Earlier we told on Jason Schreier’s massive investigation into the refining and challenges Naughty Dog’s team faces. The material caused a fairly wide resonance, and shortly after its publication Jonathan Cooper, renowned game animation specialist and former employee Naughty dogwho had a hand in working on projects such as Uncharted 4 and The Last of Us: Part II, published a series of messages in which he directly confirmed part of Schreier’s information, and also shared his personal experience in the flagship studio Sony.
According to Cooper, his breakup with Naughty Dog was difficult – his superiors demanded that he sign a paper, which, in essence, would shut his mouth and not allow him to talk about working practices of the studio.
“At the end of last year, when I left Naughty Dog, I was threatened that I would not receive my last salary until I signed papers, according to which I have no right to disclose information about the working situation inside the company. Ultimately, they surrendered when I assured them that such acts were illegal. “
Cooper says that he personally has not been able to seriously recycle, as he personally performed all tasks quickly and efficiently. However, in other departments something was wrong.
“In truth, I can’t share any scary story about crunch. Our department was called“ plot animators ”, and on average we worked 46 hours a week, personally I never worked over 55. We were very well organized and managed any difficulties, I cannot say such things about others.
To create the demo, shown in September 2019, the gameplay animators had to go through incredibly strong processing, and then recover for several weeks. The first time I come across this at all. A friend of mine even had to go to the hospital. And ahead of him at least another six months of work awaited. And this is not an isolated case.“
According to Cooper, among specialists Naughty Dog is known as a company with a sad reputation in terms of processing. Because of this, great professionals do not really want to get there. As a result, superiors have to hire experts from other areas (for example, film animators) or just beginners without much experience.
But I left for the reason that I strive to work with the best of the best. About Naughty Dog I can’t say this now. In Los Angeles, the studio’s reputation for recycling is so badly hiring specialists to complete the game was almost an unrealistic task. Because of this, I had to turn to the services of people working on animation for films.
And despite the fact that they are all incredibly talented people, they simply do not have the necessary knowledge in order to properly assemble the scene. The design team turned out to have a similar situation, in the place of former key employees, green recruits were recruited. All aspects of the game required much more time to complete precisely because the development team did not have enough experience..
Do not get me wrong, these young guys are very good employees, and some of them are wonderful at all. It’s just that when the ratio of experienced to young specialists leaves the natural balance, the work stops, and most of the time is spent on retraining and training (LA developers, do not forget to help all of them with work when their contracts with ND come to an end).
Contract work is generally a huge part of the entire Los Angeles ecosystem. Unlike game design, the animation industry blooms and smells here, and young talents (more often than not) have the opportunity to choose from projects of interest to them. Almost all contract animators quit last year.
And those who stayed to work, are torn right away between 2-3 projects (with pauses in between), and despite the salary increases, they still do not receive any additional bonuses and do not feel stable like full-time employees. This is how the industry works. People need more stability, rather than the illusory hope of “someday getting a full-fledged position.”
Cooper said he would not talk about all the serious problems he knew about Naughty Dog. According to him, The Last of Us: Part II will be a great game with the most advanced animation in the industry. But he does not recommend people to get into Naughty Dog.
“Things are worse in ND than what I described. But since this is my personal account, I will limit myself to talking only about animation issues and related problems. For all TLOU2 fans, don’t worry, the game will turn out great and show the best animation in the industry. But I do not recommend working at ND, at least until the studio makes no effort to retain talented staff“
Finally, the animator pointed out that if Naughty Dog was an independent studio without the financial support of Sony, which is ready to endure endless transfers, then it would not be able to afford to work like it is now.
According to Cooper, if the team consisted of more experienced staff, The Last of Us: Part II would come out a year ago.
“Ultimately, it all comes down to the fact that ND games have a linear structure that is worked out to the bitter end by millions and millions of tests. And despite the fact that the team is really talented, its successes are for the most part not provided by unique skills, but by financial support from Sony, which can afford endless transfers. If more experienced staff continued to work in the studio, then TLOU2 would be released a year ago. “
The game will debut on May 29, 2023.
Sony and Naughty Dog did not respond to Kotaku’s investigation and Cooper’s words. He quit the studio in October 2019.. The reason has been described. here.
Read also: “And why do we need the PlayStation 5 now?”: Sony has been criticized for transferring Horizon: Zero Dawn to PC.
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