“In this 2019 GDC talk, Naughty Dog’s Marianne Hayden covers the story and design evolution of the elephant ride in Uncharted: The Lost Legacy”
Marianne Hayden, a Story Animator at Naughty Dog, pointed out that the scene was one of the challenging ones and it took them a lot of time. The sequence might seem silly and fun, but it was actually a true headache for the team, especially animators. Riding elephants isn’t so popular when it comes to game design, so it was really all about trying again and again.
You can find more talks from GDC here.