Writing Uncharted 4: A Thief's End

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.

[avocadopicture]

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.

[AnalogFoundry]

Now I can understand why Troy said, Uncharted 4 has the most brilliant directors. Can't wait for the game...

[tdummy]

Neil Druckman is a master at creating stories

[TheSenseiKai]

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.

[cheothegeo]

This game coming out would be reason enough alone for me to buy a ps4.

[marcusblixenkrone-mller]

Neil Druckmann is one of the best writers working today

[ArtofBrentMinehan]

No other Studio make good story games like Naughty Dog. 

[quasarone]

Congratulations Sir, you have made a modern masterpiece

[NineteenHundred]

I wish you asked about Amy Hennig leaving the game. Because, you know....she only INVENTED Uncharted. 

[dietcookies]

Naughty Dog is the best game company ever

[adhilAKApeekaboo]

That last line he Trying to bring closure???? NOOO!! U CAN HAVE HIM AGE BUT DONT STOP THE UNCHARTED GAMES :'(

[alextownley]

They understand everything about storytelling that Ubisoft, Activision and the majority of other developers do not seem to understand lol

[shaminahmed]

0:58-1:00 Oh thanks for the imagery! I feel so much better right now...

[deonred]

I can't wait for this game.I have a feeling we won't see it until November, though.

[phatt]

"Left behind" was some of, if not the "best" DLC out there....

Besides Red Dead "undead Nightmay"

[unchartedrocks]

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.

[linkenski]

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.

[quickshotfastshot]

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

[DrMuffin]

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.

[MountCarcass]

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...)