If given an opportunity to enhance on what many think about perfection, how would you accomplish that? That’s the query Naughty Dog confronted when rebuilding the PlayStation 3 traditional, The Last of Us. This prospect introduced the celebrated developer with one in all its hardest challenges but: incorporate the sum of each inventive and technical enchancment learnt over the course of their almost-40 12 months growth profession. With such huge expectations, from inside Naughty Dog and out, the group got down to do what they do greatest: exceed expectations.

The studio’s numerous groups detailed the modifications you’ll expertise within the recreation with an in depth growth deep-dive, protecting fight animation, lighting, audio, and extra. But at the moment, because the title launches worldwide, people from these groups replicate on how they selected to reply that query and what that meant for them personally as creators. 

The guideline

“How do we take the most beloved game we’ve ever made and rebuild it?” This is the query Naughty Dog Creative Director and Writer Shaun Escayg and the group requested themselves. His private philosophy grew to become a significant pillar for the builders from the start: “We build on it. We double down on areas we thought would heighten the experience or get deeper into the storytelling of it, taking all our abilities and skill and applying them faithfully to this rebuild. Just reimagine everything, heighten all the moments, and sell it even more to the player. That was the goal, our guiding light, and the challenge at the same time.”

This was the North Star Naughty Dog adopted when rebuilding The Last of Us for a brand new era of {hardware}. Each group concerned on this rebuild had an incredible job on its shoulders and took a special strategy when answering that problem. 

Emphasizing emotion via lighting 

For Art Director Erick Pangilinan and the visible departments, it meant a journey again to 2013 and totally finding out the unique recreation. 

“We tried to identify the most important scenes, storylines, and events in the game that we should focus on to make sure that it maximizes the impact on the game,” Pangilinan explains. “Prioritizing and figuring out how we can pace all of these important moments is the first thing to do, to analyze the original game better and better understand it. That’s when you start formulating how you can emphasize that. What are all the lessons we learned from doing The Last of Us Part II, and how can we apply that to something we did with ourselves ten years ago?”

“What are all the lessons we learned from doing The Last of Us Part II, and how can we apply that to something we did with ourselves ten years ago?”

– Art Director Erick Pangilinan

Many members throughout the groups concerned within the mission share related accounts of how their course of meant numerous side-by-side comparisons to maintain the rebuild trustworthy to the unique. Concept Artist Sebastian Gromann mentioned how the group’s problem was a lot deeper than simply matching or attempting to upscale the unique visuals. It was crucial to research cutscenes, work out narrative beats, and perceive what each entailed. This naturally led to the query, “How can we use our learnings to emphasize [those moments]?” That may imply finding out a screenshot, determining time of day in a scene, how and what half lighting performed, and making use of modernized strategies.

“If the scene is about tension during a very intense moment, then we could decrease the fill, increase the key light,” Gromann examples. “Then we could change the sliders slightly to push that emotional response a bit more.”

Reshaping an iconic soundscape for 3D audio

When it involves sound, Audio Director Neil Uchitel broke down how pulling the unique dialogue and sound from the unique recreation introduced the group with a method to hold the acquainted really feel of The Last of Us’ world however improve the sonic expertise for a contemporary console. This concerned each new inventive and technological developments that, in some circumstances, went past what they achieved on The Last of Us Part II.

“We actually took a lot of the original sound that we had from The Last of Us, because a lot of it was very iconic, and we didn’t want to [fundamentally] change the experience,” Uchitel stated. Keeping the unique performances of the actors was key to capturing that acquainted expertise for previous and new followers. However, Uchitel added that whereas sources have been “incredibly limited” on the unique PS3/PS4 model, engaged on the PS5 introduced a possibility to increase the soundscape. And add they did, significantly increasing the ambiences in every degree, use of the Infected murmuration from The Last of Us Part II, new recordings for the workbench upgrades, and a bunch of different additions and enhancements.

Since Naughty Dog’s earlier audio engine was incompatible with the Playstation 5’s new, unique audio options, such because the devoted DSP chip and the Tempest Engine audio processing algorithm, Uchitel explains, “Our Audio programmers spent over a year refactoring our audio engine to be able to take advantage of those new features. [In addition] we changed the underlying mixing and mastering processes, which gives the game a much higher degree of fidelity and clarity.” 

Setting private limits

Similar software modifications and refurbishments occurred all through the manufacturing, from artwork to animation and fight, however the group additionally needed to study restraint. Naughty Dog pushed ahead whereas ensuring to set limits for this monumental mission.

“Moving to new hardware wasn’t the issue,” Pangilinan acknowledged. “I think it was trying to ensure we understood or remembered the art direction and purpose behind each scene in the original. Sometimes we’d forget, so we’d change them, but then that would affect the other scenes that followed. A major hurdle was making sure we didn’t change so much that it would impact the experience of what people remembered.”

“Yeah, remakes are hard,” Combat and Melee Designer Christian Wohlwend acknowledged whereas weighing in on tackling this rebuild. “They’re kind of an exercise in control and patience. It’s not as simple as it seems to remake a game entirely, and it’s easy to start going overboard and start doing too much. At first, I felt we would have an easy time until I learned the bar got higher, and we felt we could just keep going. But you have to hold yourself to certain limitations on the mechanical side.”

“Remakes are an exercise in control and patience… it’s easy to start going overboard and start doing too much.”

– Combat designer Christian Wohlwend

Returning to The Last of Us held loads of emotional weight for every particular person engaged on the sport. Many members shared the identical sentiment of being terribly proud and by no means doubting the excessive normal the group had beforehand set. 

Pangilinan brings up how the unique pushed him to extend the standard bar of his work and the way he was glad to have a second crack at it. Uchitel states how proud he’s of the Audio Team Naughty Dog constructed over time and the way amazed he’s on the ability degree they’ve reached with the sport. Lead Cinematic Animator Eric Baldwin and Lead Programmer John Bellomy shared their and their group’s ambitions to make sure a very powerful features and components in a rebuild of this caliber have been met.

Game Director Matthew Gallant sums up the studio’s  sentiments on this mission powerfully: “I came into the original The Last of Us as a new member of the team. I was a completely different person. At the time of this remake, I’m a dad and playing through the game and seeing Joel’s actions at the end. It gives me a different feeling than before. I’m happy that I can go through the game again, seeing things from a different angle and understanding it from a different perspective, and I hope others can share that same sentiment or find their own after all the years passed since then.”