1. Ideation:
After
Naughty
Dog
finished
Uncharted
2,
a
second
team
began
work
on
a
new
IP,
they
decided
early
on
to
make
a
post-‐apocalyptic
game
based
around
two
characters,
they
contemplated
what
genre
was
best,
third-‐person
adventure,
first-‐person
shooter,
etc.
While
many
elements
of
the
game
changed
throughout
the
concept
of
the
game,
the
one
main
part
that
remained
the
same
was
the
concept
of
the
two
characters;
Joel
and
Ellie.
Their
names,
age,
gender,
appearance,
and
so
on,
where
not
set
in
stone
immediately,
however.
Naughty
Dog
had
decided
from
the
beginning
that
they
wanted
the
player
to
empathise
with
the
characters’
emotions
and
feelings.
While
they
had
decided
from
the
beginning
to
have
a
game
set
in
a
post-‐apocalyptic
world,
the
“infected”
where
not
part
of
the
game
to
begin
with,
Naughty
Dog
didn’t
want
to
go
for
the
cliché
type
zombie
world,
so
after
receiving
inspiration
from
watching
a
documentary
called
Planet
Earth,
they
came
up
with
the
concept
of
the
fungus-‐like
infection,
it
was
also
die
to
a
documentary
on
what
would
happen
if
the
Earth
was
not
tended
to
for
20+
years
they
came
up
with
the
general
over-‐grown
look
for
the
game
world.
Pre-‐production
The
pre-‐production
stage
for
the
last
of
us,
was
filled
with
the
research
behind
the
story
as
well
as
the
concept
art
and
the
casting.
The
basic
idea
behind
the
last
of
us
is
to
have
an
infection
cause
the
collapse
of
civilisation
and
the
game
is
played
at
this
post
apocalyptic
point.
When
researching
the
infection
the
team
watched
the
BBC
documentary,
planet
earth.
In
one
of
the
episodes
of
planet
earth
there
was
the
a
fungus
which
infects
ants
forces
them
to
climb
a
tree
and
bite
into
it
at
which
point
the
fungus
sprouts
out
if
the
ants
head
and
releases
more
spores,
the
idea
was
to
transfer
this
fungus
so
it
infects
humans.
They
also
researched
into
what
the
world
would
be
like
without
us,
using
the
factual
“world
without
us”
book
that
describes
what
would
happen
to
cities
without
us
and
how
nature
eventually
takes
over.
All
of
this
research
was
used
in
the
concept
art
of
the
infected
and
the
locations.
The
infected
had
to
show
the
fungus
is
an
obvious
way
at
some
stage
of
infection;
they
tried
many
different
versions
but
eventually
went
with
placing
fungus
photos
on
a
person
and
refining
it
to
look
as
one
piece.
The
fungus
had
to
show
some
form
of
natural
beauty
in
this
case
the
vibrant
luminous
quality
it
has,
as
did
2. the
cities
designed,
the
destruction
had
to
be
matched
with
some
beautiful
aspects
produced
by
nature.
One
of
the
most
important
parts
for
the
pre-‐production
of
the
last
of
us
was
casting.
The
cast
had
to
be
perfect,
as
the
game
has
a
powerful
story
line
which
needed
the
audience
to
connect
to
and
feel
emotional
with,
the
way
that
is
achieved
is
by
have
actors
perform
the
voices,
and
the
graphics
show
their
face
and
body
emanate
emotion.
The
actress
(Ashley
Johnson)
who
is
the
voice
behind
Ellie
was
one
of
the
first
few
who
auditioned;
her
performance
blew
the
creative
directors
away.
Once
they
had
Ellie
they
needed
to
find
the
voice
for
Joel
(Troy
Baker)
the
other
main
character,
Ashley
was
heavily
involved
in
finding
Joel
as
both
character’s
needed
to
have
a
special
bond
which
was
felt
and
shared
by
the
players.
The
casting
auditions
were
done,
by
acting
out
scenes
from
the
storyline
by
doing
this
Ashley
and
Troy
were
able
to
show
the
connection
that
they
could
bring
between
their
characters.
Production:
Motion
capture
was
used
to
create
the
movement
of
the
characters
in
the
gameplay.
Naughty
Dog
used
the
“mo-‐cap”
for
body
movement
and
the
animators
separately
changed
facial
expressions
using
footage
of
the
actors’
faces
as
a
reference.
Post-Production:
Gustavo
Santaolalla,
a
double
Oscar
winner,
was
brought
in
to
compose
the
soundtrack
for
The
Last
of
Us
,
Santaolalla
said
he
like
to
start
work
on
the
music
early
on
in
projects,
so
he
started
work
on
3. the
game’s
score
whilst
the
game
was
being
written.
Naughty
Dog
stated
they
were
going
for
“emotion
over
horror”.
For
the
infected,
voice
actors
were
hired
to
make
odd,
human-‐like
sounds
and
screeches
for
the
infected,
they
decided
not
to
use
any
animal
sounds
and
didn’t
wan
the
infected
to
sound
“witch-‐like”
or
like
normal
zombies
at
all.
Postmortem:
During
the
“crunch”
part
of
production
just
before
the
game
was
completely
finished,
it
was
described
as
“cleaning
a
room
the
day
before
a
guest
comes
to
stay”,
and
that
they’re
giving
“150%”
to
finish
the
game.
They’re
adding,
and
changing
stuff
right
up
until
the
game
ships.
