GAME · 2007 · USA
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune
- Developer
- Naughty Dog
- Publisher
- Sony Interactive Entertainment
- Platforms
- PlayStation 3
26 archived facts 5 topics 2 sources Last reviewed Sep 2026
26 Interesting Facts About Uncharted: Drake's Fortune
Interesting Facts (8)
- #001
The sticker on the jet ski also appears on Ellie's shirt in The Last of Us, another Naughty Dog Inc. game.
- #002
Contains a major spoiler — show
Although she is an important part of all four games, this is the only Uncharted game in which Elena appears from the very beginning.
- #003
Nathan Drake was conceived as a more ordinary character than Tomb Raider protagonist Lara Croft; throughout the game's many firefights he is visibly under stress, has no special training, and constantly lives at the limit of his abilities. Game director Amy Hennig felt that a heavily armored hero with a big weapon who is "tough as nails" would not be a suitable hero, and decided that a "tenacious and resourceful" character would embody more human qualities.
- #004
The Naughty Dog development team intended the island, the game's main setting, to play a major role in the overall experience. Feeling that too many games used gloomy, dark environments with dull color schemes, they wanted the island to be a vibrant, believable game world that draws the player in and encourages exploration.
- #005
In the game's first trailers, Elena's hair was dark brown, but the color eventually turned blonde and the style changed.
- #006
Nathan Drake's personality was partly based on Jackass star Johnny Knoxville and Indiana Jones star Harrison Ford.
- #007
Richard McGonagle, who voices Sully, does not smoke despite his gravelly voice. When he was first cast as Sully, he put a real cigar in his mouth to suck on as a reference point. After a while the tip of the cigar became wet and he grew uncomfortable using it. This would be done in later games whenever he needed to have a cigar in his mouth.
- #008
The Uncharted: Drake's Fortune PlayStation Home space included an arcade mini-game called Mercenary Madness, whose rewards were removed when the Home Open Beta launched. It also contained three additional rooms, the Artifact Room, Archives and Smuggler's Den, whose door codes were likewise removed at Open Beta.
Production Story (10)
- #009
The idea for Uncharted: Drake's Fortune began when Naughty Dog decided to create a brand-new IP instead of developing a PlayStation 3 Jak and Daxter game; the team wanted to develop ideas such as realistic human characters rather than the stylized ones made necessary by the limitations of previous hardware, and to create a franchise suited to the new hardware in order to make something "fresh and interesting," even if it was called "stylized realism."
- #010
For Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, Naughty Dog drew inspiration from action and adventure sources including pulp magazines, movie serials, Indiana Jones and National Treasure. The team felt these sources shared themes of mystery and 'what-if scenarios' that romanticized adventure, and aimed to include those elements.
- #011
The developers of Uncharted: Drake's Fortune saw their game as focusing more on third-person cover-based play than Tomb Raider, which they characterized by auto-aiming and heavier puzzle-solving. They also cited Resident Evil 4, Kill Switch and Gears of War as influences.
- #012
The demo for Uncharted: Drake's Fortune first appeared on the North American store and was initially region-locked to North American PS3 consoles.
- #013
The region lock on the Uncharted: Drake's Fortune demo was later confirmed to be a mistake, as the developers were apparently unaware that players in other regions could sign up for a North American account and download it; a region-free demo followed soon after.
- #014
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune was Naughty Dog's first PlayStation 3 title, and the move to the new console forced the studio to learn unfamiliar hardware and led to several development mistakes.
- #015
For Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, Naughty Dog abandoned its proprietary Lisp-based GOAL language in favor of the industry-standard C++ so it could share technology with Sony's other first-party developers.
- #016
Rewriting the game code for Uncharted: Drake's Fortune also meant building new programming tools, but those tools proved unreliable and hard to use, which held back work on a prototype.
- #017
Players of Uncharted: Drake's Fortune had to begin a new save game to earn trophies after the patch, regardless of medals won in earlier playthroughs; the developers enforced this to prevent save data from being shared to obtain unearned trophies.
- #018
The trophy patch for Uncharted: Drake's Fortune was described as "incredibly easy" to implement because the game already had preliminary Trophy support through its Medals system, hooks included on Naughty Dog's belief that Sony would launch the Trophy system before the game's November 2007 release.
Behind the Scenes (3)
- #019
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune used the Cell microprocessor to generate dozens of layered character animations, enabling realistic expressions and fluid movements for responsive player control.
- #020
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune included motion-sensing gameplay such as throwing grenades and walking across beams to take advantage of the Sixaxis controller, and it was demonstrated at the 2007 Tokyo Game Show with limited vibration support after the DualShock 3 was unveiled there.
- #021
Naughty Dog released a PlayStation Home game space themed around Uncharted: Drake's Fortune on October 11, 2008, during the Closed Beta. The space recreates Sully's Bar from the game.
Characters & Cast (1)
- #022
Elena Fisher and Victor Sullivan were added as supporting characters so the story would not feel dry and emotionless, and Fisher's design changed during development from dark brown hair in early trailers to blonde with an altered style.
Easter Eggs & References (4)
- #023
Every time Drake wears his diving suit, the brand is clearly identified as Otssel, a reference to Daxter from Naughty Dog's Jak and Daxter series. There is even a small stylized Daxter face on the sleeves. In addition, the Naughty Dog paw-print logo can be seen on the back of the collar of Drake's diving suit.
- #024
The Precursor Orb, a reference to Naughty Dog's Jak and Daxter series, can be found in the story written by Nathan Drake within the game and is described as a "Strange Relic." This hidden reference would remain a constant in the later sequels.
- #025
Victor Sullivan's private Grumman G-21 Goose seaplane, The Hog Wild, is a reference to a level in Crash Bandicoot, another game created by Naughty Dog.
- #026
The Archives and Smuggler's Den rooms of the Uncharted: Drake's Fortune PlayStation Home space featured an artifact viewer, and the Archives also held a video screen previewing Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. The Artifact Room offered seating and artifacts for users to view.
Related pages
- Uncharted 4: A Thief's End — Uncharted: Drake's Fortune comes up in the facts on that page
Sources & editorial notes
Sources for the entries on this page
- Wikipedia Uncharted: Drake's Fortune — Wikipedia
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