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Naughty Dog: Pre-production should be "managed chaos"

It's a process of innovation and exploration looking for a "eureka moment", says Lemarchand

Naughty Dog's Richard Lemarchand has said a game's pre-production should be a time of "managed chaos" to "innovate" ideas, not a manufacturing process.

The lead designer of Uncharted: Drake's Fortune emphasised the importance of a game's pre-production saying that was when developers should "try to capture that 'eureka' moment".

"A big part of the problem is that a lot of studios think we're still in software development when in fact we're an entertainment industry," said Lemarchand, to an audience at the Develop conference in Brighton.

He went on to describe the 'method' approach to pre-production and game design, describing it as a basis for Naughty Dog's own process.

"Pre-production is when you innovate... try to capture that 'eureka' moment. Pre-production is a process of managed chaos... the time of freeform exploration and discovery... It should have very little in the way of conventional deadlines."

"This implies high level trust between the developer and publisher... [Trust] is something all of us in the industry should be doing the very best to foster... Pre-production should be done by a core group of senior people... They better be among the very best people you have in your company," he added.