Development of The Last of Us

[4][8] As a student at Carnegie Mellon University in 2004, Druckmann was tasked with creating a video game concept to present to film director George A. Romero, who would select a winner.

Druckmann's idea was to merge the gameplay of Ico (2001) in a story set during a zombie apocalypse, like that of Romero's Night of the Living Dead (1968), with a lead character similar to John Hartigan from Sin City (1991–2000).

An early concept for the game was titled Mankind, in which the infection only spread to women; the story followed the journey of a man protecting the only immune woman to bring her to a lab to create a potential cure.

[10] The Infected, a core concept of the game, were inspired by a segment of the BBC nature documentary Planet Earth (2006), which featured the Cordyceps fungi.

[15] In his research, Druckmann found inspiration in real historical events; the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic illustrated the depths of self-protection and paranoia capable by humans under threat of extinction, while the polio epidemic of the 1880s demonstrated the influences of socioeconomic classes when assigning blame in a great disaster.

Concept artist John Sweeney wrote that the scene was designed to "reignite [Ellie's] lust for life", triggering her curiosity and forgetting the surrounding struggle and death.

[25] He explained that the scene originally involved zebras, but were replaced by giraffes due to their gentleness and elegance, stating that they were "the most remarkable thing Ellie could possibly encounter".

[8] Though the team quickly felt that Johnson fit the role of Ellie, they spent more time selecting the actor of Joel, as the chemistry between the two characters was imperative to the game.

[36] Baker believes that Joel discovers morality throughout the game's narrative, working out the difference between loss and sacrifice, and his true personality begins to show.

[32] Baker found great difficulty in filming the game's prologue, which features scenes with Joel and his daughter Sarah, portrayed by Hana Hayes.

[33] Johnson feels that video games rarely feature strong female characters such as Ellie, and expressed her excitement to portray the role for this reason.

[16] The character of Tess was originally intended to be featured as the main antagonist of The Last of Us, pursuing Joel for a year before a final confrontation in which she is killed by Ellie.

[29] Veteran voice actor Nolan North, who portrays protagonist Nathan Drake in Naughty Dog's Uncharted series, was chosen to play the role of David in the game.

[42] Programmer Max Dyckhoff stated that, when working on Ellie as AI, he tried to imagine her experiences throughout the game's events, in an attempt to achieve realism.

[42] The enemy AI, considered one of the most important features of the game,[32] was developed to make random choices; they study their surroundings, finding tactics to attack the player.

[37] The team felt that the game forces players to make difficult choices, in terms of combat, stealth and resource management, allowing them to understand the decisions made by the characters.

This was achieved by making weapons lethal, and placing crafting items in strategic locations across the map, which was intended to result in stealthy gameplay and careful selection of ambushes.

Robert Polidori's photographs of Lower Ninth Ward following Hurricane Katrina were used as a reference point when designing the flooded areas of Pittsburgh.

"[Polidori] did these amazingly beautiful, horrific photos... it's not just decay and rot and post-apocalyptic grey, it's a human world that we're playing with when we portray this destruction", said Straley.

[56] In the final weeks of development, roles from the art department were undertaken by other members of the team; for example, Straley hand-arranged the texts on the game's training screens, a task that lead artist Nate Wells found unusual.

The final design was chosen when lead character artist Michael Knowland incorporated images of diseases and fungal growth onto a human.

[61] Due to Santaolalla's stance on composing music—he lacks knowledge in reading and writing sheet music, preferring to simply record—he began working on The Last of Us early in development.

[59] The sound design team began working on the game early in development, in order to achieve the best results; they immediately realized that it would be challenging.

[59] To create the sound of the Clickers, the third stage of the Infected, the team found inspiration from a report on the journalism show 20/20 (1978–present) about blind children using clicking noises to communicate.

[64] This enhanced version of the game features an increased draw distance, character models of higher resolution,[65] improved lighting and shadows, and an upgraded combat mechanic.

The report claimed that the game, codenamed "T1X", was in development for PlayStation 5, having started at Sony's Visual Arts Support Group studio but eventually moving under Naughty Dog's budget after some staff joined the project in 2020.

[84] Shortly after the unveiling, Naughty Dog co-president Evan Wells revealed details about the game: The Last of Us is a genre-defining experience that blends survival and action elements to tell a character-driven tale about a modern plague decimating mankind.

Joel, a ruthless survivor, and Ellie, a brave young teenage girl who is wise beyond her years, must work together to survive their journey across what remains of the United States.

For the final design of the trailer, the team attempted to incorporate as many gameplay features as possible, including human antagonism, melee implementation, stealth, and character relationships.

The "Post-Pandemic Edition" includes a unique case packaging, a statue of Joel and Ellie and unlock codes for additional content in the single-player and multiplayer modes.