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Nationality | American |
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Bruce Straley is an American game director, artist, designer, and studio director. He previously worked for the video game developer Naughty Dog, known for his work on the video games The Last of Us and Uncharted 4: A Thief's End . Straley's first video game work was as an artist at Western Technologies Inc, where he worked on the Menacer six-game cartridge (1992) [lower-alpha 1] and X-Men (1993). Following this, he formed a company, Pacific Softscape, where he worked as a designer on Generations Lost (1994). After the company disbanded, Straley was eventually hired at Crystal Dynamics, where he worked as a designer on Gex: Enter the Gecko (1998) and was initially game director for Gex 3: Deep Cover Gecko (1999); he left the company partway through development of the latter.
Straley was employed at Naughty Dog in 1999. He worked as an artist on Crash Team Racing (1999) and the Jak and Daxter series (2001–2004). Following this, he became co-art director on Uncharted: Drake's Fortune (2007), and was promoted to game director of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (2009). He was later chosen to lead development on The Last of Us (2013) as game director, a role he continued during the development of Uncharted 4: A Thief's End (2016). Straley has received praise for his work. In particular, his work on The Last of Us was highly praised, and the game received several awards and nominations. He departed Naughty Dog in September 2017, and started his own studio, Wildflower Interactive, in March 2021.
Bruce Straley grew up in Florida. [1] He felt pressure from his mother to attend school after his brother and sister dropped out; since he felt that drawing was his only talent, he attended an art institute and received a degree in advertising design. [2] When Straley heard about California from his friend, he decided to move to Los Angeles. After struggling to find a job in advertising, he applied for an art design position at Western Technologies Inc. [3] At the job interview the following day, a programmer showed him footage from Sonic the Hedgehog and asked if he could make similar art; he said yes, and was offered the job by the end of the day. [4] He worked on a video game about Robosaurus for some time, though it was eventually canceled. [5]
Straley worked on two more games at Western Technologies Inc: the Menacer six-game cartridge in 1992, [lower-alpha 1] and X-Men in 1993. [6] Following this, he formed a company, Pacific Softscape, with some ex-employees at Western Technologies. There, he worked as designer on Generations Lost in 1994. [7] He felt too inexperienced to run a company, and did not get along with some of his coworkers, so the company disbanded in 1995. [8] [9] He left the industry for a short time, traveling to Europe, before moving to San Francisco in 1996 and receiving a job at Crystal Dynamics through a friend. [10] [11] There, Straley worked alongside several future Naughty Dog employees, [12] including Amy Hennig, who later became creative director of the Uncharted series, [12] Evan Wells, who later became co-president of Naughty Dog, [13] and Danny Chan, who later worked as a lead programmer on Crash Team Racing . [14]
Straley worked as designer on Gex: Enter the Gecko (1998), [15] and was promoted to game director for Gex 3: Deep Cover Gecko (1999). Around this time, some of his coworkers, including Wells and Chan, had moved to Naughty Dog in Santa Monica, California; Straley, unhappy with the development of Gex 3 and missing his friends, followed them and met Naughty Dog co-founder Jason Rubin. [14] Having left during development, Straley was credited for "additional art" on Gex 3. [16] In March 1999, Straley was employed at Naughty Dog; [17] he was the fifteenth employee. [18]
At Naughty Dog, Straley worked as an artist on Crash Team Racing in 1999. [19] Although he was employed as a texture artist, the small size of the team resulted in Straley performing various jobs, including design, background modeling and foreground animating, among others. As the size of the studio grew, the tasks became more specific. [20] Straley acted as artist on Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy (2001), [21] Jak II (2003), [22] and Jak 3 (2004). [23] Straley is credited with creating the technology that managed the appearance of the Jak and Daxter series, and having the knowledge to understand the technical and artistic features, bridging the communication gap between the two departments. [13] For Uncharted: Drake's Fortune (2007), Straley was appointed the role of co-art director, alongside Bob Rafei, which involved advancing the team's technology from the PlayStation 2 to the PlayStation 3. He was then given the role of game director for Uncharted 2: Among Thieves , which was released in 2009. [20]
Following the development of Uncharted 2, Naughty Dog split into two teams to work on projects concurrently. With one team working on Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception (2011), co-presidents Evan Wells and Christophe Balestra chose Straley and Neil Druckmann to lead development on a new game; Straley was selected to lead the project, as game director, based on his experience and his work on previous projects. [13] Though they were originally set to develop a new game in the Jak and Daxter series, the team felt that they "weren't doing service to the fans of [the] franchise", and decided to create a new game, titled The Last of Us . [25]
Straley and Druckmann had previously worked together on Uncharted 2, and found that they shared similar interests. During the development of The Last of Us, Straley and Druckmann often joked that their relationship was "like a marriage", in which they have many differing ideas, but ultimately wish to achieve the same goal. [24] Straley's role in developing The Last of Us was to handle gameplay. [24] In the final weeks of development, Straley undertook roles from different departments that were busy with other tasks; for example, he was seen hand-arranging the texts on the game's training screens, a task that lead artist Nate Wells found unusual. Wells said: "I have never even heard of a game director doing that! That's like... an intern task." [26] At the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2012, Straley showcased a gameplay demonstration of The Last of Us at Sony's press conference; his stance on the stage became an Internet meme, and was referred to as "The Bruce". [27] The game was released on June 14, 2013, to critical acclaim. [28] For his work on the game, Straley and Druckmann were nominated for Best Director from The Daily Telegraph ; it was ultimately awarded to Davey Wreden for his work on The Stanley Parable (2013). [29] Straley later continued his role as game director for The Last of Us: Left Behind (2014), a downloadable content and expansion pack for the 2013 game. [30]
Following Hennig's departure from Naughty Dog in March 2014, it was announced that Straley and Druckmann were working on Uncharted 4: A Thief's End (2016) as game director and creative director, respectively. [31] Initial reports claimed that Hennig was "forced out" of Naughty Dog by Straley and Druckmann, though Wells and Balestra later denied this. [32] Straley presented gameplay demonstrations of Uncharted 4 at the PlayStation Experience in December 2014, [33] and at the E3 2015 in June. [34] The game was released on May 10, 2016, to critical acclaim. [35] For his work on the game, Straley won Outstanding Visual Effects in a Real-Time Project at the 15th Visual Effects Society Awards, alongside visual effects artists Eben Cook and Iki Ikram. [36] After the release of Uncharted 4, Straley took a break from development; he did not return to direct The Last of Us Part II . [37] On September 13, 2017, Straley announced his departure from Naughty Dog, stating that he "found [his] energy focusing in other directions" following his break. [38] His decision to leave was also partly due to burnout; [39] his relationship with Naughty Dog and Sony became strained. Following the lack of credit to Straley in the television series The Last of Us in 2023, he considered the support for unionization in the video game industry, saying it may be necessary "to protect creators". [40] [41]
Straley worked as a story consultant on Chained: A Victorian Nightmare (2018), a virtual reality theater experience. He was awarded the Vanguard Award at the Fun & Serious Game Festival in December 2019. [42] After leaving the industry in 2017, Straley was unsure if he wanted to continue making games; however, after thinking more about the medium, an "idea kept following [him]". [43] He and some friends began prototyping, and eventually decided to create a studio, Wildflower Interactive, [43] founded on March 11, 2021, [44] and announced in July 2022. As studio director, Straley wants the studio to be "inclusive, equitable, and collaborative". [43] It is operating in a fully remote work environment. [43]
Year | Game title | Role |
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1992 | Menacer six-game cartridge [lower-alpha 1] | Artist |
1993 | X-Men | Art, design [6] |
1994 | Generations Lost | Designer [7] |
1996 | Mr. Bones | Additional animation [47] |
1998 | Gex: Enter the Gecko | Designer [15] |
1999 | Gex 3: Deep Cover Gecko | Additional art [16] |
1999 | Crash Team Racing | Artist [19] |
2001 | Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy | Artist [21] |
2003 | Jak II | Artist [22] |
2004 | Jak 3 | Artist [23] |
2007 | Uncharted: Drake's Fortune | Co-art director [20] |
2009 | Uncharted 2: Among Thieves | Game director [20] |
2013 | The Last of Us | Game director [13] |
2014 | The Last of Us: Left Behind | Game director [30] |
2016 | Uncharted 4: A Thief's End | Game director [31] |
2017 | Gorogoa | Special thanks |
2018 | Chained: A Victorian Nightmare | Story consultant [42] |
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
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2013 | The Art of The Last of Us | Writer (introduction) [48] | with Neil Druckmann |
2014 | The Art of Naughty Dog | Writer (sections) | with Neil Druckmann, [49] Evan Wells, and Christophe Balestra [50] |
Year | Title | Notes |
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2013 | Grounded: Making The Last of Us | Documentary [51] |
2015 | Conversations with Creators | Web series; Episode 2 [52] |
Date | Award | Category | Recipient(s) and Nominee(s) | Result | Ref. |
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December 31, 2013 | The Daily Telegraph Video Game Awards 2013 | Best Director | Bruce Straley and Neil Druckmann | Nominated | [29] |
February 7, 2017 | 15th Visual Effects Society Awards | Outstanding Visual Effects in a Real-Time Project | Bruce Straley, Eben Cook, and Iki Ikram | Won | [36] |
December 11, 2019 | Fun & Serious Game Festival | Vanguard Award | Bruce Straley | Won | [42] |
Jak and Daxter is an action-adventure video game franchise created by Andy Gavin and Jason Rubin and owned by Sony Interactive Entertainment. The series was originally developed by Naughty Dog with a number of installments being outsourced to Ready at Dawn and High Impact Games. The first game, Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy, released on December 3, 2001, was one of the earliest titles for the PlayStation 2, and is regarded as a defining franchise for the console.
Naughty Dog, LLC is an American first-party video game developer based in Santa Monica, California. Founded by Andy Gavin and Jason Rubin in 1984, the studio was acquired by Sony Computer Entertainment in 2001. Gavin and Rubin produced a sequence of progressively more successful games, including Rings of Power and Way of the Warrior in the early 1990s. The latter game prompted Universal Interactive Studios to sign the duo to a three-title contract and fund the expansion of the company.
Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy is a 2001 platform video game developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the Sony PlayStation 2 on December 4, 2001, as the first game of the Jak and Daxter series. The game follows the protagonists, a young teenager named Jak, as he tries to help his friend Daxter after he is transformed into an "ottsel", a fictional hybrid of an otter and a weasel. With the help of Samos the Sage, a master of the mysterious energy called 'Eco' created by an ancient race known as the Precursors, the pair learn that they must save their world from the rogue sages Gol and Maia Acheron, who plan to flood the world with "Dark Eco", a mysterious substance which corrupts all it touches.
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune is a 2007 action-adventure game developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. It is the first game in the Uncharted series and was released in November 2007 for PlayStation 3. The game follows Nathan Drake, the supposed descendant of explorer Sir Francis Drake, as he searches for the lost treasure of El Dorado with journalist Elena Fisher and mentor Victor Sullivan.
Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier is a 2009 platform game developed by High Impact Games and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. The game is the sixth and final game in the Jak and Daxter series. The player assumes the role of Jak, the angst-ridden hero enhanced by his exposure to Light and Dark Eco.
Amy Hennig is an American video game writer and director, formerly for the video game company Naughty Dog. She began her work in the industry on the Nintendo Entertainment System, with her design debut on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System game Michael Jordan: Chaos in the Windy City. She later went to work for Crystal Dynamics, working primarily on the Legacy of Kain series. With Naughty Dog, she worked primarily on the Jak and Daxter and Uncharted series.
Jak and Daxter Collection is a 2012 collection of the remastered ports of the first three games in the Jak and Daxter series. The remasters were developed by Mass Media Games, with grounds on the originals by Naughty Dog, and published by Sony Computer Entertainment.
Uncharted 4: A Thief's End is a 2016 action-adventure game developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. It is the fourth main entry in the Uncharted series. Set several years after the events of Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception, players control Nathan Drake, a former treasure hunter coaxed out of retirement by his presumed-dead brother Samuel. With Nathan's longtime partner, Victor Sullivan, they search for clues to the location of Henry Avery's long-lost treasure. A Thief's End is played from a third-person perspective, and incorporates platformer elements. Players solve puzzles and use firearms, melee combat, and stealth to combat enemies. In the online multiplayer mode, up to ten players engage in co-operative and competitive modes.
Babak "Bob" Rafei is an Iranian video game art director, character animator and concept artist. He is the CEO of Big Red Button Entertainment, a video game development studio he co-founded with Jeff Lander in 2009.
Neil Druckmann is an Israeli-American writer, creative director, designer, and programmer. He is the studio head and head of creative of the video game developer Naughty Dog, and is best known for his work on the game franchises Uncharted and The Last of Us, having co-created the latter.
The development of The Last of Us, an action-adventure game, began after Uncharted 2: Among Thieves' release in October 2009. Sony Computer Entertainment published The Last of Us for PlayStation 3 on June 14, 2013. The three-year development, led by studio Naughty Dog, was kept secret for the majority of development. In the game, players assume control of Joel, a middle-aged smuggler tasked with escorting a 14-year-old girl named Ellie across a post-apocalyptic United States in an attempt to create a potential cure against the world-ending infection to which Ellie is immune. Creative director Neil Druckmann was inspired to include the Infected as a main enemy in the game after discovering the Cordyceps fungi. Set 20 years after the outbreak has destroyed much of civilization, the game explores the possibility of the fungi infecting humans.
The Last of Us, a 2013 action-adventure survival horror video game developed by Naughty Dog, deals with the relationship between smuggler Joel, and Ellie. Joel is tasked with escorting Ellie across a post-apocalyptic United States in an attempt to create a potential cure against an infection to which Ellie is immune. The relationship between the two characters became the basis of the game's development.
Ellie is a character in the video game series The Last of Us by Naughty Dog. She is portrayed by Ashley Johnson through motion capture and voice acting; in the television adaptation, she is portrayed by Bella Ramsey. In the first game, The Last of Us (2013), Joel Miller is tasked with escorting a 14-year-old Ellie across a post-apocalyptic United States in an attempt to create a cure for an infection to which Ellie is immune. While players briefly assume control of Ellie, the artificial intelligence primarily controls her actions. Ellie reappeared as the playable character in the downloadable content prequel The Last of Us: Left Behind, in which she spends time with her friend Riley. In The Last of Us Part II (2020), players control a 19-year-old Ellie as she seeks revenge on Abby.
Josh Scherr is an American video game writer and designer best known for his work on the Uncharted series.
Evan Wells is an American video game designer and programmer and co-president of Naughty Dog. Wells' first video game was at Sega, where he worked on ToeJam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron, before moving to Crystal Dynamics in 1995 to work on Gex and Gex: Enter the Gecko. He was employed at Naughty Dog in 1998, working on several Crash Bandicoot and Jak and Daxter titles before becoming co-president of the company alongside Stephen White in 2005; White was replaced the following year by Christophe Balestra, who retired in 2017. The two oversaw the release of the Uncharted series, and The Last of Us. Wells remained the sole president, overseeing the release of The Last of Us Part II, until Neil Druckmann's promotion to co-president in 2020. Wells announced his retirement in 2023.
PlayStation Productions, LLC is an American production company owned by Sony Interactive Entertainment.
Approximately 2,100 people developed The Last of Us Part II over more than five years, led by the 350-person team at Naughty Dog. Sony Interactive Entertainment published the action-adventure game in June 2020 for the PlayStation 4; a remastered version was released in January 2024 for the PlayStation 5. A sequel to the 2013 game The Last of Us, Part II's core development began after the 2014 release of The Last of Us Remastered. Neil Druckmann returned as creative director, co-writing the story with Halley Gross, while Anthony Newman and Kurt Margenau were selected to be co-game directors. Matthew Gallant was Remastered's game director.
Emilia Schatz is an American video game designer best known for her work at Naughty Dog. She studied computer science at the University of North Texas, where she later worked for almost three years before searching for work in the video game industry. She was hired at Terminal Reality, where she worked as a level scripter on Re-Mission, as a level designer on BlowOut and BloodRayne 2, and as a senior game designer on Ghostbusters: The Video Game. She applied for jobs at other studios, and in 2009 was hired at Naughty Dog. She began working at Naughty Dog early in development on Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception, for which she designed several levels. She assisted with development of The Last of Us.
The Last of Us is an action-adventure video game series and media franchise created by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. The series is set in a post-apocalyptic United States ravaged by cannibalistic humans infected by a mutated fungus in the genus Cordyceps. It follows several survivors, including Joel, a smuggler who lost his daughter during the outbreak; Ellie, a young girl who is immune to the infection; and Abby, a soldier who becomes involved in a conflict between her militia and a religious cult. The games use a third-person perspective in which the player fights against hostile humans and cannibalistic creatures with firearms, improvised weapons, and stealth.
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