“Linear Games Are Easier to Make,” The Last of Us Co-Creator Says

It would be a massive understatement to say that developing games is far from easy. Regardless of what type of game you’re talking about, regardless of what its scope is, regardless of whether it’s single player or multiplayer, putting games together is a complicated process that requires a lot of time, investment, and iteration. But are some games easier to make than others?

A leading voice in the industry certainly believes so. Bruce Straley, co-creator of The Last of Us and co-director of Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, recently took to Twitter and shared that opinion with a very simple statement. “Linear games are just easier to make,” he wrote. “There. I said it.”

As you might imagine, he seems to have courted controversy with that statement, though Straley, as a veteran of the industry with no shortage of experience having worked on games of all sorts, obviously knows what he’s talking about, to say the least. It’s also more than logical that a linear game, that doesn’t typically have to have as much content and complexity of systems as non-linear games tend to have, would be less complicated.

Of course, that doesn’t mean in the slightest that they are easy to make- but it’s easy to see the sense in why Straley says they certainly are easier to make.

linear games are just easier to make.

there. I said it.

— Bruce Straley (@bruce_straley) March 2, 2023