The Last of Us is undeniably one of the best games to have come out on the PlayStation 4, reminding us that developer Naughty Dog can create an excellent video game without having to have that Nathan Drake guy show up and get shot at. While there was of course a variety of weaponry at the player’s disposal, the core of the game revolved more around main characters Joel and Ellie and the bonds they formed as they struggled to survive in a post-apocalyptic world. According to The Last of Us game director Bruce Straley, something as simple as shooting guns in video games isn’t at all necessary to create something that is both character-driven and compelling.

“Can you create a game that’s as interesting and character-driven and compelling as an Uncharted story or Last of Us story without shooting? I think you can,” Straley said in a recent interview with Gamesindustry.biz. Again the concept has to be… ‘how can I create a rich enough world to allow for interesting core mechanics?’” Straley explores the topic further, at one point referencing Hideo Kojima as a good example of someone that’s mixing things up in the games industry by focusing less on violence and more on building something that doesn’t necessarily require bloodshed to be enjoyed. “The world has to afford interesting, compelling ways for the player to figure out [solutions] — and that’s a lot of what games are,” Straley says.

We have to put players in a position to be engaged with overcoming obstacles, which means the core mechanics have to avail us enough opportunity to figure out a solution.”

The Last of Us director goes on to look at things from a player’s perspective, stating that as a player he would “want something fresh” and not a cookie cutter repeat. “I want something that feels different, and I think we’re allowing for more time with the game to settle into experiences, where it used to be more like: ‘How do we get the player hooked in the first ten minutes, we gotta do this, we start in media res, start with some action sequence, let’s go, go, go.’”

The Last of Us Part II is now in development for PlayStation 4.

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