The Last of Us Part 2 recently launched on PC, bringing the second part of the well-known Naughty Dog PlayStation adventure to a whole new audience. Port developers Nixxes build on the work previously done by Iron Galaxy for Uncharted 4 and The Last of Us Part 1 on PC, bringing new features and familiar limitations in almost equal measure.
We recently spoke to some of the key figures at Naughty Dog and Nixxes about the work they’ve done on the new port, which does launch in a much stronger state than its predecessor. Those figures include Naughty Dog’s programming director Travis McIntosh and game director Matthew Gallant and a host of developers from Nixxes: PC product director Coen Frauenfelder, principal optimisation director Wessel de Groot, junior graphics engineer Yana Mateeva, and senior director of development and studio head Jurjen Katsman.
As usual, the interview below has been lightly edited for clarity and length. Enjoy!
When did the project for The Last of Us Part 2 on PC begin? What are the origins of the current release?
Travis McIntosh: It was more than a year ago, maybe a year and three or four months ago, and actually Nixxes wasn’t available at the beginning. We always planned on working with them, but initially we worked with Iron Galaxy to produce an initial PC version. Some time in the fall of last year, Iron Galaxy rolled off, with Nixxes joining the project. We had a three or four month transition period and then they kind of took over lead development of the project around October, where they were the sole partner that we were working with, and they have done the bulk of the technical work. We’ve been talking throughout – at least once a week, sometimes three times a week, sometimes more. The bulk of the technical details have been done by them, with us standing over their shoulder and saying, “Hey, fix that. Fix that.”
What are the origins of the Naughty Dog engine on PC? It ships on DirectX 12, but presumably it must have existed in some prior form. Did anything on PC exist before porting begun, like a live editor, or did it need to be produced from the ground up?