The Last of Us’ Neil Druckmann has said making sequels to Naughty Dog’s beloved franchises requires a level of confidence that, believe it or not, he claims he doesn’t have.
Speaking during the DICE summit last week with fellow game developer Cory Barlog, the Last of Us’ director was asked: “How do you and your teams approach character development over multiple games?”
Barlog said he had “way too much of the Charlie Day crazy conspiracy board” method of planning, referring to that Pepe Silvia scene from Always Sunny in Philadelphia which has become a bit of a meme. But Druckmann, meanwhile, said he had a different approach, as he “never [thinks] about multiple games”.
“The game in front of us is so all consuming,” Druckmann explained (thanks IGN). “I think you’re jinxing yourself if you’re starting to think about the sequel when you’re working on the first game. So when I was making The Last of Us 2, yeah, sure. Every once in a while an idea pops in your head of where it might go if we get the chance to do another one. But I just approach it as, ‘what if I never get to do another one?’ …I’m not saving some idea for the future. If there’s a cool idea, I’m doing my best to get it into here.”