A naughty dog veteran talked about the studio's austerity culture and how long he was there.
In response to Kotaku's report Naughty dogAn unsustainable austerity culture, and how the studio has redoubled its efforts for Our Last: Part Two. Former naughty dog and veteran animator Jonathan Cooper provided some insight into his time in the studio.
Cooper, who is part of the studio's "story animator" team, says he works an average of 46 hours a week, sometimes close to 55 hours, but that's all.
"The truth is I don't have a terrible austerity story," Cooper Wrote on Twitter. "The story team is super organized and we responded to everything we voted for. This is not to say that the others did not suffer."
As Cooper said, among these "others" are game animators who have to deal with the demo released last September.
"For the demo shown last September, the game animator's workload was more severe than I've seen, so it took weeks to recover. A good friend of mine was hospitalized due to fatigue. He had more than six months Time to go. There are others after that, " recall Cooper.
"There are ND stories that are worse than this, but like everything on my Twitter, I focus on animation. For TLOU2 fans, this game should use industry-leading animation and it works very well. I just do n’t recommend anyone Working at naughty dogs unless they prioritize talent retention, "he said. carry on.
That's why Cooper left the studio, and one of the reasons Sony had to postpone The Last Us: Part Two. According to Cooper, it all comes down to talent retention.
"The reason I left is because I just want to work with the best people. That is no longer a naughty dog. Their austerity reputation in Los Angeles is so bad that it is almost impossible to hire an experienced contract game animator to end the project .So we created on film animators, "he Explanation
"Although they are super talented, they lack the technical / design knowledge to assemble the scene. Similarly, the design team quickly swelled with junior staff to make up for the downsizing of key roles. Due to the lack of gaming experience in the team, completing all aspects of the game It took longer. "
With that in mind, Cooper believes Sony's financial support has allowed Naughty Dog to thrive and have power-delayed games until they are near perfect.
"ND's linear games ultimately have a formula to test them. Despite their talent, their success is largely due to Sony's massive funding delays, rather than relying solely on skills. A year ago, a more advanced The team will ship TLOU2, "he Said At the end.
Our final moment: Part 2 will be released on May 29. Please click on the link at the top for a full report of Kotaku.
