#205 - Benson Russell Interview On Naughty Dog, The Last Of Us, Uncharted, Neil Druckmann, Scope..

Benson Russell was a former designer at Naughty Dog on The Uncharted Trilogy and The Last Of Us.He has now started his own consulting firm to help game developers navigate a lot of the pitfalls in game development.

#uncharted #thelastofus #naughtydog

WEBSITE FOR CONSULTING

https://www.unhandledexceptions.io/

TIMESTAMPS

00:00 - Intro

00:32 - The Most Important Aspect Of Design/Player Fantasy

02:50 - Why Games Take So Long To Make/North Star You Need For Development

05:45 - Why Naughty Dog Games Are So Well Made/Story Is Their North Star

08:18 - Games Shouldn’t Take So Long To Develop/Wandering

13:30 - Scope Neglect/The Doomsday Clock

16:00 - Why Intergalactic Crunch Happened/Naughty Dog Treats Internal Deadlines Like External Deadlines

18:23 - Bureauacracy/How Games Differ From Other Creative Outlets

23:13 - Naughty Dog’s Work Structure

26:20 - Planning/Core Mechanics

27:00 - Flexible Working Hours At Naughty Dog/Crunch At Naughty Dog

29:00 - Why Benson Left Naughty Dog

32:45 - Benson Was P!ssed Off With Naughty Dog Deleting His Work On Last Of Us Part 1

46:01 - Working With Evans Wells & Neil Druckmann

47:00 - Clashing With Neil Druckmann

50:14 - Working With Amy Hennig

51:20 - Uncharted 2’s Introduction/Creating Introductions In Games

56:00 - Focus Testing At Naughty Dog/Companies Interpret Data Wrong

1:02:30 Q+A - How Much Naughty Dog Looks At The Competition When Designing Games

1:06:10 - AAA Studios Pivoting When They Are Too Deep/Games Should Be Cheaper

1:10:00 - Cost Of Game Development On The West Coast/China’s Meteoric Rise

1:16:04 - Uncharted 2 Was Influenced By Resident Evil 5

1:16:48 - Q+A - What Is Naughty Dog’s Hiring & Training Process

1:24:00 - Why Naughty Dog Started Losing Talent

1:26:00 - Is Game Development A Young Person’s Game/Knowledge Isnt Being Passed Down

1:31:00 - Closing Comments