The Last of Us notes

GENRE

- horror
- post-apocalyptic
- action-adventure
- survival

NARRATIVE/STORYLINE

- original IP
- dual protagonist (Joel & Ellie)
- how do humans deal with killer infection?
- what would happen to society?
- journey across America
- life goes on, nature takes over (destructive & beautiful)
- emotional rollercoaster to connect with audience

PRODUCTION PROCESS

- collection of animators, artists & programmers
- started out with only 12 employees
- were going to work on top of existing characters (Jak & Daxter), but didn't want to change it too much & irritate fans
- story grew from relationship between Joel & Ellie, but not father-daughter relationship as too cliche
- experimented without infected, but was deemed too boring and not interactive enough for player
- idea taken from TV show 'Planet Earth' and fungus (ophiocordyceps) which takes over ants' brains
- motion capture to capture both actors' movements & vocals
- facial movements NOT mo-capped
- camera used to pick up wide shot of each scene
- script changed on set due to actors' improve, strengths, weaknesses
- starts with actors in suits then animators clean up sequences
- organising environments to be sure player will fit
- minimalist soundtrack, low tuned guitar to capture both sound and noise
- although tension often comes from lack of sound
- infected noises made by voice actors (wet, textured, natural, no animal sounds)
- naturally lit to be cost efficient
- shadows key to creating believable environment
- flash light important as many dark areas
- NPCs exist for longer & are given set areas in which to inhabit
- AI is key



CHARACTERS 

ELLIE
- normal looking
- 14 years old
- non-sexualised, strong female character (not seen often in video games)
- tomboy
- not a damsel in distress
- empowered woman

JOEL
- lost his daughter early on
- scarred, broken
- tough guy, but one we haven't really seen before
- "few moral lines left to cross"
- sense of danger in his tone of voice

INFECTED
- began life as very alien/zombie looking
- fungus is growing out of their face & ripping it apart, something not seen before
- relentless, but beautiful
- 4 stages; human looking, lumps, cloudy eyes - 'clickers' fungus covering face - bloaters, completely covered - death (become part of environment & release spores which infect

OTHERS
- Tess
- David

GAMEPLAY

- third person
- play as Joel first then Ellie
- both melee combat & use of long distance weapons e.g. guns, bow
- can choose to fight or be more stealthy
- some puzzle solving
- crafting came from ideas in book for making homemade weapons
- user interface (minimum amount of button presses)
- "item starve"
- rewards for exploration
- want players to have mindset of "I can survive"

TARGET AUDIENCE

- rated 17+ (Mature) due to blood/gore, strong language, sexual content
- could be steered towards female audience with all the strong female characters

PLATFORMS

- PS3 (2013)
- PS4 (2014 remastered version)