When you’re making video games as a full-time job, you’re going to find yourself trying to push yourself to do new things whenever possible, and the team over at Naughty Dog has been doing that for a long time. They started by creating the icon we know as Crash Bandicoot, then made the duo of Jak & Daxter, then shifted to telling the tale of Nathan Drake, and finally, made the compelling stories featuring Joel & Ellie. Neil Druckmann has been there for much of that, and while he’s said he doesn’t know how many more big games he has “in him,” he’s still working on things right now.
To that end, Neil Druckmann did an interview that was posted on Twitter, and he noted that the next game that the team is working on is really ambitious, but it’s also going to stress the team out as they try to complete it:
“Working on this new game, it’s really ambitious, parts of it are really hard, but I’ve really surrendered to knowing it’s going to be really hard, knowing it’s going to stress members of the team out.”
Even with that, he’s trying to make it something that is “joyous” to the team as they develop it, so we’ll have to see how that works out for him.
Also, in that interview, he noted that he loves helping his teammates and furthering their growth when possible. The co-director for the recent remaster, Kurt Margenau, was one he specifically called out for this:
“He recently did something on this new game and really stepped up and gave this impassioned pitch, and I was just so proud. Just seeing other people rise to the occasion and surprising me in these really beautiful ways, these days I get a lot of joy out of that and helping mentor people and seeing them express themselves through art.”
So, what is the new game that they’re working on? No one is sure. There are plenty of rumors that it has to do with a third game in The Last of Us series, which would make sense given the “ambitious” and “stressful” tone that Druckmann had before.
However, you can’t discount that they could be going in an entirely new direction so they can make a new IP that they can bank on for a decade or so. Don’t forget, they’re good at making IPs that have longevity, so you can bank on them to keep trying to do what they know they’re good at.
