. I just hope and pray they push the envelope and get 60 fps and 1080p so that Uncharted 4 can blow Tomb Raider out of the water even more then it is already going to. That way Square Enix will see that gamers reward those companies that DON'T Fuck over their fanbase. Especially when they number 18.5 million.
Hey how about this time when your write a story you don't leave GIANT PLOT HOLES, like when Sully died in Uncharted 3 and ON NO WAIT IT WAS A HALLUCINATION! Or when the villain in UC3 could just FUCKING TELEPORT to a different end of a map and OH LETS NEVER EXPLAIN HOW HE DOES THAT.
He did. He was talking about each characters obsession and reasoning for doing what they do. Then he says, "Jak X, who knows what was happening there" 2:11
6:26... Neil not good at writing jokes. (So we have jokes, romance, and there should be 1-2 more things.) edit: 6:38... Neil prefers darker writing. 9:41... Enemy banter and notes written by someone else.
Only because he is a game director, I'd lean more to him being an INTJ. I don't think an INTP could direct a game that well, could be wrong though, but the obsses too much over details. From what I've heard Neil sounds more like an INTJ.
Kojima and Druckmann are hands down my favorite game directors. I particularly love how they take pretty opposite approaches to writing, and yet both create stellar and deeply moving games like no others.
random encounter you forgot dan houser
Facts!
No other Studio make good story games like Naughty Dog.
Uberslick Kojima Productions, Bethesda Softworks, Rockstar Games...
47Mortuus I don't agree at all, and I love the games those studios produce. I am talking about story and characters, of which Naughty dog are the best.
Uberslick Thats a subjective opinion. And to be fair only ONE Naughty Dog game has a n extraordinary story, the rest is mediocre.
47Mortuus So you are going to tell me the elder scrolls games have better characters and story than the Uncharted games? Because that would be.... silly.
Uberslick Have I? No. But they are superior to ND in a wide variety of aspects, I didn't know you were explicitly talking about story & characters. And who knows? Maybe they ARE better at it but have to produce about 5000% of the content compared to a ND game, per game, so quality obviously suffers.
Also only picking 1 game series out of the three sudios i've listed is silly.
Especially since the stories and characters actually ARE way deeper an better written than Uncharteds', just not as well produced, due to technical limitations.
It all comes down to subjectivity, stating such a thing and claiming it to be a "fact" is just insanely ignorant...
Let's get dem Fanboys some education!
Now I can understand why Troy said, Uncharted 4 has the most brilliant directors. Can't wait for the game...
Neil Druckman is a master at creating stories
+tdummy1094 No, I'd say he's a master at making games bring the stories he created to life.
+Carl Golli He is a master at both :P
tdummy1094 It’s not only him. There are 300 other people that had input in the game lolzz
@@aashrithmadagiri6711 True but his only work is TLOU Uncharted 123 are Amy Hennings work.
@@nightggg he was involved in Uncharted 2 and 3 too but the final opinion is from Emy
This game coming out would be reason enough alone for me to buy a ps4.
Kermicheo Kermit It was to me, and it was totally worth it!
Neil Druckmann is one of the best writers working today
His journey in the game industry is inspirational.
You still think so ? 😂
Yann Soulet yes , even if it hurts A FUCK TON that he kills off Joel , we knew this ... I think Ellie will be even more complex than Joel in the first one , I think if the story is not going to be what we want , the way they say it which I’m sure it’ll be amazing , will make up for it , idk I still have hope , as much as you hate Neil right now , he’s never let us down before YOU HAVE TO ADMIT
@@3kslayerrrrr those are not straight facts but assumption and hopes... But i guess we'll see in a few weeks
Yann Soulet now that the game is out, I’d say it was amazing
I always loved how they made their story in medias res . It's amazing how over the years this technique works flawlessly on amazing storytelling.
Congratulations Sir, you have made a modern masterpiece
I wish you asked about Amy Hennig leaving the game. Because, you know....she only INVENTED Uncharted.
well some people say she almost destroyed the series so......
TheStickyDynamite Seems to me, its more Justin Richmond fault.
TheStickyDynamite
Not because of U3...that was still an amazing game by any other standard, only suffered in comparison to U2. Unless they mean something else.
+valinor true but U1 was pretty bad anyway so Uncharted might not even have taken off if it hadn't been for U2
The Codfather
I really liked U1 as well lol
Naughty Dog is the best game company ever
Oh yea ya bozo are they still??? Lol
@@noodles6673 Absolutely. The last of us 2 is way better than the first in terms of gameplay. I'd agree TLOU1 has better story though.
They understand everything about storytelling that Ubisoft, Activision and the majority of other developers do not seem to understand lol
+Alex Townley To be fair I don't expect most of the top Sony execs to get it either, considering the kind of people they are judging by the PSX conferences and E3 shows.
+Alex Townley Lol ... how bout... they actually care about it...
Transcend Movement
What? Naughty Dog does care.
Alex Townley That's what he was trying to say.
Alex Townley Yeah, as in... if ANY of the big time creators as mentioned above even remotely cared about it on the level of naughty dog, they would have better games. But I didn't want to type out the whole paragraph lol
That last line he said..... Trying to bring closure???? NOOO!! U CAN HAVE HIM AGE BUT DONT STOP THE UNCHARTED GAMES :'(
"Left behind" was some of, if not the "best" DLC out there....
Besides Red Dead "undead Nightmay"
Best studio in gaming.
...
4 years later, they’re the worst
Matias Calderon can’t wait to see your shity faces June 19th when this game will get 10/10 everywhere. After seeing the reviews y’all will buy it day one, you hypocrites lmao
@@nava93s what a mature answer! Bravo!
So stunning and brave !
Thomas Ortem your welcome
I can't wait for this game.I have a feeling we won't see it until November , though.
Having just replayed Uncharted 123 I feel like he's commenting on how they were often written, on the notion that exposition should be handled properly.
All of the games have these exposition dumps where Drake geeks out over whatever historic figure he's chasing or some myth he's trying to decipher. The good thing in all those scenes were how Drake was really into it, one characters would cut to the chase "here's what he's saying, alright?" and Sully or someone else would be the wisecrack going "Pretend I don't care for a sec, will ya?"
It made sure that there was a version of the plot-exposition for everyone. Going on forums you always see fans that are really into the mythos of a series discussing the canon and lore like it was real history, and to those, these exposition dumps might be totally fine, but for others it's nice that there's a character to relate to that think like themselves and just cut straight to the point.
That said, what I got from this is that I guess Neil has been trying to scatter exposition out differently in Uncharted 4 than in the other 3 games, perhaps like The Last of Us where the invested gamer can pick up extra lore-tidbits of written pages and maybe Drake and Co. will just sort of give us the basic rundown or let you know why it's important to know about Marco Polo's secret lover from 1299 or something.
well said!
Definitely agree with throwing out jokes, it can end up being dull or repetitious. This is where i felt The Avengers 2 failed, it became 2 witty 2 the point every character felt exactly the same. No serious characters at all.
+unchartedrocks1 That's where EVERY Marvel movie since Avengers 1 failed. God, I couldn't stand Avengers and I haven't watched or even thought of watching another Marvel movie since. They're dumb movies made for dumd people IMO.
Linkenski Agree. I'm not even excited 2 even see the third movie.
I love how the guy from God of War said complex characters. Hopefully they can do something with Kratos in the new one. Looks like game of the year material.
drmuffin1080 The god of war writer was talking about neil, not himself.
Lorenzo Gomez I think he was kind of applying his lesson to all writers.
now. that GOW is out, i can definitely see the influence of TLOU
0:58-1:00 Oh thanks for the imagery! I feel so much better right now...
Honestly I think they should make more than four uncharted games cause it is so amazing plus your learning a little bit of true history or social studies as u play the story and the guns and multiplayer is just terrific
God I love you Neil...
It will be really damn hard to top Uncharted 2, but if they can just get the game to be equal to 2 I will be fine with that.
P.S. they should have got the creative team to write Indy IV. Every Uncharted game has been way better.
+vala Having just replayed UC2, I agree when it comes to gameplay and setpieces but not the story itself. All UC2 really has is fun characterization and a perfectly composed story but very generic themes and subtext. Uncharted 2 was great but it wasn't "deep" when it comes to story. I didn't take anything away from it besides "that was a great ride, that was fun!" and that I liked Elena and Drake a lot.
Linkenski
The story is simple but engaging, that's all I wanted. These adventure stories aren't supposed to be particularly deep, none of the Indiana Jones movies are. It was also straightforward and well-paced, without major plot holes, all problems that UC3 had. It even had one of those "too bizarre to be fiction" plot points: the SS really did got to Tibet in 1939 to investigate occult powers.
vala I agree. UC2 not being deep isn't even a problem. It's a fun ride and that was all it was trying to be, and personally I found it slightly jarring that UC3 tried to go into places I felt it shouldn't, like take Drake and explore his motivations and stuff because it's clear when you play UC1 or UC2 that it's all just a stylised realism like a Star Wars movie. You're not supposed to question why Drake is obsessed with Treasure.
That said, I'm not actually that afraid of UC4's direction since it's gonna be even more exploring the characters and dissecting them, because the trilogy has ended, it's a new generation and I see it as if UC123 is a tv-series and UC4 is the movie.
Would anyone be surprised if they remastered Uncharted 1-3 before they released 4? Would anyone buy it (I would, since I only played the first one and never got a chance to play after that...)
If you still have ps3 then i highly recommend you play Uncharted 2 seriousley that game is a masterpiece.
Evans Sarpong I had Uncharted 1, it came with my PS3 but I haven't played it in 5 or 6 years and I lost it since I've moved to two different states, which is why I want them to do a re-release. But yeah, I could always play them on PS3.
I honestly wouldn't. There's really no reason to remaster 2 and 3 because the graphics are fine. Maybe if they remastered 1 I would.
***** Uncharted Collection coming to PS4 Oct 9 :)
praveen g prakash Yup, heard about it lol can't wait.
Is it true Drakes brother was going to be an enemy but Neil wanted Troy Baker in the game so got Amy sacked and changed the story?
Lol I highly doubt it. Troy would've had to cough up an extraordinary amount of money for Neil, who cares so much about stories in games, to alter the story of the game itself just to include him.
Well it seems she is writing a star wars game. That alone would get 99% of the best writers to leave there current projects. Especially now it's rumored that she is writing a Han solo game uncharted like gameplay. Seems to suggest she was offered that and now's Neil could take care since he worked with her on uncharted 2
Reece Walton Nah she loved Uncharted if she was leaving for personal reasons she would have released a statement to the fans. Neil wants "complex relationship derp" in all ND games now because TLoU and its annoying because I like Uncharted how it was so did Amy thats probably why she left or got fired.
dude you just blew my mind!
Because people get fired now due to two writers disagreeing on what the story should be. As if naughty dog would EVER fire the lead writer for such a horrible reason
Another thing that would make this game better is if u put like multiplayer coop gameplay battling zombies including the other usual stuff
Nathan looks stunnng in the new game
i hope in the near future since this would sadly be the end of the best game series...they should remaster Uncharted 1,2 and 3
Jak X was bloody brilliant. Not as good as the Jak 2 or 3 but I loved Jak X. It was a nice spin on an already brilliant trilogy
0:12 did he leak god of war 4? Lol
Jack Marston Child cause when he said “god of War team Cory” when god of War wasn’t even announced
want a deep story with deep characters? Hire Mr. Kojima....
enthony cichocki I totally agree!! Kojima does a good job in the story department, and Neil wants complex characters? He would be wiped off, (no offense) if he compared Uncharted 2 with the MGS characters. Talk about complexity, I don't find Uncharted or any of its story "amazingly complex", it's just "ok".
What for? Neil wrote The Last of Us.
I wouldn't say the MGS characters are very deep, but more symbolic. The characters represent multiple themes, and convey the philosophies effectively. The Uncharted characters are... almost regular people, just caught in extraordinary circumstances. They are irrational, humorous, and flawed, but the plot isn't exactly the most insightful. MGS characters represent larger and more abstract ideas that make them extremely interesting, but not necessarily the most relatable. I would argue though that those codec conversations with Otacon, Paramedic, and SIGNET do a great job of fleshing out the characters, but you never really see them in-game, cutscenes aside.
tonertonki Neil didn't write uncharted 2
fragr33f Yeah I know, it was Amy I think? But still my comparison is still there, Uncharted VS MGS, MGS wins by a longshot.
the comments here are a lot different than they are in 2020
Uncharted 5: Nathan's Death
Wow he leaked God of War before it was announced and no one even knew.
I known the story will be great with Neil at the helm just like it was in TLOU. I just hope and pray they push the envelope and get 60 fps and 1080p so that Uncharted 4 can blow Tomb Raider out of the water even more then it is already going to. That way Square Enix will see that gamers reward those companies that DON'T Fuck over their fanbase. Especially when they number 18.5 million.
Can't tell if Neil has an accent or a lisp
+Mantis Toboggan accent. English is his second language.
Thank goodness there is Naughty Dog!
Hixker dicker dicker dooo
and they should make uncharted 4 last for a while
I love games with extra exposition and convoluted stories.
The Protagonist Hideo Kojima games then,
Hey how about this time when your write a story you don't leave GIANT PLOT HOLES, like when Sully died in Uncharted 3 and ON NO WAIT IT WAS A HALLUCINATION! Or when the villain in UC3 could just FUCKING TELEPORT to a different end of a map and OH LETS NEVER EXPLAIN HOW HE DOES THAT.
Neil keeps bashing Jak and Daxter it seems, and it's really pissing me off lol.
Where in this video or any video is Neil bashing Jak and Daxter?
No he's just bashing Jak X... Which you can't really blame him. I love Jak and Daxter with a passion, but not Jak X
I don't believe he stated WHICH Jak game he was talking about, so I comprehended it as he was talking about the series as a whole.
He did. He was talking about each characters obsession and reasoning for doing what they do. Then he says, "Jak X, who knows what was happening there" 2:11
i can see where you're coming from I hear X, but he also combines X with Daxter it sounds like.
6:26... Neil not good at writing jokes. (So we have jokes, romance, and there should be 1-2 more things.)
edit:
6:38... Neil prefers darker writing.
9:41... Enemy banter and notes written by someone else.
Is Neil INTJ or INTP?
Only because he is a game director, I'd lean more to him being an INTJ. I don't think an INTP could direct a game that well, could be wrong though, but the obsses too much over details. From what I've heard Neil sounds more like an INTJ.
My guess is Istp. He likes simplicity (Ti) and (Se), is a planner (Ni) and want to harmonice with social needs (Fe)
Amy Hennig...
She left for Star Wars, which I'm excited for.