Get ready for adventure - we're excited to celebrate the launch of Unexpected: Legacy of Thieves Collection on PC this week.
Naughty Dog Unintended 4: A Thief's End and Unintended: The Lost Legacy optimized for Iron Galaxy Studio PC.
Whether you're new to the series or a seasoned caveman who's survived some devastating encounters, we thought the debut of the Uncharted series on PC would give you a chance to see how these two adventurous franchises have progressed. We've revealed some of the details of how Naughty Dog has taken the unlikely foundation to new heights.
Get up on time
With Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, the franchise's first original entry on PlayStation 4, the team saw an opportunity to take the franchise forward. Ascension is a prime example of next generation evolution; Uncharted 4 gives players a level of control never before, as it supports Nathan Drake's movements with stunning animations.
"With Uncharted 4, we wanted to add more depth and realism to the climb," said animation director Jeremy Yates.
A trip to an indoor rock-climbing gym and lessons from a novice manufacturing instructor helped launch the venture. This trip provided several valuable lessons for Uninhibited 4's new climbing system. The team was armed with personal experience and visual references to understand balance and weight distribution, as well as the concepts that go into each step.
Lead game designer Emilia Schatz said, "When we climbed the wall ourselves, the first thing we noticed was how much weight was on our feet. It really affected how the animation worked."
The team experimented with a number of methods in the system, from endurance bars to freewheeling, where players can climb a mountain in any way they want. There was a lot of excitement and fun, but the team had to think about how to exit the overall game.
“It's almost too complicated. The most important thing about each of our systems is that it overlaps with other systems. While climbing itself is amazing, we have to remember that Uncharted 4 is not just a climbing game,” said Schatz.
After removing some of these systems, the focus became more clear: connecting the player to Nathan Drake using Exit in Uncharted 4 and finally Chloe Fraser in Uncharted: The Lost Legacy. And that means giving players more control over Uncharted than ever before.
A chapter
We want to give the player really good, full analog control over where Drake puts his hand. That's where the destination system was born," Yates explained.
The unplanned 4-step system allows you to do much more than simply travel from one stop to the next along a precise route. Using the left analog stick on the controller, the player can precisely control how far and at what angle Drake extends his arms. It looks smooth and realistic in practice, but behind the scenes is a sophisticated ring system that calculates Drake's movements. Each movement requires multiple animations.
"It was a huge challenge to capture and design all these locations, and from each [point] to that location, the delta between your base and where the capture happens, there can be a very specific sequence of animations," Yates explained.
To ensure that what was shown in the game reflected the correct height, the team built an adjustable rock wall on the stage and parkour athlete Jessie La Fleur demonstrated various moves on the net.
We rebuilt those rings and the pre-drilled holes in all these different places so we could move the steering more easily... We made Jesse follow every combination we could give him; Yeats explained, which allowed him to justify it. Physics of Drake Motion.
Lead programmer Ryan Bronner was one of the people who worked to make this deep climbing system work properly to achieve the smooth motion of the Reach system.
"The big change from Uncharted 3 is that you can hold two peaks at once, and be as far away as you want," Bronner said. That meant moving the upper body in the right direction, but just as important, as the group learned in the climbing gym, were the legs.
"[We] were looking for edges instead of the legs actually hanging and dangling."
"Ryan ... is a really full body (reverse kinetics) that works all fours and your core and how they move together. It's helped us create an organic system for climbing that we couldn't do before," Yates said. said
Bringing more natural and dynamic climbing moves has helped make Drake's fairways more flexible and rewarding for the player.
"It allowed us to create more organic rock walls. Before, the distance you were going to cover from Nathan Drake was much shorter," Schatt explained. You were far away.
Not only do climbing routes naturally adapt to the environment, but thanks to the tools the team works with, more complex routes can be created for players to have a creative approach to shaping their progress.
"The organic integration on the wall was automatic. Everything you see in the game ... is dynamically placed," Yates said, adding that background artists didn't have to map out the placement of each handle. Easy to add, so it was easy for us to design what we call some "Swiss cheese" for this wall. We tried to give the player a chance to find his way."
Players can attempt to climb any rock wall or ruined building. Another way players can gain climbing advantage is through skirmishes. Born from experiments with a loose gripping system (you can immediately see the idea of using two grips below), the match is a small puzzle that the player must solve.
The hook is played when players run into certain walls, requiring the right timing and angle to connect the hook with the wall to advance further.
"We want you to be creative with how you move and how you place your gloves. As a player, I think I have to decide, 'Where do you want Nathan Drake's hook so I can jump that end?'" It's a good thing."
Thanks to all the ideas implemented by the team at Naughty Dog - and learned from those who didn't - Uncharted 4 offers more accurate, analog control of Nathan Drake's rise than ever before. This implementation continued with Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, which featured Chloe Fraser as protagonist Nathan Drake, and captured all of her work on the climbing mechanics. A lost legacy allows the team to later include a hook in Chloe's other adventures at the end of Thief.
"We were really happy with the way he played in Uncharted 4 ... and we were able to bring him into The Lost Legacy and he could shine there," Schatz said.
After developing this feature, the team learned some valuable lessons.
"[Unknown 4 Rise showed] the importance of feedback in game systems," Bronner said. “In Uncharted 4, you touch the stick and see your body move in a certain direction even though you're not doing anything. When you get this kind of feedback, you can adapt in a direction that feels natural and connected to the character.
"We always try hard to keep that sense of foundation... because when it's done right, you identify more with the character, you connect with the character more," Schatz said.
Everything about the climbing system has changed, from the reach system to the hooks to the fluidity and realism of movement, allowing players to immerse themselves in Uncharted characters like never before. We hope longtime fans will deeply appreciate this unexpected core part of the experience, and we're excited for newcomers to experience the climb, Nathan and Chloe's fight, and more. Unknown: Thief's Legacy Collection will be available on Steam and Epic Game Stores on October 19, 2022.