News
Naughty Dog Had Low Expectations for ‘The Last of Us’
Take away the glamor that’s often associated with it and video game developers have a very tough job. There aren’t many fields where you can invest millions of dollars and several years creating something only to have people shit on it the moment it’s released to the world. I’ll spend a few hours on an article and get bummed when it flops; I can’t imagine how the folks at Naughty Dog felt when they were deep into realizing The Last of Us with no real idea of how it would be received.
Naughty Dog has been more consistent than most in delivering visually stunning, story-driven games with memorable characters and rewarding gameplay. A post-apocalyptic survival game with their uniquely cinematic flair and attention to detail would almost certainly be a success, right?
“Quite the opposite,” revealed co-director Bruce Straley in a recent round table discussion with several of the game’s creators. “We thought it was going to tank.”
“The joke we would say throughout production was that ‘This game is the downfall of Naughty Dog,'” added creative director Neil Druckmann. The team was so worried about how the world would react to The Last of Us that some thought it might ruin their well-deserved reputation as one of the industry’s most respected developers.
Surprisingly, the source of their worries didn’t have much to do with the idea that they might let down fans who have come to expect great things from them, or the hype that Sony spent considerable time building leading up to its release. Instead, it had a lot to do with the challenge of making its many systems work well together.
“A big part of it was on the mechanical side,” explained lead level designer Anthony Newman. “It wasn’t coming together. So it was really a a set of really lucky breaks in terms of gameplay decisions we made that really made everything fall into place and turned it into a fun game.”
The realization that they might have something special on their hands didn’t come until development was wrapping up, some time before it would become unofficial bookend release for the PS3, inspire a live-action movie, possible sequel and PS4 remaster.
All of us here at Bloody Disgusting are deeply sad to learn that actress Daveigh Chase has passed away at just 35 years old. The news was first reported by TMZ this afternoon.
The outlet reports, “The actress’ boyfriend, Roy Hernandez, tells TMZ … Daveigh died Tuesday from meningitis and an infection in her blood, which caused her to have septic issues and led to her body shutting down.” The website’s report continues, “We’re told Daveigh had been admitted to a hospital in Los Angeles earlier this month because of malnutrition.”
Here in the horror world, a young Daveigh Chase memorably played Samara in Gore Verbinski’s 2002 horror movie The Ring, the American remake of the Japanese horror hit.
Far outside the horror world, Daveigh Chase voiced Lilo in the 2002 animated movie Lilo & Stitch, a character she continued to voice in various animated spinoff projects.
Chase also appeared as Samantha Darko in the 2001 classic Donnie Darko, later returning to play the sister of Donnie Darko in the 2009 spinoff movie titled S. Darko.
Daveigh Chase’s resume also includes roles on the TV shows “Sabrina the Teenage Witch,” “Charmed,” “ER,” “Touched by an Angel,” “CSI,” “Cold Case,” and 32 episodes of “Big Love.”
Chase appeared in the films The Rats, Silence, Carolina, Beethoven’s 5th, Yellow, Little Red Wagon, Transference, Killer Crush, Jack Goes Home, and American Romance.
We send our deepest condolences to Daveigh Chase’s family, friends, and fans.
Pictured: Daveigh Chase in ‘Killer Crush’ (2015)
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