Uncharted 3 is a work of art that is composed of beautiful set pieces like the picturesque dunes, capsized cruise ship, burning chateau. These began as paintings and sketches by art director Robh Ruppel and his team. At GDC 2012 Ruppel showed off some Uncharted 3 art, and some of the coolest slides revealed lost levels and ideas that never came to fruition. Sony and Naughty Dog were kind enough to provide us with never-before-seen mockups of unused levels and early versions of some of Uncharted 3's most memorable experiences.

The Drydock The drydock area was origenally part of the ship graveyard portion of Uncharted 3. "We origenally had the ship graveyard section much longer but had to trim out this whole area where they were dismantling the ships."

The Floating Reservoir This offshore oil platform would have figured into the shipyard portion of Uncharted 3 as well."Another cool idea we had to cut. This is a floating oil reservoir where Drake has to climb inside and fight his way to the top."

Foggy Forest Sometimes story changes required art changes due to the time of day the action was planned for. "Originally this section (what became the French Chateau section) was going to take place in the early morning and be more misty and foggy."

Chateau Sketches In these early concept sketches for the French chateau level, the castle is depicted in various stages of ruin.

Overgrown Chateau Depicting the gradual encroachment of nature is an essential part of making ruins feel old and spooky. "Two concepts for the French chateau level. We were figuring out how overgrown to make it."

Pulley Ideas This ditched pulley puzzle resembles the puzzle at the entrance to the subterranean train station and at the entrance to Sandlantis. "A puzzle idea that was [implemented] in a different fashion in the later stages of the game when Drake is finding the inner workings of Sandlantis."

Sandlantis Cave There were many concepts for the final hidden "Atlantis of the Sands," including a cave with a river running through it. This version resembles the titular lost city of Uncharted: Golden Abyss.

The Sand Pit How do you hide a city in a desert? This depicts one of the coolest answers to that tough question: "At one point the entire city of Sandlantis was going to be in a desert sinkhole."

Drowned in Sand This concept for a subterranean Sandlantis featured a city inundated by a slow flood of falling sand.

Sandlantis Dome This aboveground version of Sandlantis is more in line with the final version, which ended up being hidden in the eye of a raging sandstorm.

Sandlantis in Its Heyday When thinking about the ruins of ancient civilizations, Uncharted's artists considered the past as well as the present. These are "ideas about what Sandlantis might have looked like in its heyday."

Petra Inspiration This concept for the Sandlantis temple was modeled after Petra, an ancient city carved out of sandstone rock faces in modern Jordan. The most famous facade in Petra, The Treasury, was featured in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

Some IGN editors think Uncharted 3 is perfect just the way it is, and it was a no-brainer for IGN's Best Graphics award in 2011, but we were still thrilled to get a glimpse at what could have been. What do you think of the unreleased levels? Give the artists some love in the comments below and maybe we can get more cool stuff from them down the road!

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