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Shaddy Safadi (born 1979) is an American video game concept artist who is the co-founder of One Pixel Brush, a concept firm headquartered in Santa Monica. [1]
Safadi was born with a passionate drive to become an artist for entertainment at a young age, though he was also interested in basketball. [1] Applying to art colleges, he was turned down only by one school which was Art Center College of Design. Safadi was driven to be accepted into Art Center and took a year off work to improve his portfolio. After some time Safadi was finally accepted into Art Center for Illustration/Entertainment but at the time he lacked the focus and work ethic to build a strong portfolio once graduating school. Safadi also at the time had a negative outlook as well as having trouble with cooperating with others but graduated from Art Center with a BFA in 2002. After graduation Safadi moved back to Northern California and started working at an Italian restaurant which took a hit on his morale. Deciding to practice more and work harder on his free time Safadi was finally able to get a job offer from Idol Mind Studio. [2]
In 2003, Safadi began working at Idol Minds Studio in Colorado on Neopets, and stayed with the studio for 2 years, creating the look and style of the PS2 title Neopets: The Darkest Faerie . He later got an offer from a friend at the Game Developers Conference whom extended an offer at Naughty Dog. Working on an art test for what would be the Uncharted series, Shaddy was turned down but was given a second offer to work on the new Jak and Daxter title. The title would eventually be canceled and was offered to now work on the Uncharted title, producing sketches, style guides and detailed digital paintings which helped establish lighting, and color. Starting as a concept artist, Safadi had a difficult time adjusting to the realistic style of Uncharted, and was nearly taken off the Naughty Dog team. Safadi would learn to embrace the new style after playing Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune for the first time and understood the overall vision of the game. [2] He then began working on Uncharted 2: Among Thieves and was able to work on character concepts for Drake, Chloe, Tenzin, Elena and the Guardians. As well as creating set piece paintings for the game which involved working closely with the art director, and the game director.
Safadi also worked on 2013 title The Last of Us and helped create the key shots in the game. [3] He would soon leave Naughty Dog to pursue building his company and co-found One Pixel Brush, a company that focused on creating AAA concepts for the top names in the industry as well as indie studios. Safadi now works as an Art Director at One Pixel Brush, which works with a number of AAA studios, such as Respawn Entertainment, Blur Studios, Ubisoft, Infinity Ward, Riot Games, BioWare, Naughty Dog, Irrational Games, Treyarch, Crytek. [4] [5]
| Year | Title | Studio | Role | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 2001 | Jurassic Park III | Savage Entertainment | Concept Artist | |||
| April–July 2003 | Dungeons and Dragons | Stormfront Studios | Concept Artist | |||
| September 2003 - 2006 | Neopets: The Darkest Faerie | Idol Minds | Uncharted: Drake's Fortune | Naughty Dogs | Uncharted 2 Among ThievesNaughty Dog | Senior Concept Artist |
| September 2006 - February 2011 | The Last of Us | Naughty Dog | Senior Concept Artist |
Jak and Daxter is an action-adventure video game franchise created by Andy Gavin and Jason Rubin and owned by Sony Interactive Entertainment. The series was originally developed by Naughty Dog with a number of installments being outsourced to Ready at Dawn and High Impact Games. The first game, Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy, released on December 3, 2001, was one of the earliest titles for the PlayStation 2, and is regarded as a defining franchise for the console.
Naughty Dog, LLC is an American first-party video game developer based in Santa Monica, California. Founded by Andy Gavin and Jason Rubin in 1984, the studio was acquired by Sony Computer Entertainment in 2001. Gavin and Rubin produced a sequence of progressively more successful games, including Rings of Power and Way of the Warrior in the early 1990s. The latter game prompted Universal Interactive Studios to sign the duo to a three-title contract and fund the expansion of the company.
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune is a 2007 action-adventure game developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. It is the first game in the Uncharted series and was released in November 2007 for PlayStation 3. The game follows Nathan Drake, the supposed descendant of explorer Sir Francis Drake, as he searches for the lost treasure of El Dorado with journalist Elena Fisher and mentor Victor Sullivan.
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is a 2009 action-adventure game developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. It is the second game in the Uncharted series and was released in October 2009 for PlayStation 3. Set two years after the events of Drake's Fortune (2007), the single-player story follows Nathan Drake, Chloe Frazer, and Elena Fisher as they search for the Cintamani Stone and Shambhala while battling a militia led by war criminal Zoran Lazarević.
Uncharted is an action-adventure video game series and media franchise published by Sony Interactive Entertainment and developed by Naughty Dog. Created by Amy Hennig, the Uncharted franchise follows a group of treasure hunters who travel across the world to uncover various historical mysteries. The series features historical fiction, elements of fantasy and folklore, and fictional characters alongside real-world historical figures and events. In the main series, players control Nathan Drake; in the expansion, players control Chloe Frazer.
Nathan Drake is a fictional character and the protagonist of the Uncharted franchise, most notably in the video game series, developed by Naughty Dog. He appears in all mainline games: Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception, and Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, the spin-offs Uncharted: Golden Abyss and Uncharted: Fight for Fortune, the motion comic prequel series Uncharted: Eye of Indra by DC Comics, and other related media. A charismatic and good-natured yet rebellious treasure hunter, the player controls Drake as he journeys across the world to uncover various historical mysteries. He is played through voice and motion capture by Nolan North, who influenced Drake's personality by ad-libbing segments of the character's dialogue.
Amy Hennig is an American video game writer and director, formerly for the video game company Naughty Dog. She began her work in the industry on the Nintendo Entertainment System, with her design debut on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System game Michael Jordan: Chaos in the Windy City. She later went to work for Crystal Dynamics, working primarily on the Legacy of Kain series. With Naughty Dog, she worked primarily on the Jak and Daxter and Uncharted series.
Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception is a 2011 action-adventure game developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. It is the third main entry in the Uncharted series and was released in November 2011 for the PlayStation 3. Set two years after Among Thieves (2009), the single-player story follows Nathan Drake and his mentor Victor Sullivan as they search for the legendary lost city of Iram of the Pillars while battling a secret society led by Sullivan's former employer, Katherine Marlowe.
Uncharted: Golden Abyss is a 2011 action-adventure game developed by Bend Studio and published by Sony Computer Entertainment as a launch title for the PlayStation Vita. A spin-off of the Uncharted series, the game was released in Japan in 2011, and in other regions in 2012. Golden Abyss is a prequel to the series, taking place before the events of Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. The story revolves around adventurer-treasure hunter Nathan Drake as he becomes involved in a search for the lost city of Quivira and is aided by fellow treasure hunter Marisa Chase. Gameplay combines action-adventure with platforming elements, with players solving puzzles and fighting enemies using cover-based third-person shooting.
Uncharted 4: A Thief's End is a 2016 action-adventure game developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. It is the fourth main entry in the Uncharted series. Set several years after the events of Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception, players control Nathan Drake, a former treasure hunter coaxed out of retirement by his presumed-dead brother Samuel. With Nathan's longtime partner, Victor Sullivan, they search for clues to the location of Henry Avery's long-lost treasure. A Thief's End is played from a third-person perspective, and incorporates platformer elements. Players solve puzzles and use firearms, melee combat, and stealth to combat enemies. In the online multiplayer mode, up to ten players engage in co-operative and competitive modes.
Babak "Bob" Rafei is an Iranian video game art director, character animator and concept artist. He is the CEO of Big Red Button Entertainment, a video game development studio he co-founded with Jeff Lander in 2009.
Neil Druckmann is an Israeli-American writer, creative director, designer, and programmer. He is the studio head and head of creative of the video game developer Naughty Dog, and is best known for his work on the game franchises Uncharted and The Last of Us, having co-created the latter.
Bruce Straley is an American game director, artist, designer, and studio director. He previously worked for the video game developer Naughty Dog, known for his work on the video games The Last of Us and Uncharted 4: A Thief's End. Straley's first video game work was as an artist at Western Technologies Inc, where he worked on the Menacer six-game cartridge (1992) and X-Men (1993). Following this, he formed a company, Pacific Softscape, where he worked as a designer on Generations Lost (1994). After the company disbanded, Straley was eventually hired at Crystal Dynamics, where he worked as a designer on Gex: Enter the Gecko (1998) and was initially game director for Gex 3: Deep Cover Gecko (1999); he left the company partway through development of the latter.
Lucas Pope is an American video game designer. He is best known for experimental indie games, notably Papers, Please and Return of the Obra Dinn, both of which won the Seumas McNally Grand Prize alongside other awards.
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Uncharted: Drake's Fortune Original Soundtrack from the Video Game is the soundtrack to the 2007 action-adventure video game Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, developed by Naughty Dog. Composed by Greg Edmonson and performed by the Skywalker Session Orchestra, it was released on November 20, 2007 by the game's publisher, Sony Computer Entertainment.
Evan Wells is an American video game designer and programmer and co-president of Naughty Dog. Wells' first video game was at Sega, where he worked on ToeJam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron, before moving to Crystal Dynamics in 1995 to work on Gex and Gex: Enter the Gecko. He was employed at Naughty Dog in 1998, working on several Crash Bandicoot and Jak and Daxter titles before becoming co-president of the company alongside Stephen White in 2005; White was replaced the following year by Christophe Balestra, who retired in 2017. The two oversaw the release of the Uncharted series, and The Last of Us. Wells remained the sole president, overseeing the release of The Last of Us Part II, until Neil Druckmann's promotion to co-president in 2020. Wells announced his retirement in 2023.
Emilia Schatz is an American video game designer best known for her work at Naughty Dog. She studied computer science at the University of North Texas, where she later worked for almost three years before searching for work in the video game industry. She was hired at Terminal Reality, where she worked as a level scripter on Re-Mission, as a level designer on BlowOut and BloodRayne 2, and as a senior game designer on Ghostbusters: The Video Game. She applied for jobs at other studios, and in 2009 was hired at Naughty Dog. She began working at Naughty Dog early in development on Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception, for which she designed several levels. She assisted with development of The Last of Us.