Naughty Dog programmer John Hable presented a talk called “UNCHARTED 2: HDR Lighting” to close out GDC10 during the last timeslot of the final day. During his talk John referenced a two-part presentation by Pal-Kristian Engstad, our Lead Engine Programmer, which covers optimizing for the SPUs. We’ve linked each part of that presentation below for those who attended John’s session and those who are following at home (or coming in via GDC Vault access). Introduction to SPU Optimizations - Part 1 Introduction to SPU Optimizations - Part 2 Read more...

There are three sessions today, Friday, March 12, at GDC10 which have participation by Naughty Dogs and/or is about UNCHARTED 2. As yesterday, if you’re at GDC10 this week, we’d love to see you come by and attend! Don’t forget to also stop by our booth at the GDC Career Pavilion where we are holding a business card raffle for great (and at least one item of relevant) merch. Friday (March 12, 2010) 9:00am - 10:00am GDC Microtalks 2010: Ten Speakers, 200 Slides, Limitless Ideas! Richard Lemarchand (Game Designer, Naughty Dog), Ian Bogost (Associate Professor, The Georgia Institute of Technology), Chaim Gingold (levity lab), Gary Penn (Guru, Denki), Sam Roberts (Festival Director, indiecade.com), Margaret Robertson (Consultant and writer, Lookspring), Kellee Santiago (President and Co Founder, thatgamecompany), Suzanne Seggerman (President, Games for Change), Jesse Schell (ETC Carnegie Mellon, Schell Games), Jane Pinckard (Business Development, Read more...

After the first full day of main conference sessions, many of us—and I think all the Dogs at GDC—will head to attend the Independent Games Festival Awards and Game Developer Choice Awards. We’re especially excited for the GDCA as UNCHARTED 2 is nominated in seven categories: Game of the Year Best Writing Best Game Design Best Technology Best Visual Arts Innovation Award Best Audio The IGF Awards are significant and you shouldn’t miss them either—they recognize the best entries into the Independent Games Festival and can give a great glimpse into some of the awesome things that come from being small and passionate—showcasing interesting game play innovations and game developers to watch. Best of all, both awards ceremonies will be streamed back-to-back LIVE from GameSpot’s GDC hub at http://gdc.gamespot.com/. Be sure to head over there at 6:30 PM PST (what time is that in my city?) to watch the awards events—and Read more...

Today, Thursday, March 11, is the first day of the GDC10 main conference and Naughty Dog figures prominently in three sessions today. If you’re at GDC10 this week (and reading this instead of attending sessions), we’d love to see you come by. Thursday (March 11, 2010) 1:30pm - 2:30pm Among Friends - An Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Post-Mortem Richard Lemarchand (Game Designer, Naughty Dog) Room 134, North Hall Naughty Dog faced many entirely new challenges in the creation of UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves - in expanding our gameplay through the use of new traversal, combat and AI technologies, introducing characters that shed new light on our hero Nathan Drake, and tackling our first foray into multiplayer in four years. Co-Lead Game Designer Richard Lemarchand will candidly describe how we tackled the problems that we faced, and how the studio’s philosophy of collaboration, open communication and investment of responsibility in the people who Read more...

Naughty Dog has its own booth at the GDC Career Pavilion this year—you can see our concept for our booth in the image above. It won’t look exactly like that, but it’s still pretty sweet looking. If you’re at GDC this year and you’re curious about what it’s like to work at Naughty Dog, or you’re seeking employment and Naughty Dog is a place you think you may be a good fit for, please stop by our booth to say hello and ask questions.We’ll be glad to answer your questions and tell you about nearly everything there is to know about Naughty Dog. You can stop by even if we don’t have the position best suited for your skills currently posted on our Careers page—so don’t let that stop you. If you’re an artist, we will take a look and give feedback on artists portfolios BUT bring flat books ONLY if you’re going to come by. If you want to apply for a job, the best place is to contact us via our job Read more...

Many of us at Naughty Dog are up in San Francisco to attend GDC10 this week. The Dogs are participating in ten sessions this week, covering just about every aspect of the development of UNCHARTED 2, along with some hiring advice and the continuing run of the GDC Microtalks session. We’re also attending this year’s Game Developer Choice Awards on Thursday, March 11, as we hope to win some awards from the seven categories we’ve been nominated in Naughty Dog is also going have its own booth at the Career Pavilion—more on that and why you would want to swing by tomorrow. We’ve got the full list of sessions we’re participating in, along with links to descriptions below. Visit our Facebook events page or the GDC Schedule builder if you want to add these sessions to your calendar, export them or print them out. Keep checking back via the GDC10 tag to stay up to date on GDC and what the Dogs are up to throughout the week! Thursday Read more...