Building Uncharted 3

This sort of subtle innovation typifies Naughty Dog's approach to Drake's Deception. The studio made so many significant technological advances for Among Thieves - from rendering and post-processing effects to the Dynamic Object Traversal System that gave rise to its collapsing hotel and cargo train set-pieces - that a single game couldn't possibly exhaust their potential.

And as one person has an idea that demands a new system or the improvement of an existing one, those changes will inspire yet another daring idea in someone else. Lemarchand describes it as a "leapfrogging effect," and it's how many of Drake's Deception's most significant challenges were born, from its desert setting to a brilliant sequence onboard a capsizing cruise-liner.

Naughty Dog extended the capability of its Dynamic Object Traversal System beyond animated objects to objects driven by physics. "This created a whole bunch of new possibilities," says Lemarchand.

Drake's Deception's cruise-ship level is the manifestation of several of those possibilities: Nathan Drake on the deck of a vast boat, reacting dynamically to its movements, which are in turn dynamic reactions to the movements of the roiling, storm-lashed ocean. The deck is scattered with physics objects that slip and slide across its surface. There are secondary bodies of water on the ship itself that move independently from the surrounding ocean. At first sight, it takes the brain a few minutes to process what Naughty Dog has achieved.

They committed to do it and they did do it. It's amazing. I can say this because it's not my level, but I think it's a landmark

"That level was designed by my friend of co-lead designer Jacob Minkoff, who told me last week that when he came up with the idea for the cruise ship and when we pulled together a group of programmers and technical artists to pitch the idea to them, they initially looked at him as though he'd gone stark raving mad," says Lemarchand.

"Perhaps he had! You have to be seized by a little bit of madness to be so audacious as to suggest that in 2009 - when he first came up with the idea - that there's a ship floating around on a virtual ocean whose hold would then be compromised and which would flood with water which would cause the ship to tip onto its side and begin to sink."

"Of course, we have to run that dynamic water system inside the ship as well as around it, and Jacob says - and I think this is to his very great credit - that having looked at him like he was mad, the programmers then proceeded to talk together for 20 minutes and came back to him and said, 'All right, let's go for it.'"

"They committed to do it and they did do it. It's amazing. I can say this because it's not my level, but I think it's a landmark."

Despite the "pain" of creating Among Thieves' barrage of bravura set-pieces, and the tireless efforts of "scripting geniuses" like Kurt Margenau and Jacob Minkoff, Lemarchand believes that Naughty Dog has "grasped the nettle and gripped it even harder" for Drake's Fortune. The Uncharted team understands that audacious sequences like the collapsing hotel, the cargo train, and the cruise ship are why people queue up at midnight to buy their games. They are as much a part of the series' identity as the dusty relics and smart-mouthed dialogue.

As handy as it must be to have a motion-capture studio in the next room, Naughty Dog's best work is far more impressive than the sum of its considerable resources. It exists at the point where technology and creativity intersect; it would not be possible without the former, but the importance of the latter cannot be understated - or, to the chagrin of its competitors, imitated.

Lemarchand believes that, in the future, that balance will tip towards creativity, and the only limit games will face is the far reaches of human imagination. For now, though, mastery of technology is a core part of Naughty Dog's identity, and there is still plenty of room for progress.

"I think we have a ways to go in terms of graphical technology," Lemarchand says, "in terms of more sophisticated skin-shaders and shaders for other kinds of material. Translucent materials are still proving to be a problem for us. It's very difficult for us to make something that looks distinctively like a piece of glass rather than a piece of clear plastic, for instance."

"In terms of physical, dynamic simulations, we can keep grinding that out for quite some time. We do a very good job of making great-looking fire and smoke in Uncharted 3 - and I hope the visual effects guys won't mind me saying this, because it's amazing how good the world looks in Uncharted 3 - but I'm sure they have a million and one new ideas for making dynamic fire simulations that'll be even more impressive than we've already done, that would be even more processor intensive than what we've already done."

"I think that we are rapidly approaching the point where ideas are more important than the technology but I don't think we're quite there yet."