# #205 - Benson Russell Interview On Naughty Dog, The Last Of Us, Uncharted, Neil Druckmann, Scope..

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/kiwi-talkz-5929956/205-benson-russell-interview-on-naughty-dog-the-last-of-us-uncharted-neil-druckmann-scope
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/kiwi-talkz-5929956/205-benson-russell-interview-on-naughty-dog-the-last-of-us-uncharted-neil-druckmann-scope.md
Podcast: [Kiwi Talkz](https://stenobird.com/podcast/kiwi-talkz-5929956)
Published: 2026-04-11T18:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://rss.com/podcasts/kiwi-talkz/2717604
Audio file: https://content.rss.com/episodes/175970/2717604/kiwi-talkz/2026_04_10_03_51_46_1ac4430f-1c31-400d-b6ad-bf6e6f1a100b.mp3
Processing state: not_requested
JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/kiwi-talkz-5929956/episodes/205-benson-russell-interview-on-naughty-dog-the-last-of-us-uncharted-neil-druckmann-scope
Duration seconds: 5574

## Resource

Benson Russell was a former designer at Naughty Dog on The Uncharted Trilogy and The Last Of Us.He has now started his own consulting firm to help game developers navigate a lot of the pitfalls in game development. #uncharted #thelastofus #naughtydog WEBSITE FOR CONSULTING https://www.unhandledexceptions.io/ TIMESTAMPS 00:00 - Intro 00:32 - The Most Important Aspect Of Design/Player Fantasy 02:50 - Why Games Take So Long To Make/North Star You Need For Development 05:45 - Why Naughty Dog Games Are So Well Made/Story Is Their North Star 08:18 - Games Shouldn’t Take So Long To Develop/Wandering 13:30 - Scope Neglect/The Doomsday Clock 16:00 - Why Intergalactic Crunch Happened/Naughty Dog Treats Internal Deadlines Like External Deadlines 18:23 - Bureauacracy/How Games Differ From Other Creative Outlets 23:13 - Naughty Dog’s Work Structure 26:20 - Planning/Core Mechanics 27:00 - Flexible Working Hours At Naughty Dog/Crunch At Naughty Dog 29:00 - Why Benson Left Naughty Dog 32:45 - Benson Was P!ssed Off With Naughty Dog Deleting His Work On Last Of Us Part 1 46:01 - Working With Evans Wells & Neil Druckmann 47:00 - Clashing With Neil Druckmann 50:14 - Working With Amy Hennig 51:20 - Uncharted 2’s Introduction/Creating Introductions In Games 56:00 - Focus Testing At Naughty Dog/Companies Interpret Data Wrong 1:02:30 Q+A - How Much Naughty Dog Looks At The Competition When Designing Games 1:06:10 - AAA Studios Pivoting When They Are Too Deep/Games Should Be Cheaper 1:10:00 - Cost Of Game Development On The West Coast/China’s Meteoric Rise 1:16:04 - Uncharted 2 Was Influenced By Resident Evil 5 1:16:48 - Q+A - What Is Naughty Dog’s Hiring & Training Process 1:24:00 - Why Naughty Dog Started Losing Talent 1:26:00 - Is Game Development A Young Person’s Game/Knowledge Isn…

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