The Last of Us 2 Developer Shows How Much Work Went Into Minor Feature

gamerant.com:

A developer who worked on Naughty Dog's The Last of Us Part 2 has provided some insight into his work on a hugely important, yet subtle element of the game's many combat encounters. Often hailed as one of the most brutal and engaging third-person shooters of all time, TLOU2 banks heavily on the weight of its combat animations, and even the smallest features needed to be pulled off just right.

While not everyone was thrilled with the fact that cruelty was the only real option in The Last of Us 2, no matter from whose perspective the game might've been played, there's a point to be made about the brevity of its movement and violence. This briskness of motion was, it would appear, effectively baked into the game's DNA, with the developers working around the clock to make each and every animation satisfying, even when it didn't seem like they would matter all that much.

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Specifically, Maksym Zhuravlov, lead animator at Naughty Dog, has provided some valuable insight into his work on The Last of Us 2. One of the items on his docket was the animation system for the game's combat doors, which would serve as interactive funnels and potential opportunities for the player to break the enemies' line of sight, for example. While the feature seemed simple enough at first, Zhuravlov explained how his team ended up having to set up fluid, responsive, and smooth animations for virtually every set of actions the player might take before, during, and after their interaction with a given set of doors.

Since The Last of Us 2's combat relies heavily on player agency and there being virtually no canned, locked-in animations for characters to get stuck in, doors needed to be