GDC Sessions - Thursday, March 11

Today, Thursday, March 11, is the first day of the GDC10 main conference and Naughty Dog figures prominently in three sessions today. If you're at GDC10 this week (and reading this instead of attending sessions), we'd love to see you come by.

Thursday (March 11, 2010) 1:30pm - 2:30pm
Among Friends - An Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Post-Mortem
Richard Lemarchand (Game Designer, Naughty Dog)
Room 134, North Hall
Naughty Dog faced many entirely new challenges in the creation of UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves - in expanding our gameplay through the use of new traversal, combat and AI technologies, introducing characters that shed new light on our hero Nathan Drake, and tackling our first foray into multiplayer in four years. Co-Lead Game Designer Richard Lemarchand will candidly describe how we tackled the problems that we faced, and how the studio's philosophy of collaboration, open communication and investment of responsibility in the people who create the game allowed Naughty Dog to surpass the accomplishment of our first PlayStation 3 hit. He will also discuss how our small studio of around one hundred people tackled the issues we faced in executing our most complex production yet, giving practical examples and telling interesting stories of crisis points overcome and valuable lessons learned.

Thursday (March 11, 2010) 3:00pm - 4:00pm
Behind the Scenes: Uncharted 2's Unique Cinematic Production Process
Josh Scherr (Cinematics Animation Lead, Naughty Dog), Amy Hennig (Creative Director, Naughty Dog, Inc.)
Room 303, South Hall
The development and production process behind the acclaimed characters and cinematics in UNCHARTED 2 is labor-intensive and demands both time and flexibility. But there’s a method to our madness, and in this session, we'll be sharing what's different and unique about our approach, covering both the how, and more importantly, the why behind that process. Topics we'll cover include casting, motion capture production, writing, our animation pipeline, and how we adapted our process for an ambitious production scope and demanding schedule.

Thursday (March 11, 2010) 4:30pm - 5:30pm
Micro or Massive: It's Fricking Tough to Achieve a Vision
Baiyon Tomohisa Kuramitsu (Artist/Musician, PixelJunk/Q-Games), Richard Lemarchand (Game Designer, Naughty Dog)
Room 135, North Hall
In this session, Baiyon, graphic artist and composer on PixelJunk Eden, and Richard Lemarchand, lead designer on UNCHARTED 2, will lead a lively discussion on the inherent similarities of artistic endeavor, even on two projects as different in style and scope as Uncharted and PixelJunk Eden. This is a talk about artistry as much as it is about the speakers' specific games, and should prove to be a vital cross-cultural look into the nature of creativity and process in games. Later on tonight, after the sessions close, we'll be headed over to attend the Game Develop Choice Awards. Check back later today to learn more about what's in store for us there.