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The Last of Us Part 2 is here and today we want to talk about some of the key names of Naughty Dog who shaped the industry and changed the meaning of storytelling in games. This is just a small list of names who contributed to the development of Naughty Dog titles and we would also like to thank all artists, programmers, writers, and other members of the team who are working hard every day.
Andy Gavin co-founded Naughty Dog and co-created Crash Bandicoot and Jak & Daxter. He has worked on multiple projects: the entrepreneur launched several companies, worked as a lead programmer on video games, and wrote two novels.
At the age of twelve, Gavin met Jason Rubin. The two shared a love of video games that led to the launch of a company called Naughty Dog. First, they created Way of the Warrior “on the side” by working about eighteen hours a day, seven days a week. Then, they made it to Los Angeles a year later and started working on a project that later became Crash Bandicoot, the studio's first big project.
The project marked the beginning of a decade of 100-hour work weeks and seven video games: four Crash Bandicoot and three Jak & Daxter games. Gavin was the lead programmer behind six of these seven games. Together the games sold about forty million CDs. Then, in 2000 the duo sold Naughty Dog to Sony Computer Entertainment but kept working at the studio for four more years. In 2004, the two “retired”.
Jason Rubin is a video game director and producer, comic book creator, perpetual entrepreneur, investor, and VR developer.
The developer is best known for the Crash Bandicoot series developed at Naughty Dog, the studio he co-founded with his childhood friend Andy Gavin in 1986.
Rubin has also worked on Flektor, a media mashup site that he co-founded with Andy Gavin and Jason Kay and then sold to Fox Interactive a year after it was created and within a week of going live. Also, he created two comic book series, The Iron Saint and Mysterious Ways, worked as the President of THQ during an attempted restructuring. Rubin is currently the Head of Studios for Oculus, the VR division of Facebook.
You can learn more about Rubin's career here.
The next big name that formed the studio's legacy is Amy Hennig. The designer has been working in the video game industry since the late 1980s. She started by working on games for the Nintendo Entertainment System s an artist and animator. She worked as a freelance artist for ElectroCop, an unreleased Atari 7800 game, and then joined Electronic Arts as an animator and artist, working on unreleased Bard's Tale 4, and then Desert Strike.
In the late 1990s, the designer joined Crystal Dynamics to contribute to the development of Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain. She also worked as the director, producer, and writer for Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, and directed and wrote Soul Reaver 2 and Legacy of Kain: Defiance.
After working on the Legacy of Kain games, Hennig joined Naughty Dog contributing to the Jak and Daxter series and then becoming the game director for Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. Hennig was the head writer and creative director for the Uncharted series. Hennig is one of the reasons Drake's adventures became so popular. She managed to set a new standard for storytelling in action games with Uncharted 2: Among Thieves when Hennig led the 150 person team who created the game, also working as the game's writer. Then, the designer directed and wrote Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception and began working on Uncharted 4: A Thief's End.
Make sure to follow Amy Hennig on Twitter.
Emilia Schatz has been developing games for over 15 years and has been a part of Naughty Dog for ten, working on Uncharted and The Last of Us games. She was a co-lead game designer for Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End and now the designer of the Last of Us Part 2.
Before joining Naughty Dog, she worked at Terminal Reality in Dallas on a number of titles including Ghostbusters: the Video Game and Bloodrayne 2. Her core strengths are puzzles and level layout, so if you love the level design of Naughty Dog's games you should definitely thank Schatz for leading the team. She is a graduate of the University of North Texas where she mastered game development at the Laboratory for Recreational Computing.
Follow the designer on Twitter and don't forget to check out our article with level design tips from Emilia.
Almedena is the first from the right on the photo
Are you a fan of how Naughty Dog animates their games? You should definitely thank Almudena Soria and her division then! She is a Lead Animator at Naughty Dog with her latest project being the Last of Us II. She also worked on Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, The Last of Us and Left Behind. Originally from Madrid, she traveled all the way to England to work at Ninja Theory on Enslaved: Odyssey to the West. She also contributed to the development of G-force, Pirates of the Caribbean, Spyro, and more. The artist has more than 15 years of experience in game development in multiple spheres.
Make sure to follow her on Twitter.
Neil Druckmann
Last but not least, Neil Druckmann, the present of the studio, is a video game designer who has worked at Naughty Dog since 2004. He acted as a co-writer and designer for Uncharted: Drake's Fortune and then a co-writer and co-lead game designer for Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. Then, he began working on The Last of Us, one of the studio's greatest titles, in early 2010. Then, Druckmann teamed up with Bruce Straley to direct Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, the last chapter of Nathan Drake's adventures. In December of 2016, the studio revealed that Druckmann is working as the director The Last of Us Part II, a sequel to one of the best PlayStation titles. He has also become the vice president of Naughty Dog in March 2018.
Here's a funny fact: before joining the video games market, Druckmann majored in criminology, but then after taking a course in programming, he got inspired by people making games and decided to find a job in game design. Later, he became an intern at Naughty Dog by "harassing" co-president Jason Rubin, who "made the mistake" of giving the student his number. Then, the studio promoted him to a programmer on Jak 3 in early 2004. He continued programming on Jak X: Combat Racing and then land design job for Uncharted: Drake's Fortune.
Don't forget to follow Druckmann on Twitter.
This is a rather short list of names, of course. We could go on and on listing artists, programmers, writers, and other talented members of the team that made the release of The Last of Us possible. Unfortunately, we can't tell you about them all in one article. What is your favorite Naughty Dog moment? Let's discuss memorable events and share other key names in the comments.