Today is June 19, 2024, and we are therefore celebrating the fourth anniversary of The Last of Us Part II ! The opportunity for us to return to one of the elements of gameplay from the title: the archery system.
The Last of Us Part II is a game of high quality, and whose success testifies to an undeniable investment on the part of the Dogs. Thus, we were able to have a concrete overview of this dedication of the development teams recently, with the distribution of Grounded II: Making The Last of Us Part II. This documentary, released in February, reveals a very interesting part of the behind the scenes behind the creation of this legendary PS4 title. Accessibility features, voice acting of the infected, blood physics, etc. were, among other things, detailed. Today it is on the archery system that we linger, since the Senior Game Designer Derek Mattson detailed how it works on X (Twitter).
Derek Mattson details how the archery system works The Last of Us Part II on X (Twitter).
Derek Mattson, Senior Game Designer
Say that Derek Mattson is an experienced man in the video game industry is nothing less than an understatement! Indeed, after obtaining a Master of Science Interactive Entertainment in 2016 he joined Santa Monica Studio (God of War) in August of the same year, asAssociate Technical Designer. After a little over a year and a half of good and loyal service, he left to join the Dogs, as Systems Designeruntil May 2021.
Obviously subject to a form of nostalgia, Derek then returned to Santa Monica Studio and benefited from a promotion, now occupying the position of Senior Systems Designer. Ultimately, the adventure only lasted eleven months, since here he is, at this time, back home Naughty Dog since March 2022 as Senior Game Designer. A busy journey, at the crossroads between two studios whose quality no longer needs to be demonstrated.
Derek Mattson at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2024.
Note that Derek notably worked on The Last of Us Part IIreleased on June 19, 2020. An adventure full of emotions and acclaimed by critics, which therefore celebrates its fourth birthday today. It is also about this title that Derek spoke almost a year ago, on his X account (Twitter), to detail one of the essential mechanics…
Bow aiming, a complex logic
It all started on July 16, 2023, when internet user @walaber noticed an interesting fact while playing The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. Indeed, while bow aiming, in most third-person games, is done by a zoom over the shoulder of the character, Nintendo proceeded differently for Zelda. There the camera also zooms, but in the back the link.
Bow aiming in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. By @walaber.
Bow aiming in Horizon Forbidden West. By @walaber.
To explain this, Walaber simulated such an aiming system in the Unity 3D engine. He then explains that the crosshair that appears on the screen when the arc is drawn corresponds to a line that crosses the scene. Nevertheless, this one does not start from the arc : it is the player’s point of view that is adopted. However, depending on the distance there is from the target, the angle difference between the crosshair and the character’s point of view can be important. This inconsistency then proves problematic in terms of immersion.
Reproduction of the archery system with over-the-shoulder sight. By @walaber.
This is precisely what Nintendo corrected by adopting a different aim. In this case, the crosshair line and the character’s point of view overlap. There is therefore no longer a problem of perception.
Reproduction of the archery system of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. By @walaber.
Derek Mattson did not hesitate to tackle this complex but interesting subject. THE Senior Game Designer des Dogs thus launched an explanatory thread on X (Twitter) which details the archery system of The Last of Us Part II.
The archery system in The Last of Us Part II
To fully understand the logic developed by Naughty Dog, Derek presents in the preamble two methods commonly used for bow aiming.
Possibility No. 1: Use a GUI arc
The first method is the one used in the first The Last of Usreleased in 2013. The principle is relatively simple, since it involves consider the bow a bit like a grenade. There, the crosshair that the player sees is replaced by a arc GUI (Graphical User Interface, man-machine device corresponding to the graphical interface) in the game environment. As a result, the arrow is not shot from the camera, but from the bow. There are no longer any synchronization problems, and the player benefits from optimal aiming information.
The arc in The Last of Us is treated like a grenade, as an object with its own aim, detached from the camera.
However, a problem, highlighted by Derek, arises. Indeed, the player’s aiming skills are found much less requested, as the information displayed on the screen is complete. It is no longer a question of knowing how to aim, but simply of having the right timing. The interest of the weapon is therefore reduced from the point of view of user experience (User eXperience in English, UX).
Furthermore, despite the precision of the graphical interface, there remains a risk of Accidentally shoot arrows into walls. Obviously, this is not a desirable event, as it harms the UX.
Although the enemy is in the visual field and the aim seems correct, the bow shoots into the wall.
Possibility No. 2: Shoot the arrow from the camera
The second possibility is to simply shoot arrow from camera crosshair. In this configuration, special effects are added to the bow, to make it appear that the arrow is starting from it. This method works particularly well for fast projectiles, as Derek points out.
The arrow appears to shoot directly from the camera, not from the bow, in Tomb Raider.
Despite everything, disadvantages persist. For example, if the projectile does not go fast enough, theillusion is broken. It then becomes possible to see the arrow coming from the camera, and not from the bow. Likewise, with this method we lose part of the information relating to aiming from the arc (corresponding to the first possibility). Finally, the risk is to have sensations similar to using a firearm, removing his identity with the bownegative point for UX.
Possibility No. 3: Use a hybrid system
We finally come to the method used by the Dogs for the archery system of The Last of Us Part II. The idea here is to use two arrows during each shoteach with a different behavior.
The first is the one drawn from the camera, thanks to the crosshair, as we could see in the example described by Walaber on X (Twitter). Its particularity is in particular the fact that it can collide with all elements of the game, whether it is the components of the environment, or the enemies. Important detail to note: it is invisible.
In The Last of Us Part II, an invisible arrow extends from the camera. It is she who manages the mechanical behavior…
The second arrow, for its part, part of the arc. The collision point of the first arrow is then recovered, and used to recalculate the arc of the second. This arrow is clearly visible, and determines all the visual effects displayed on the screen.
In addition, it has a certain advantage: it does not collide than with enemies. The risk of shooting into a wall, while the camera is pointing at an enemy, therefore disappears. Indeed, as long as the arrow of the reticle does not encounter a collision, that of the bow does not encounter one either. It is the first invisible arrow which defines the behavior of the second.
We thus have an optimal archery system in terms of UX, whether from a gameplay or immersion point of view.
…and another arrow, visible, leaves the bow. She is the one who manages the visual effects.
Derek specifies, however, that if this system works for Part II, this is not the case for all games. For example, other considerations would need to be taken into account for a multiplayer game.
And you, what do you think of the archery system of The Last of Us Part II ? Don’t hesitate to tell us in the comments! You can also follow Naughty Dog Mag’ on the networks: YouTube, X (Twitter), Facebook, Instagram, Discord and Threads.
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2024-06-19 08:04:10
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