Beauty and Risk: Emotion, Indie Games and Uncharted

Richard Lemarchand, Lead Game Designer, Naughty Dog, Inc.
Wednesday, November 23, 2011, 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM
Location: Engineering 2, Room 180 (The Simularium)
Hosted By the Center for Games and Playable Media

Abstract:

In my talk, I’d like to tell you about some of the experiences I’ve had at Naughty Dog in my role as Lead Designer on the Uncharted series, and how profoundly the ideas about game design that I use every day have been affected by indie games.

I love independent games, and I grew up playing them in the UK on the first generation of home computers. At that time, all games were indie games, in spirit at least. The ‘bedroom programmers’ of that generation were my first mentors when I joined the game industry, and I’ll talk about that DIY spirit of creating something from nothing, and how vital it still is today.

The visionary creators of the indie games of 2011 have used the game-making tools of this generation to do amazing things - to give expression to emotions barely seen in videogames before, to develop new styles of play and even new genres of game, and to explore subject matter considered untouchable by the mainstream.

The title of my talk is about gameplay - the beauty of systems and the risk introduced by random or complex elements at play. It’s also about creative risk-taking: so take a risk, and come to my talk!

Bio:

Richard Lemarchand is a Lead Game Designer at Naughty Dog in Santa Monica, California, and has recently completed work on the studio's latest game, Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception. He was the Co-Lead Designer of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, which was a runaway critical and popular success, winning 34 Game of the Year awards and four BAFTAs. Richard also worked on Uncharted: Drake's Fortune and two of the Jak games for Naughty Dog, and helped to create thesuccessful game series Gex, Pandemonium and Soul Reaver at Crystal Dynamics.

Richard’s role at Naughty Dog includes production as well as design, and his controversial talk at DICE 2010 about Naughty Dog’s unique production methodology is much discussed for its original take on development studio best practices. A passionate advocate of indie and experimental games, Richard was the conference co-chair of IndieCade in 2010. He hosts the annual GDC Microtalks, and is a faculty member of the GDC Experimental Gameplay Sessions.

Richard grew up in a small town in rural England, dreaming of ancient civilizations and outer space. Perhaps as a result, he has a degree in Physics and Philosophy.