The Last of Us director left Naughty Dog after the studio settled into a "paradigm" of how to make a specific type of game: "I just don't have it in me. I would make a lot more money if I did!"

The Last of Us director Bruce Straley gave the most personable and detailed explanation yet for why he left. Naughty dog back in 2016, citing “repetition” of the studio's established game design as one of the key reasons for his departure.

“I stayed there for 18 years. That's a long time for someone to be anywhere,” Straley says. Polygon. “I think I played a very important role in building this brand and these titles and I had some really amazing experiences working with these teams. But I felt like I was answering the same questions over and over again.

“We were kind of the paradigm of this style of play – I was part of the creation! But I felt like I had been in this position before. My brain doesn't handle this kind of repetition very well. I need new problems to solve, I need new creative possibilities. I'm not saying there won't be opportunities there, but combine that feeling with the idea that I was working really, really hard at something that wasn't mine.”

Straley's first job at Naughty Dog was working on Crash Team Racing, and he went on to become co-art director on 2007's first Uncharted game and then game director on Uncharted 2, The Last of Us, The Last of Us: Left Behind and finally 2016's Uncharted 4 before leaving the following year. Straley founded his own studio, the independent Wildflower Interactive, in 2021, and last night Gaming Awards 2025debut game, single-player adventure Chicken Foot Covenwas discovered.

Chicken Leg Coven – Announcement Trailer – YouTube

While we haven't seen enough of Naughty Dog's next game yet, Intergalaxy: Heretic ProphetIn terms of whether and how game design has changed since The Last of Us 2, it sounds like Straley just wanted something different after directing three big-budget cinematic narrative adventure games. And Straley was right: Naughty Dog ended up beating the same drum – literally, in the case of The Last of Us 2 re-releases – for years to come.

“For me, it's evolution: How can I just look at something from a different angle and create a fresh take on a well-studied genre?” – he said. “And if I don’t do it… I just don’t have it in me. If I did that, I would earn a lot more!”

Notably, Coven of the Chicken Foot is described as an “emotionally rich, stylized, single-player adventure” that certainly doesn't go against the design philosophy that has largely defined Naughty Dog's games for nearly two decades, but at least stylistically it's very distinctive, with a bright, colorful, shadowed, almost Ghibli-like atmosphere that has nothing in common with the near-photorealistic style of modern Naughty Dog games.

In terms of gameplay, Wildflower says it's a “charming yet dark character-driven puzzle platformer set in a stylized world that 'winks' at the stereotypes of a traditional fantasy adventure game,” which really fits with what Straley said about wanting to avoid repetition.