The importance of design in story telling: The last of Us 

 
Show don’t tell relating to character design and environment   
 
DEADLINE FOR CONCEPT DRAWING 25TH AT LATEST!! 
 
Introduction 
 
Why is character design important for storytelling? 
Character design is as crucial to the story as the story itself, the story won’t work if the
character does not look like it fits. Ellie’s character would not have matched up with the
story if she was a buff god based on mythology and looks like they come from a completely
different universe (Kratos). 
Need to look like they belong in the world they live in. 
//Explain what in Ellies appearance says about her character// 
And the role of Joel could not have been played with the important father daughter
relationship if he was designed in his 20’s without the history with his daughter Sarah.  
//Explain what in Joels appearance says about his character// 
The way the characters are designed, along with how their body language relates when
interacting with another character conveys a lot of important information without verbally
stating to the audience. 
This can be shown in the character development/ throughout the game as the 2 characters
(Joel and Ellie)  
This can be shown between the characters as their bond grows throughout the story. 
Clips from Ellie and Joels first encounter (body language of Ellie being shy, Joel showing
dislike and not much interest) 
//Explain// 
To Ellie gaining more confident around Joel (walk on the way to the hospital, Joel being
worried for her safety)  
//Explain// 
To them having a deep emotional connection (Ellie looks after Joel when stabbed)  
//Explain// 
Could talk about the infected designs how the origin of the fungus is an important story
factor when designing and how each of the 4 stages tells a story in how the fungus grows
(its life cycle) If enough time – based of a real life fungus that exists infecting ants where in
the final state the body dies and the fungus sprouts out from the ants head releasing spores
-  (very important in the game). Makes the game more realistic and scary as there is a real
possibility of the chance of it hopping to humans. (Has a very real chance of becoming
reality) 
 
Ellie has to look young enough for the father daughter relationship to be believable but old
enough to be a resourceful teenager capable of living in a post pandemic world.  
Dressed in a simple T-shirt over long shirt with jeans, protective and converse. Badges
(teenage thing, sense of identity)  on her rucksack. Clothes all easily accessible, mass
produced easy to find and not fancy. Hair short, age appropriate, tied back for convenience,
messy.  
 
Looks like a child, casual, 2000’s design, converse 2000’s, versitlile durable lasts long
backpack. Introverted/extrovert. She doesn’t stand out in appearance, not obvious or
striking features.T-shirt faded shows it’s worn and old.  
 
Ellies stance – carefree, innocent, puts more thght int appearance than joel 
 
Looks well prepared, weathered – looks like he’s had a tough life, stained clothes, out door,
keeps facial hair tidy, well maintained, looks like a survivor. Military history, looks like he’s
experienced, flannels – looks like a dad, greying hair hints at dad. Heavy duty, built to last,
resourceful. Sentimental value to the watch, carries heavy emotional story relating to the
past. Clothes very common, mass produced, 2000’s. Survivor. 
 
They don’t know each other in the beginning, but by the end, we really see that father
daughter relationship bond flourish. (When she kills David) 
 
Why is environment / world building important in storytelling? 
The story is set in post-apocalyptic America over run by zombies that the game calls ‘the
infected’ 
Story is about Joel navigating his way through infected ridden Boston where he has to escort
an immune girl, Ellie to an organisation in hope to make a vaccine. 
 
Contributing factors to early concepts of the game was how to make the world as realistic as
possible, the story mostly set 20 years after the collapse of civilisation had to look into the
fact of what would happen if humans disappeared.  
Based on scientific studies the deciding factors that were most obvious in the game were
flooded buildings and even whole cities underwater in the later games (Seattle). 
Animals moving back to the city and not being scared of humans, nature taking over and
blocking paths. 
//World building makes your story believable and relatable to the audience. If the
environment is made poorly or incomplete the audience will pay more attention to the
inconsistencies rather than immerse themselves into the story// 
Environment tells a story within itself – SHOW NOT TELL 
Talk about specific concepts, ie picure with ivy on windows. Flooded buildings, abandoned
possessions etc. SHOW DON’T TELL 
//Resources are hard to come by// - if time to talk about. 
//History – how people interact with each other – groups – fight for resources// 
 
Conclusions 
World building hightens the emotional impact of the game play and story 
World building is important because it is essential to the whole process of storytelling.  
What’s important is the players feeling what the characters are. Makes it feel real. 
 
 
Brief history 
– how games have improved from where they began, what the first games with human
characters looked like and how the first games started out. 
Original tomb raider – first represtanation of character in 3d space attempt to make
accurate anatomy.      
Lara Croft 1996 – from design alone it is difficult to get information about what her
personality or story is. You can tell she is female and a fighter as she carries guns. She fits
with the inspired Indiana Jones idea with the limited clothing – typical armless. 
When you compare to the first games with 3D human characters. 
Very limited in capability with cinematic experience. 
Ellie snd Joel – you get an immediate idea of the type of people they are with the design
choices but also the improvement of technology, opens up a lot more options for creative
freedom.  
Very blocky world, tombs and pyramids, story/world worked well with the graphics they had
at the time –compared to  hyper realistic tlou where it feels like you’re actually in America. 
 
Tlou ps5 remake from ps3 characters more detailed down to iris snd pupil depth,improved
facial animation more believable. Subtle reactions snd glances, glares.subtle body language
can be more important than verbal – could move this into technology. Hit both points? 
Ps5 density of physics objects in a scene, chipping, breakables , destructible objects makes
world feel lived in and more real. Seeing things break from a reaction envokes more fear. 
Npc’s AI improved, future exposure, npc’s making decisions to avoid enemy detection,
stealth believable. Feeling the environments creates a more immersive and emotional
experience. Guns have resistance on triggers, feels like you’re actually pulling the trigger on
the gun. And hepatic vibration on the shock  
 
Technology’s improvements  
PS5 has improved graphics – improved story experience, immersivity making the game feel
more real , making the world more realistic improves story experience as it feels more real
to the player.  
– graphics ps5 (improvement from the first TLOU game on ps3 2013 to it being remade for
ps5) Filmic level – can look as good as it does in film. Games are at a level where they can
compete with film, visually, in terms of story telling, audio, characters. 
Metahumanq 
 
More innovation in video games in the last 20 years than in movies 
They definitely emphasise heroism and sacrifice, courage, central values, and they create
works of visual art that are immersive in ways that art has never been before that is unique. 
Tlou is also a good storytelling firm – one of the first games to be like this and good at
storytelling.  
How it makes the player feel – dual sense controller.  
 
Key people – naughty dog company, concept artists and designers who worked on making
the characters. Where the company started out – their first game. Company development.  
Mixes of job titles cominicate with each other – constantly bouncing ideas from one
another. Encourage constructive criticism.  
Neil and Bruce. 
Bruce  and Neil came to Evan wells, co president, with an idea to create post apocalyptic
game “the core essence of what they wanted to do was to tell a story about 2 people and
how their relationship evolves over the course o the game”  
They wanted to create a special game through the story.  
Neil responsible for story, characters. Bruce (game director) responsible for game play.
Finding right balance between the 2.  
“Pair story and gameplay together, make you eel like you are with these characters on that
journey, in theory feeling the same things that they’re feeling” – Bruce 
Neil – “everything grew out of Joel and Ellie’s relationship” story development 
Joel – anti hero.  Neil did not want to make stereotypical characters he wanted to make real
people, forced to make tough realistic decisions. Unique focus on female strength. 
Strong female character like Ellie is rare in video games.  
Troy (plays Joel) “we’ve seen the strong woman, the weak woman, we have not necessarily
seen the empowered woman” 
Ellie reading through a girls journal “is this really what they used to worry about, what shirt
do I wear and what boy am I going to go out with” “to be met with those 1st world problems
and how trivial it is” 
Ellies character deign being female 
Creating a female action hero – starting story. Naughty dog taking pride in creating a non
sexualised and complex character that by the end of the story becomes the protagonist by
the end of the story.  
Dual protagonist game.  
About humans and how they cope with a post apocalyptic society.  

John Sweeney – concept artist 

 
Planet earth, idea for the infected where they saw a cortosept fungus which gets inside of
the Bain and controls ants, once the body dies the fungus sprouts out of the brain and
germinates, spread the infection taking over whole colonies. What happened if it spread to
humans? Concept pieces  
What would happen, how would people react, what would happen to society? 

Went through many design sketches of infected, some that looked very alien and
subhuman, some that looked like zombies. A concept artist made a photo mashup of images
of diseases and fungal overgrowth. Michael Knowland – lead character artist. Fungal growth
making it look like it is a part of the body and growing out of the body, tearing the face
apart. - clicker 

They created a full biological cycle for the disease, not seeing too many signs at the
beginning, seeing fungus just starting to surface through the skin. Eyes becoming lopsided as
fungus originates inside the head and is pushing through. 
N ext phase clicking phase – echolocation “a sound that on its own wouldn’t be very scary” 
Bloater is most severe of the stages. Large pieces of body replaced with fungal plates,
fungus completely takes over th body and balloons. Life growing on life (moss).  
When infected feels like its going to die it finds a dark corner and becomes a part of the
environment, human elements aren’t there anymore, the body is gone, they lay down and
sprout and spew spores. Breathing spores become infected. Making sense of how each
stage flows together. Creating a world and understand the science behind it DESIGN 
Mandatory evacuation notice, quarantine zone signs. 
Joel and Ellie’s journey through America – get to EE many different societies and how each
of them dealt with the infected. 
What happens 20 years after the fall of men when no one is taking care of anything, book
called the world without us describes in detail how much fighting on a day to day basis we
have to do to keep nature back and how quickly nature can reclaim itself. 
New York being flooded, one water is introduced is when buildings start collapsing, trees
sprout, gutters get clogged, concrete breaks easily with trees and vegetation.   
Very early piece of concept art with wild animals that escaped from a zoo and over past 20
years have bread and now they have hurds roaming the cities – tells you life goes on and
this world is worth saving. 
Naughty dog really focused on the logic going into the environments with water damage 
Pitch art – an idea that conveys the feel of the environment, not a lot of detail –
conversation starter. Then developing it thinking about if this is too tight of a space, would
the player fit through there, do we want to include water – conversations start having a bit
later. Then needs several passes back and forth before it is tightened up to be the
experience you see in the final product.  
John sweeney  concept artist 
Everything were doing in the environments is relaying back to what you should be feeling in
the story or what’s happening to these characters.  

 
Voice in character design. Voicing as Ellie and Joel.  
Ashley Johnson contributed a lot to Ellie’s character with how she interacts with the
environment around her and her comedic attribute and sarcasm, like Ellie, she had Ellie’s
personality. Neil would ask her what she would do in that situation if she was Ellie. “I feel
like I would hit him”  
“Ashley brought a sense of capability to Ellie’s character that wasn’t there at the beginning”
– Neil Ellie pulled out of car. If it was real life Ashley would do something. 
Motion capture picks up subtle movements that would otherwise be missed. Reactions from
interacting with each other would be missed – has a more natural approach and more
convincing performance. Improv moments, unscripted, natural.  
Most authentic and realistic performance because you’re actually there not just asking your
own choices but making choices based off of the other people involved in that scene so you
get a natural response to things. – Troy 
Bringing dialogue alive between the 2 characters that is brought alive through animation
and gestures. If you turned off the sound you would know that they were talking to each
other which exentuates the relationship 
Beginning she is travelling with Joel who she doesn’t really know, there are a lot of gestures
that make her look nervous in her overall stance. Later on once they have developed a
relationship you can see through the animation that she is more comfortable (not just
dialogue) 
Want her to look scared when she gets a gun, scared of the gun. Small details  
 
Techniques – What software did the designers use, what software did they build the world
in? Software, world design, world engine, characters.  
 the stages of concept art/designing back and forth with ideas (could talk about clickers)  
 
 
Allow 1 minuet for each main question and 3 for interview 
 
 
 
Your own attempts at mastering the technique: Concept art  
 
Pro Create concept idea 
 
A teenage girl, who goes around, saving the abandoned pets after the outbreak. There is a
sewage system that leads from the city to the other suburbs. She has a cottage in the
countryside, which is the safe haven for the pets that she takes care of a nurses back to
health. 
 
Concept - art work 
For the concept idea, she is trying to rescue a dog that was either tied up to a post and left
in the bedroom or in some sort of cage. The dog is emaciated back, arching tail, cold and
growling and scared in the corner of the room whilst the girl holds out a tin of cat food. (To
show the lack of resources and supplies). 
 
There is a newspaper on the floor that is titled, “zombie outbreak” there might be dog
faeces, empty bowls dirty room, dirty windows, the people used to live, there left in a hurry,
scratch marks on the walls, and the doors were the dogs tried to get out, maybe some blood
on the dogs mouth from trying to chew to get out. Chew marks on the bed posts. A dip in
the bed covers to show where the dog has slept.   
 
Cupboard that has clothes on the floor, showing that the people left in a hurry and only took
was necessary. 
 
Dog breed: great Pyrenees 
 
My brief explanation and description and ask in interview for interpretation. 1 minuet, time
lapse of drawing in procreate. 
 
Interview questions 
In what ways would you say environment is in telling the story? 
In what ways would you say the character design is important in storytelling? 
Is there a game that you particularly enjoyed playing with environment and character
design?