Skip to main content

Naughty Dog job listing hints The Last of Us will get a co-op campaign

the last of us
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Sony could use The Last of Us on shelves this fall. If the ratings for The Walking Dead’s season premiere are anything to go by, the hunger for desperate, post-zombie apocalypse survival stories has not been sated. Sony would make a killing if it had a property in that milieu made by the superstars behind the multi-million selling Uncharted series. Naughty Dog isn’t even close to done working on its critical darling though, since it’s still hiring staff to work on the game. What’s more, the studio seems to be working on content that hasn’t even been shown yet. New job listings for the company suggest that The Last of Us will have co-operative play.

The listing calls for a co-operative game designer. The number one requirement is that the candidate have experience designing both co-operative and single player levels for console games, a “strong understanding of co-op gameplay mechanics” as well as “level design and encounter design.” A “strong passion to innovate in the area of co-op design” is also a must.

Recommended Videos

Those sound like fairly standard requirements for any designer working on Naughty Dog’s games, though. It could describe the co-operative modes in the Uncharted series as well as it could The Last of Us. There are two other facets of the listing that more heavily suggest that Naughty Dog is considering adding co-operative play to its survival drama.

The ideal candidate will have experience in co-op AI and encounter design, “designing and scripting co-op combat encounters, AI behavior design, and difficulty balancing.” Co-op system design, “creating mechanics, game modes, progression systems, reward structures, social features, etc. to serve the co-op experience,” is another aspect of the job. With The Last of Us’ heavy emphasis on dynamic AI—something notably lacking in the Uncharted series—and social features, which tie heavily into the sense of camaraderie and togetherness that binds Last of Us’ leads, suggest that game.

Naughty Dog has been planning to include multiplayer in The Last of Us for some time. “We are supporting multiplayer with The Last of Us,” said creative director Neil Druckmann in June, “We’re not ready to talk about the details of how multiplayer will be implemented, however we can say that it is not co-op within the main campaign.” Based on that statement and the job listing, it sounds as though Naughty Dog is looking to build separate co-operative modes that still manage to foster the same dynamic, in terms of play and narrative, environment as Last of Us’ core campaign.

Source: Now Gamer

Anthony John Agnello
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Anthony John Agnello is a writer living in New York. He works as the Community Manager of Joystiq.com and his writing has…
Naughty Dog devs suffer layoffs, reportedly impacting Last of Us multiplayer spinoff
Ellie looking concerned.

A new report revealed that Naughty Dog has ended several contracts it had with developers early, laying off around 25 developers. This had a negative impact on The Last of Us multiplayer game but, more importantly, is chillingly just the latest batch of layoffs in a rough couple of months for the video game industry.
These contracted developers were informed that their contracts were ending prematurely at the end of October and that they'd get no severance afterward, according to the report at Kotaku. Reportedly, most of these layoffs at Naughty Dog, PlayStation's darling studio that employs over 400 developers, come from the quality assurance, art, and production teams. According to Kotaku, Naughty Dog asked its developers to keep quiet about it. That didn't happen, though, with developers telling Kotaku not only about the layoffs but that the multiplayer The Last of Us game "while not completely canceled, is basically on ice at this point."
Concept art for Naughty Dog's Last of Us multiplayer title. Naughty Dog
These layoffs are unfortunate but sadly not uncommon for the game industry. Throughout the last few weeks, studios like Ubisoft, Creative Assembly, Ascendant Studios, and Epic Games have all laid off people. Epic, in particular, cut a whopping 16% of its workforce despite the fact that Fortnite is one of the most popular video games. Then, there are studios like Saints Row's Volition, support studio Puny Human, and Boomerang X's Dang are closing entirely.
Although 2023 has been a year full of fantastic games like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Street Fighter 6, and Baldur's Gate 3, it's unfortunate that it has been so rough for the developers who actually make the games in this gigantic industry. It's clear something needs to change.

Read more
Naughty Dog confirms its working on a new single-player game in odd apology post
Abby screaming in The Last of Us Part II

The Last of Us developer Naughty Dog has confirmed that it's working on a new single-player game in a fairly odd manner. The news came in the middle of an apologetic post explaining why the studio didn't show its upcoming Last of Us multiplayer project during this week's PlayStation Showcase.

https://twitter.com/Naughty_Dog/status/1662166716892479488

Read more
This might be why The Last of Us has terrible stuttering on PC
Joel looks at Ellie in The Last of Us Part 2.

The Last of Us on PC has launched in a dire state. Although I haven't experienced as many issues as some players are reporting, the consensus is clear: the game is buggy, poorly optimized, and underbaked. It's currently sitting with a Mostly Negative review status on Steam, which is typically reserved for the most broken games, like Battlefield 2042. 

Consider yourself warned if you want to jump into Joel and Ellie's story on PC, especially if you just finished off the excellent HBO series. For players who already have the game, there's a particular issue you should be aware of that relates to Nvidia's Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) and AMD's FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR), as well as demands on your system that go far beyond the recommended specs.
A possible source of stutter

Read more