The Naughty Dog Reddit AMA recapped – Last of Us spoilers ahead

Recently,  Neil Druckmann and Bruce Straley went on Reddit to answer questions about The Last of Us and Naughty Dog in genereal. We’ve picked out the best ones. If you would rather read the Reddit AMA in its entirety, you can do so here.

And beware! There may or may not be TLOU spoilers ahead.

 

Whatever happened to the concept art of Joel and Ellie laughing their asses of by a fire? Or Joel teaching Ellie to fire a gun at a nearby farm? Were these scenarios that ended up on the cutting room floor, or where they simply just that, concept art?

Neil: They were inspirational images for the tone we were after. They were never meant to be specific moments in the story.

Bruce: Those weren’t done for sections of the game or story we were working on. We give those scenarios to the concept artists (in this case Hyoung Nam) to help us find the characters. So in stead of just doing flat orthographics or guesses at poses to sketch the characters in, we found that if you put them in a situtation, it tells us way more about their design.

As female Hunters/cannibals/Fireflies/military exist in concept art and in the multiplayer mode, why do we only fight male humans in the game? (There are female soldiers but Joel doesn’t fight them in-game) Is there any story based explanation, like keeping all the women and kids at the home base? Or was it for creative reasons, given the brutality of the combat?

Neil: Development time & memory prevented us from seeing the female hunters to completion.

What were some infected concepts and stages that you cut from the game? Looking at the artbook, there are a lot of concepts that seems pretty far-fetched for the universe you created, like the infected wielding tools.

Neil: Fungus growing on the environments that shoot poison darts at the player were at one point in the game.

 

How difficult was it bringing a new IP to the table with Sony this late on in the PS3’s life?

Neil: It was surprisingly much easier than we thought it’d be. Sony has a lot of trust with us.

What phases of development did the Naughty Dog team have to go through when creating The Last of Us? Was any code reusable from the Uncharted series?

Bruce: Phases? Pre-production and hell. And yeah, the foundation we started with was the Uncharted engine. We ended up rewriting the AI system from scratch and added some features to our rendering engine (along with misc other stuff), but most of the core tech was the Uncharted engine.

What was the hardest thing to program in the game?

Neil: Ellie’s (and the other NPCs) AI.

Bruce: Ellie. All of Ellie. And more specifically ally AI in stealth combat.

As a programmer with an interest in AI, I enjoyed “The Balance of Power” system in TLOU. Can you talk about some of the hurdles and/or compromises the team had to make in order for the Ai to help or challenge the player? Also, how do you see the system evolving over time with regards to newer technology?

Bruce: 1. AI is fucking hard. 2. Our programmers are amazing. 3. AI is STILL reeeally fucking hard even with amazing programmers.

All sorts of trials & tribulations with our adventure in making great AI. Maybe too many to get into here – but a couple things… Having an Ally with the player in stealth encounters is probably the most difficult problem we could have tried to solve, and “we” (the royal industry we) need time to implement, iterate, and find solutions to the problems that will only come up by having actual set-ups in the game to help steer the tech direction.

Another early goal for the enemies [was that] we had to create a more “dynamic front” due to the flexibility we wanted the players to be able to take with our more wide-linear layouts. It means the AI had to ble able to recognize a new “front” where they’d be safe – and analyze the environment & collision to create new dynamic flanks based on wherever the player was… OK I’m rambling.

Was it easier to create a completely fictional world like Jak and Daxter or was it easier to create a world based on real life like in The Last of Us?

Bruce: AREYOUKIDDINGME?!?! Haha. Jak and Daxter, [it] would be a luxury to design in that world again. Story would be hard to have depth though. Those characters are who they are now – it’s hard to infuse them with the motivations & choices we’d need them to have to make a compelling story (we tried early before we decided to make TLOU). A grounded world is a difficult solution space to design in though. But nothing good comes for free…

Did you shape the world around Joel and Ellie as characters or was it the world you created that formed the characters?

Neil: Ellie and Joel were first. Then came the story and world.

Bruce: We started with the idea of building a bond between two characters over the course of an entire game – and then a confluence of events happened that just fell into place for us that made the survival world a perfect backdrop to create the tension we needed for those characters to make intresting choices… so characters, then world I guess.

 

What game was better to work on, TLOU or Uncharted?

Neil: Jak X :)

Bruce: Shit. Both have their ups and downs (in production terms). For me U2 was my first time stepping into the game director role, so that was a fresh & exciting (maybe naive but super open) time, but TLOU was something special, and challenging. I saw a video of U2 the other day and had some pleasant feelings of nostalgia bubble up, and seeing the fan art and people’s reactions to TLOU has been extremely exhilirating. They both win! :)

Were there any scenes that you guys wrote that later on you decided were too brutal or intense and had them removed?

Neil: No. We were shocked no one ever asked us to tone down or censor any scenes.

Was there anything you wanted to put into The Last of Us that was too dark or morbid for the game?

Neil: Nope, we got a lot of morbid out of our systems. We did tone down some of Ellie’s deaths during the David boss fight as they felt like too much to us.

Seeing as you’ve been looking over the game from the very beginning and through the development, was there anything that took you by surprise or anything you noticed when finally playing through the finished result that you were not aware of during the development? Or is it difficult to fully immerse yourself and enjoy the game after you’ve spent years making it?

Bruce: Well, it’s always hard playing a game that we’ve been so ‘attached at the hip’ to for so long without seeing the flaws. I mean, “art is never finished, just abandoned,” right? and with video game development it’s even worse. But I can say when playing through the game more strung together, I teared up at moments that I KNEW were actually going to happen. That was cool! I think some of it was the relief of 3+ years and a lot of blood, sweat & tears manifest on the joystick. What a relief!

I just realized something, four of my favorite games of all time are made by you guys. Is there a specific date or general time when you guys realized that this was probably the best thing ever? Or did it occur to you after release?

Neil: After release. For a long time we had serious doubts about the game’s reception.

What are your plans for the future of The Last of Us?

Neil: Currently working on a single-player DLC. Talking about other ideas.

If you’d made the game for PS4, what would you have done differently?

Bruce: Memory wouldn’t be as much of an issue. We had to jump through so many hoops to get this game streaming (no load screens in our games still. YAY!)

 

What influence did Cormack McCarthy’s The Road have on the game?

Bruce: That book was awesome. Neil & I both read it… I think back during U2 development. It’s a very impactful story. Yeah, it was one of many influences. Mainly the length the father is willing to go for his son, and the darkness of the world that surrounds them. It really shines a light on the things humans are willing to give up (morally) in order to survive. We also read City of Thieves, the Walking Dead comic, [saw] the movie No Country for Old Men, the movie Children of Men… among some more non-fiction reads about how the world falls apart in “World Without Us” and “The Last Town on Earth”… check ’em out.

Neil: We’re fans of the book, but we really didn’t refer to it that much during development. No Country for Old Men was a much bigger inspiration for us.

Why are there no pictures of Sarah’s mother in Joel’s house? Is it because even before he lost Sarah, Joel wasn’t one for holding onto the past?

Neil: The backstory was that she left Joel after Sarah was born. Not someone he looked up to keep a picture around.

 

What’s the story behind Joel’s favour?

Neil: Left ambiguous for a reason.

Bruce: [His favour] to Bill? We’re not saying… we like it better that way. I think you can image some crazy shit that went down between them in that world…

 

 

Regarding David: How long do you supposed it took for a man like him to lose grasp of his morals, accept the new world order as it is, and turn to cannibalism with his buddies? Furthermore giben the rather hebephilic overtones of his interactions with Ellie, was this an intentional character trait or just part of Nolan North’s performance? If intentional, did David always have such tastes or was that just a byproduct of post-pandemic lawless living conditions?

Neil: David’s cannibalism came after the outbreak. His other traits (both good & bad) were always there.

How in the hell DID Ellie know how to pop a clutch?

Neil: She learned quite a bit sneaking out of her school in the quarantine zone.

For you guys, what was the most emotional moment in the game?

Neil: I usually tear up during the giraffe sequence. I’m really proud of what we accomplished with that moment.

Bruce: Shipping the game. Actually maybe watching the boot-up sequence with the ND logo & TLOU logo fade into the start menu. I fucking love that. It feels DONE at that point.

But as far as the actual game… there are too many to count. I love this game!

Did the team plan any combat sequences in which Joel and Ellie are pitted against both infected and humans simultaneously? Was any sequence cut from the game that either of you wish could have made the final cut? And during playtesting, did the internet-famous brick-conquers-all strategy come about, or was that something unexpected?

Bruce: Infected vs. Humans would’ve been awesome, and there were 3 (I think? Hard to remember right now) areas in the game we had it slated, but as we got deeper into production, and animations & models started getting fleshed out, it came down to such a huge memory hit that we couldn’t afford it without rather large re-jiggering… so we opted to cut it. Yeah… I know :(

Have you considered adding any infected game mode in multiplayer?

Neil: Yes, but they didn’t pan out.

Bruce: We’ve considered it.

In the Last of Us, when and how does an infected become a bloater? I know the four stages (runner -> stalker -> clicker -> bloater), but it was said that when an infected feels like it’s about to die it finds a corner to release more spores. So does the bloater happen before or after the spore release stage?

Neil: Bloater happens if the body is strong enough to survive for longer than a clicker. It’s a rare occurrence.

Why would the Fireflies not give Joel an opportunity to talk to Ellie? Why rush the surgery? Why not give Ellie the choice to have the surgery?

Bruce: All off screen, so we’re leaving all this for your interpretation… But you COULD say Marlene was weary of Joel and/or you don’t reeeeally know how long Joel was unconscious for.

And regarding the choice – 1. It’s just the story we wanted to tell and 2. It’s not a story-choice-based game, so to cram a major choice in at the last, final, epic set-up would’ve felt forced (to us).

Neil: Ellie was too important to the Fireflies to offer any kind of choice to either Joel or Ellie in regards to her fate.

Internally, was the ending of The Last of Us controversial? I liked it but personally would have written it differently, how many possible ideas did you have for it?

Neil: Initially, yeah… ending we ultimately went with didn’t sit well with some members of the team. Once it was more fleshed out, it became an easier sell. We went through about 3-4 ideas before finding the ending that worked best for the story we wanted to tell.

When you first played the game when you were finished with development, how many of the doctors did you kill at the end?

Neil: I kill all three every time. >:(

Bruce: Neil actually killed all three every morning when he came in to work. It was like his coffee.

I loved the ending of TLOU, I felt that it was so selfish, but so human at the same time. The world took something from Joel, so he took something from the world. What other thoughts were there on the table for the ending of The Last of Us?

Bruce: We had a happier ending at one point… where Ellie & Joel were driving completely contented & satisfied with their adventures off into a glorious sunset… but that didn’t feel right. It just wasn’t honest to the world or the characters we created. This ending felt right for us.

What made you decide to keep the original ending for The Last of Us even though it did not necessarily test well with your focus groups?

Neil: It felt honest. Anything else felt like we were pandering.

Now that the game has been out for awhile now, you have no doubt heard some criticism made about the game. Some of these hold water and some are in my opinion just people nitpicking in order to get attention. After hearing these criticisms is there anything you would change about the game if you could or do you still believe it is as good as it can be?

Neil: With the time/resources we had… I truly believe we made the best game possible. Are there things we could’ve iterated on with more time/budget? Of course.

Bruce: Yeah ditto with Neil. We (Naughty Dog) did pretty good with what we had.

 

Max Dyckhoff, programmer: Bruce, is it true that you draw power from those around you with your beard?

Bruce: Yes. All true. Though since the game shipped I felt I had TOO MUCH POWER, so I shaved it.

Neil: It was true, until he slayed the demon that inhabited his beard. Now I have to look at his bare face every day. Yuk.

You guys made in my opinion the best game ever made. Do you think your team can make a game of this quality again?

Neil: We always try to top our last game. So that’s the plan.

Bruce: Funny thing, is we really just make games that we think would be fun to us. Sure, there’s a gap we saw in the industry, that there hasn’t really been a really good character-driven story in the survival mode genre done yet, but when kicking around the ideas for the game with neil, it just sounded awesome. So we made that. :)

BTW – that’s all we should hope for any developer! Make what you want to play!

What made you guys decide to switch from the more upbeat tone of Uncharted to the gritty, realistic and emotionally draining Last of Us?

Neil: We’re fans of the genre and felt we could create a good character driven experience in that tackled more mature themes.

What is your guys favorite games?

Bruce: In no order: ICO, RE4, Yoshi’s Island. Fatal Frame II (Only because no game has scared me like that ever before). What else… Why are all these old japanese games? I just played Hotline Miami. That was some good fun! Not on the all-time list, but on a 2013 best of for sure. Oh! Limbo was awesome…

Neil: Ico, Resident Evil 4, and Monkey Island 2 (best ending for a video game).

Would you rather fight 1 Joel sized Ellie, or 2 Ellie sized Joels?

Bruce: 2 Ellie-sized Joels. Would you rather fight a dog-sized bee with only a bat, or try to drive across an abandoned LA with a godzilla-sized hungry kitten?