Current Events > 70% of the designers who worked on Uncharted 4 have since left Naughty Dog

(+) Yeah! (+)

because working conditions are that bad

https://www.kotaku.com.au/2020/03/as-naughty-dog-crunches-on-the-last-of-us-ii-developers-wonder-how-much-longer-this-approach-can-last/

As a result of these problems, Naughty Dog has seen a steady trickle of departures over the past five years. That kind of attrition can be crushing, not just because people are forced to say goodbye to dear friends, but because those friends leave holes that make all of these problems even worse.

If theres one department at Naughty Dog most critical to the production of its games, its design, which serves as a nexus for all of the companys decisions. Designers at Naughty Dog act as stewards for different sections of the game, working with scripters, artists, audio, and programmers in order to block out and finalise each level. Thats why its been such a blow for the studio to lose so many of them.
These days, veteran Naughty Dog employees describe the design department as a sea of unfamiliar faces. With 70 per cent of the non-lead designers and a significant number of artists who worked on Uncharted 4 now gone, the company has had to fill those roles with less experienced staff, many of whom hadnt worked on Naughty Dog games before The Last of Us II.

Every newcomer means weeks or months worth of training and hard lessons about how the rest of the team works. A task that might take a veteran designer two hours could take twice or three times as long for a newer employee, and it can be hard to know what the directors want until youve been working there long enough.

On The Last of Us II, new artists working with new designers found themselves baffled as to how to hit the standards that Naughty Dog expected, a problem exacerbated by a management culture in which feedback is usually negative. (One of the studios unwritten maxims is that if you dont hear anything, youre doing well.) Its been a little bit of the blind leading the blind as we go in circles and find our way, said one developer.

Holy shit

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they probably left to make good games instead of shitty movies

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so were these newbs the ones who made TLOU2?

if so i'm going to concerned this game will suck
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AlmightyCheeks posted...

they probably left to make good games instead of shitty movies

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E32005 posted...

so were these newbs the ones who made TLOU2?

if so i'm going to concerned this game will suck

It sounds like most of the senior staff are still there but this is why the game has been delayed so much and why it has taken so long.

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Hairistotle posted...

they peaked with uncharted 4 so i'm fine with it. tlou is garbo

well i guess i'd say they peaked with uncharted 2 but honestly it can go either way depending on my mood

Preach

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