Uncharted: Lost Legacy is already a month old, but that hasn’t stopped MDEC from wanting to share Malaysia’s contribution to the hit game franchise. Developer Naughty Dog engaged local studios Lemon Sky and Passion Republic to bring an Asian touch to a game set in the continent.
Lemon Sky is no stranger to game development, having worked on games like Bloodborne, Gears of War, and Dead Rising 3. This experience helped the studio’s team of 18 animators and modelers design and develop 3D assets for items in game.
Project manager Kevin Lai was proud to be able to show off the hard work his studio did for the fourth installment in the Uncharted series; which included several items that were key to the plot.
“I remember our old projects, where we had several days to come up with textures. But Naughty Dog only gave us one day. So it was pretty crazy. Anyhow, with the latest technology and advanced tools it was achievable. The techniques shared by Naughty Dog took us to that level,” said Lai.
Passion Republic, on the other hand, had a far more hands on experience. The studio was already familiar with Naughty Dog, as it had provided some last minute emergency assets for Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End. Due to this, it had the honour of providing input on story beats and how the plot moved along.
According to president Ng Aik Sern, the team worked very closely with Naughty Dog; despite the massive time difference between the two studios. Particularly thanks to the efforts of Naughty Dog art director Erick Pangilinan, who would stay up late to provide feedback and ideas on how to proceed with the project development.
“They are very integrated. They usually don’t take more than a day to share feedback, so you really feel like you’re working beside them. Anything you submit at the end of the day will get feedback tomorrow. And most of the time, Erick the art director will be on Skype talking to Mel [Law Sheng Li, Passion Republic’s own art director] about ideas, the story, and feedback.
It was a great feeling for us. Because we didn’t feel like an outsourcing company, but very integrated partners,” said Ng.
MDEC played a key role in getting these Malaysians onto the project. Mostly due to approaching developers and studios to promote the work done by Malaysians. At the moment, it looks like the work put in by Director of the Creative Content & Technologies Hasnul Hadi Samsudin has paid off.
