The Last of Us Part 1 Development Did Not Have Crunch – Artist

Celebrating The Last of Us Part 1 going gold, Naughty Dog’s principal environment artist Anthony Vaccaro took to Twitter to talk about the lack of crunch in the game’s development.

According to Vaccaro, development on The Last of Us Part 1 was the first time in his 13-year career across multiple studios where development on a game was finished without the studio going into crunch mode, overworking its staff.

“Especially hitting the same quality bar as TLOU2,” said Vaccaro. “More work to keep doing but proud of the big changes so far to make the studio healthier.”

In an industry filled with poor employee treatment, Naughty Dog has always been notorious for its culture of putting developers through intense crunch periods leading up to the release of its games. Developers have come out to talk on the studio’s crunch culture, and a report a couple of years ago put a spotlight on just how bad it had gotten at Naughty Dog.

Crunch in video game development isn’t exactly new, and even Naughty Dog has seen several crunch periods in its time.

This is the first time in my 13 year career, across multiple studios that I didn't need to crunch to finish a game. Feels good, really good. Especially hitting the same quality bar as TLOU2. More work to keep doing but proud of the big changes so far to make the studio healthier. https://t.co/gbzyHKpVbh

— Anthony Vaccaro (@vaccaro3d) July 11, 2022