He’s the Indiana Jones of video games and with his fourth and possibly final adventure awaiting, we ask Naughty Dog why this character has proved so popular

We have followed him all over the world, from the coast of Panama to the lost city of Ubar. We’ve swooned at his burgeoning romances, we’ve sighed at his jokey yet loving friendship with Sully. We are, as Dinah Washington once put it, mad about the boy.

But why? What is it about Nathan Drake? How do you design a video game character who captures the imagination and emotional investment of players – even while they’re controlling the same character to mercilessly gun down hundreds of baddies?

It’s something the team at Naughty Dog, the Santa Monica studio responsible for the multimillion selling Uncharted series, has clearly thought about a lot. Three years ago, Richard Lemarchand, then the lead designer, gave a wonderful talk at the GameCity festival in Nottingham where he spoke about the process of designing the first three Uncharted games. He highlighted a series of important factors.

The first was the casting of Nolan North, Drake’s voice actor. As Lemarchand explained: “The search for the actor was long and arduous, we knew we had to get it just right. We had this strong idea of a guy who was a pretty regular bloke; he’s not a ninja, he’s not a special forces agent... he’s fit and healthy, but he’s also a bit clumsy – we needed that to come through. [Video game director and script writer] Amy Hennig has said, we needed that intangible quality that beloved actors in the action genre have. The reason Drake has the staying power and relatablity he has is because he’s vulnerable.”

After dozens of auditions, it was North who managed to get this just right. “Most actors that came in played up the tough guy elements,” said Lemarchand. “But we immediately saw the vulnerability and doubt in Nolan’s portrayal. He offered a different conception of masculinity - I think that’s one of the most important elements in the success of Uncharted.”

Something else Naughty Dog experimented with was providing contemplative spaces in the games – areas where players were free to mess about in the environment, but also discover Drake’s more quirky and playful side. The Peaceful Village section of Uncharted 2 is a key example. For a few minutes as Drake wanders the dusty streets of a small town in Nepal, he shakes hands with locals, kicks a ball around with kids, investigates the cattle – and all of these actions are instigated by the melee attack button on the joypad. It was a deliberate and very gentle subversion of the controls that let players experience Drake in a different way. It made him human.

But then, Naughty Dog was also careful with its cinematic story sections. Vitally, the emphasis was never really on exposition, which tends to be the case with most video game cut-scenes – it was on character and relationship development. The non-interactive sequences in Uncharted always present Drake’s relationships with characters like Sully, Elena and Chloe in interesting ways. They establish a tension between Drake the adventurer and Drake the regular guy and they exploit it for dramatic effect.

“When we talked about how this was going to be the final chapter in the Nathan Drake story we went back and looked at some of the things we’ve hinted at, things that make up Nathan Drake,” explains Ricky Cambier, lead designer on Uncharted 4. “What are the things he’s struggled with? That’s the thing that makes characters interesting: the choices that they make.

“In the past, we’ve hinted at these conflicts, sometimes off screen. With him an Elena - it was great at the end of Uncharted 2 but at the start of 3 there have been some issues. This idea that every treasure has its cost, this obsession Nathan has with these adventures, this history ... does he understand the impact that it has on the people around him? And what would it take to become the man he is?”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The introduction of Nathan’s brother into Uncharted 4 should give us a new lens through which to see both Drake and his world Photograph: Sony

In Uncharted 4, we have a new dimension to this set-up: Nathan’s older brother Sam shows up. It’s unclear where he’s been, but it seems Nathan thought he was dead – jail is one possibility. Whatever the case Sam thinks he has stumbled on the last resting place of legendary pirate Henry Every who terrorised ships on the Indian Ocean in the 17th century. In 1695, Every and a cabal of pirate captains took the main treasure ship of the Mughal empire, making off with $400m in gold. It was never found. The combination of vast wealth, great mystery and a new family connection are, of course, irresistible to Nathan.



The introduction of Sam also underlines something we’ve always seen in the series: that Drake needs help. In the new game, the action set pieces feature Sully and Sam fighting alongside Nathan, taking out enemies, protecting him. It’s basic AI companion stuff but the way Naughty Dog seamlessly segues in jokey dialogue and plot chatter with these action sequences underline the lead characters’ physical and emotional reliance on his friends. When he does stuff in the games, he always bears them in mind. Those relationships are constantly being acknowledged and tested.

“Making complex characters is about making characters who really struggle with decisions – people can relate to that,” says Cambier. “There are times we all make decisions that impact on other people - when you see characters in video games who aren’t just heroes, that humanises them. Yes, Nathan drake can climb like no one really can, but sometimes he just needs to lay his head on Elena’s lap and rest. We’re all like that. Sometimes we can keep going, but sometimes we need help - you get that with Nathan. I don’t think you get that with every game character.”

Something else that seems important about the way Naughty Dog works is the fact that experiments can be quickly implemented into the games. Lemarchand said that after coming up with the idea of the funny interactions during the Peaceful Village scene, the animators and coders were able to get them in the game and in front of testers within two days. When Lemarchand saw their delighted reactions, he knew the effort was worth it.

“I think the one thing that has allowed Naughty Dog to be successful is the speed at which we iterate,” says Cambier. “I can come in with an idea in the morning and put it in the hands of a designer or director and it can be in the game in the afternoon. And it may be that it doesn’t work as a whole, but one aspect will. So we say to ourselves ‘why did that work? Let’s get someone else to try it’. And if it resonates with them, we think, ah that’s interesting, let’s explore that some more.”

On the surface, the Uncharted games are quite conventional, but it’s the way all of the conventional elements fit smoothly together, alongside a range of more subtle experimental ideas, that makes the series work. In Uncharted 3, you have the big blockbuster action sequences, but you also have the weird mirage section in the desert and the surreal hallucinogenic trip where Drake is hit with a drug dart. The game also explores the nature of Drake and Sully’s relationship, the fracture lines, Drake’s neediness, Sully’s gruff self-reliance. The interplay feels alive and unpredictable.

The Uncharted games are quite conventional - on the surface

It’s interesting too that Uncharted 4 is very clearly the last in the series – Naughty Dog is completing its story. It is saying goodbye to Drake. This seemingly reflects a change in modern television too, away from series’ that simply go on until a show is cancelled and toward controlled long-form narratives that have fixed endings.

Is this the future of mainstream narrative games? Proper, planned out instalments that take us on an arc over a set series of instalments? “Yeah, I love the idea that this could open doors,” says Cambier. “You’re right to talk about how a lot of interesting storytelling is happening in this long form, that we’re allowing television series that know they’re going to run for six seasons so we get this truly episodic storytelling.

“It will be interesting to see if this does give permission to games to try new things. I mean, we’re just chatting here, but could someone pitch a three game series or something like that to a publisher? Could a developer say, ‘we’re just going to use these three games to tell a story’? I’m curious.”

For now though, Cambier and his team are finishing Uncharted 4 and completing the journey of this interesting, flawed character – who also happens to be really handsome. “You have this joke-cracking rogue, but man, he cares about these relationships a lot,” says Cambier. “Sully and Elena are really important to him - and yet he still makes choices that push those people away. That’s a fascinating character to me.”

So will we finally find out who Drake really is at the end of Uncharted? There are lots of little gaps in his life story. Will those close up? Will we get the ultimate revelation about what drives him?

“I don’t believe that any one moment defines any one of us,” says Cambier. “There will be no moment where you go ‘ohhh, that explains Nathan Drake!’ I think there will be a smaller ‘oh’ - if that makes sense. You’ll be able to connect a few more pieces.

“That was a big challenge: what is resolution for Nathan Drake? I think we achieved it, I hope that other people feel that way too.”