1. Game development pipeline for ‘The Last of Us’
Ideation
Ideation in concept of ‘The last of us’ Game, means before they made everything they only had
notes and a storyline of how they can see the game going. To begin they discovered the ‘last of
us when the development team had finished Uncharted 3. The first idea was to carry on with one
of Naughty Dogs old IPS. The team however changed their minds and decided not to re­boot
Jack & Daxter as they felt it was going to be too original. They then decided to create a game
with a new IP, which will be focused on two people, which will develop a relationship throughout
the game. The team didn’t want the game looking like a usual zombie attack; they wanted
something different with inspirational characters that will drive you to play. One of the team
members then came up with the idea of parasitic fungus, which will take over the world and
make the people turn into psycho killers. The member of the team brought the idea to the table
from a show called BBC documentary planet earth and thought this will be a breaker to what
they want.
Pre­production
With the two characters decided upon, it was time for the team to cast actors for Joel and Ellie.
Ashley Johnson was cast as Ellie because she fitted with the ‘tom­boy’ personality that they
wanted Ellie to have. Troy Baker was cast as Joel because of his angry and dangerous voice
which still sounded caring. He didn’t look the part, but this obviously isn’t an issue when casting
for a game. When creating a lifecycle of the fungal infection that takes over the population, it was
important to make sure that it functioned as a species. First it infects the human and begins to
grow in the brain, this effects the eyes and brain, resulting in a takeover of the host. The fungus
then develops further and grows from orifices on the victim. These growths gain in size,
specifically on the face, and eventually the victim is blinded by the infection. At what’s known as
the Clicker phase, the victims start to use a form of echo­location to move around. This stage
develops further still and finishes when the host can’t take anymore. The victim then finds a dark
damp place to die and the fungus grows out of their corpse and into spores to infect more
humans. The visual effects for this came from a mash up of various facial wounds. The concept
artist applied all these to one character and the fungal lumps and bulges on the head came to
life.
Production
In the production stage, everything starts to take place. The actors are playing out the roles of the
characters and the programming for the game is coming together. For Troy Baker and Ashley
Johnson, they had to get into special motion capture suits and act within a specially lit studio.
This studio recorded all of their movements and mannerisms while they played the characters. It
also recorded the audio at the same time which was crucial for making the characters seem as

2. ‘real’ as possible. Once the acting is finished, the animation team set about applying the motion
capture information onto the frame works of the characters. Slowly, the look of the characters for
the game comes together, but they’re moving and talking just like the actors. Production is also
the stage where all the lighting team go through and add to and adjust all of the art work so that it
looks correct in relation to the lighting of the game. This is especially advanced when the
characters in the game are using a torch. The light has to reflect off the correct surfaces and
bend at appropriate times. All of the art is looked at in detail, to ensure that the light art fits as it
should in the ‘real’ world. The music composing will also be taking place at this stage, and
Naughty Dog asked composer Gustavo Santaolalla to work with them to create some music for
the game. Gustavo can’t read music so he just played various instruments and created what he
felt was appropriate for the scene in the game.
Post­production
For Naughty dogs, this would have been the most important stage. The reason is because it’s a
ticket to be able to sell it. The team who made ‘The Last of us’ had to wait anxiously, whilst both
genders played their game and made sure expectations were met. Drunkmann then explained
that it is a male game and the females pulled out at the last second. However the importance of
an examination is for people to find bugs, and to make sure the game makes sense and runs
smoothly in order to have a price tag. Once the game passes the examination stage ‘The last of
us’ was able to advertise and be proud to be sponsored for a good quality game. Many will be
able to complete the game without bugs appearing.
For the team benefits, they felt this was helpful because they were able to take the feed back,
find the bug and fix it instantly.
Postmortem
Postmortem means a result after release date. Once the release date happens the last of us
will either get negative abuse or positive? The people who made ‘The last of us’ mostly received
positive feedback from the nation, the game was said to be by one of the reviews ‘an amazing
experience from its incredibly lush graphics to the absolutely superb character animation and
dialogue’ and ‘A masterpiece, that breaks the self imposed barriers of gaming narrative and
ensnares the player with intelligent game play and brilliant A.I’ these are all great news for the
team on http://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation­3/the­last­of­us website. Overall
Postmortem developed globally and the game won many awards for three of its five nominations
for PlayStation­exclusive The Last of Us, including Game of the Year, Best Design and Best
Narrative.