Responsibilities Overview
On The Last of Us Part II, I was a Technical Level Designer, which meant that I was responsible for:
Scripting gameplay moments, set pieces, cinematics, dialogue, hints, etc. and polishing each of these to meet Naughty Dog’s quality standard
Companion scripting throughout several chapters of the game
Combat scripting assistance for the Combat Design team
Systems design and scripting
Puzzle design and scripting
I managed all of these responsibilities (and more) for two major sections of the game:
Seattle, Day 1 (Abby): Leaving the Stadium through all of the “On Foot” chapter
Seattle, Day 2 (Abby): The Shortcut (Part 1, Part 2) and The Descent (Part 1, Part 2)
Additionally, I spearheaded unique tasks that improved the overall quality of the game, including:
Creating PlayStation Trophies and standardizing the process of implementing them across the game
Designing, programming, and tuning ambient player flashlight effects
Modernizing the lightbar functionality to reflect new design goals from Directors
Adding more dogs to the game*
*This wasn’t a given duty, but a personal responsibility. People seemed to like the results regardless.
Warning
The Last of Us Part II contains contains violent imagery. Videos were recorded from the released version of the game by players.
Because some may find this content disturbing, I have provided details regarding the relevant information below each video and added nonviolent thumbnails for each video.
Watching the videos will provide additional context; however, they are not necessary to understanding the content or my duties.
Jordan’s Death
Seattle, Day 1 (Ellie)
Chapter: Eastbrook Elementary
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Ellie and Dina are ambushed while riding Shimmer, Ellie’s horse, by WLF forces. An IED explodes, killing Shimmer and launching both Dina and Ellie. Ellie is captured and Dina is left to an unknown fate, presumed dead.
Ellie regains consciousness when Jordan, a member of the WLF and cohort of Abby, begins to interrogate her. She has been tied to a table in an abandoned school that the WLF has scavenged and turned into a temporary outpost for their operations. Another man interrupts the interrogation to inform Jordan of new orders to kill all trespassers on sight. Jordan intervenes as he is interested in continuing his interrogation, but the other WLF soldier cannot be swayed from his assignment, as it is a direct order from Isaac, the leader of the WLF.
Moments before he is about to execute Ellie, Dina shoots him through a skylight in the room. Jordan responds quickly by shooting the glass Dina is standing on, dropping her to the floor of the room where Ellie is being held. Dina lands hard and Jordan begins to try to subdue her, but Dina fights back. While Dina struggles with Jordan, Ellie pulls a glass shard that fell from the skylight towards herself, uses it to cut her bindings, grabs her switchblade from where Jordan left it, and uses it to kill Jordan. Dina and Ellie prepare to escape the school as additional WLF soldiers are inbound to investigate the multiple gunshots.
Identified a pain point among playtesters at the beginning of this chapter.
Players were displeased with the lack of playable moments.
Players did not accurately recall the events of Jordan’s death and often expressed a tepid outlook on the event.
Coordinated with multiple departments to create a prototype that would convert the unplayable cinematic of Jordan’s Death into a playable moment and pitched it to the Creative Director, Neil Druckmann.
Compiled questions for playtesters specific to this moment and interviewed playtest supervisors for additional feedback.
Incorporated feedback into further iterations to improve gameplay readability, increase feelings of imminent danger, and boost player satisfaction overall.
Scar Ambush
Seattle, Day 1 (Abby)
Chapter: On Foot
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Abby, Mel, Manny, and Alice pile into an old humvee to begin their journey to the Forward Operating Base (FOB). Manny chauffeurs the crew through the winding road that leads out of the stadium into contested territory. Mel and Abby, sitting in the back of the humvee, maintain a strained but cordial chat about their lives. As the tension between them fades, they begin to discuss some concerns about Owen, Abby’s partner and the father of Mel’s baby; however, the conversation is cut short by a Scar ambush.
The first shot narrowly misses Manny. Abby and Mel are quick to spring to action, returning fire against the Scars, who are pursuing on horseback. Manny weaves through the debris of abandoned cars, overgrowth, and the pillars of a crumbling overpass. Manny suddenly realizes they are being pushed towards a second group of Scars that were lying in wait and veers off to a different path. The Scars, seeing this, reroute their second ambush to intercept their target. Eventually, the Scars catch up to them and harry the humvee with bullets and Molotov cocktails. One of the Molotovs crashes against the hood of the humvee, blinding Manny’s heavily obscuring his vision of the road ahead. He yells to the rest of the crew to hold on as he sends the Humvee careening off the road into the parking lot of an abandoned warehouse. Everyone makes it out relatively unscathed and hastily makes their way into the warehouse for cover.
Operated as both Level Designer and Technical Designer for this section.
Worked with the Narrative Design team and Animators to restructure the conversation in the vehicle prior to the ambush moment to better attain their goal of establishing Mel and Abby’s relationship.
Originally this was a conversation between Manny and Abby, so this task was effectively a complete rework for the related teams.
Converted the Scar ambush from a completely cinematic moment into a playable combat sequence.
Orchestrated a major rework to the layout of an area that had already begun receiving significant work from Environment Artists in response to negative playtester feedback as well as concerns from Directors.
Extended the car chase sequence significantly to afford room for additional gameplay and further justify the narrative that Abby and company were far from rescue.
Modified the Scar’s ambush plan from a single Molotov cocktail and a hail of bullets to a three-point pincer attack to better showcase the Scar’s intelligence and motivate the action throughout the new layout.
Reviewed layout changes with Environment Art Leads frequently to minimize the impact to the overhead of their team.
Developed advanced horse navigation and companion AI targeting tech with Gameplay Programmers to fit the unique gameplay in this moment.
Customized failure conditions for the player to enhance player immersion.
Overhauled the player camera behavior across the entire car ride.
Reduced motion sickness issues.
Elevated the cinematic experience during conversational moments with dynamic motion based on player input (or lack thereof).
Strengthened the functionality of existing game-wide accessibility options such as auto-target and high contrast display.
The Hive
Seattle, Day 2 (Abby)
Chapter: The Descent
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Abby and Lev are making their way through an abandoned hotel in Scar territory when they reach an area overflowing with spores, which are lethal to inhale and will ensure that whoever succumbs to them will join the infected after death as a fresh Runner. Lev has no gas mask and cannot proceed. Abby agrees to explore the area on her own to look for any sort of workaround to this dilemma. Donning her gas mask and entering the spore-laden area, she quickly realizes that there are Infected somewhere on the floor above her. Keeping a low profile, Abby is able to search in relative peace, eventually discovering the corpses of FEDRA soldiers that died somewhat recently. They’re equipped with gas masks! The first mask Abby finds is broken and unusable, but the second mask is fully functional. Abby begins to make her way back to Lev, but is intercepted by a group of Stalkers, who had been quietly hunting her until she was cornered. Fighting her way through, Abby returns to Lev and equips him with the gas mask.
The two enter the spore-laden area together and begin to search for a way down to the floors below. They decide to make use of an emergency firehose as a makeshift rope. Lev frees the firehose from where it is caught on some debris above them and they cautiously make their way down as far as the firehose will take them. At the bottom, they find the area is crawling with Infected in what appears to be a hive for Stalkers, some of which have begun the advancement to the next stage of Infected, the Clicker. Carefully, Abby and Lev continue their treacherous journey down the hotel, one floor at a time, in an attempt to get close enough to the ground floor to escape.
Eventually, they make their way to a set of double doors that are heavily encrusted with fungus. Upon breaching the doors, Abby and Lev find themselves facing a long hallway that connects several rooms. At the end of the hallway is an elevator shaft, which promises the potential for escape from this nightmarish hotel; however, between them and the elevator is a large number of Infected: Stalkers, Clickers, and even a Bloater. Abby and Lev engage the Infected, clearing the area, and make their way to the elevator to safety.
Overview
Managed a game-wide system for characters to equip gas masks appropriate for their specific character (including during cinematics).
Created a localized system that could dynamically spawn/despawn Stalkers at various vistas to enhance tension as players traversed the hive area.
Assisted Level Designer Michael Barclay with markup necessary to ensure both player and companion traversal worked seamlessly.
Standardized technical requirements and capabilities for ropes throughout the game with Programmer Jaroslav Sinecky to ensure the fire hose, the longest “rope” in the game, functioned seamlessly.
Restructured environment division with Environment Artists to optimize performance and load times in the second half of this section as the player can see significant portions of the level all at once.