Uncharted’s Success Relies on Constant Feedback from Inside the Dev Team

Naughty Dog, the studio behind the critically acclaimed Uncharted series, plus older and still popular ones like Jak and Daxter, relies on its employees to give constant feedback on their projects, without any actual producer ruling over everyone.

Without any doubt one of the most successful PlayStation 3 exclusive developers is Naughty Dog, as the California-based studio has been making games for over 25 years and has recently seen the addition of a second full team, currently working on the just-announced The Last of Us survival title.

According to Uncharted co-lead designer, Richard Lemarchand, the success of the studio is largely owed to its employees, who know how to manage themselves and give accurate feedback to their colleagues throughout the development process.

“The way that we work at Naughty Dog is kind of idiosyncratic and has contributed in a major way to the success of the games,” he said to CVG.

“We're quite famous for not having anyone with the formal job title of producer - the team produce themselves, and we're all responsible for organising our own work. We pick up jobs we care about and then run around and coordinate with each other. It can be challenging to be responsible for your own stuff and to give people notes on their own stuff.”

Lemarchand emphasizes that, in some regards, everyone at the studio is a game designer, managing to provide accurate feedback on things that sometimes eluded everyone else throughout the creation cycle.

“Fortunately, because everybody at Naughty Dog is empowered to give each other notes that kind of spreads the responsibility a bit. I've often felt everyone at Naughty Dog, irrespective of their job title, is a game designer. We constantly have discussions across all of the different departments about what makes a game good or bad, better or worse.”

While such a strategy may not work in some cases, Lemarchand concludes by saying that, “It's often pretty crazy and chaotic, it's very organic, but it's really good fun and really satisfying creative work.”

Naughty Dog is currently working on downloadable content for Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception, which was just released last month, as well as on The Last of Us.