The Last of Us artbook teased in pictures, reveals Naughty Dog's development pressure

The Last of Us developer Naughty Dog has discussed the moment the game's team was tasked with creating a game that could match the success of Jak & Daxter, Crash Bandicoot and Uncharted. The quotes come as part of the studio's official artbook, which is bundled with special editions of the game.

Eurogamer has preview samples of the artbook - which contain new pieces of concept art - here.

Creative director Neil Druckmann and game director Bruce Straley both penned the book's introduction, which reads, "In late 2009 we were given a simple task - develop Naughty Dog's next big franchise. 'Um... what?' was out immediate response.

The passage adds, "No pressure right? Where the hell do we even start?" It continues, "Early on we were attracted to the idea of constructing an entire game around a relationship between two characters. At the beginning of the game these two characters would meet and over the course of an intense journey they'd develop an unbreakable bond.

"It took us several months to construct a story around these characters. Over the course of production the specifics of the story evolved and changed significantly, but there was one aspect that has remained consistent - the father-daughter like relationship between its two main character. These characters were eventually named Ellie and Joel and the story would be about how the relationship they formed would forever change the two of them."

You can get details on both The Last of Us special editions here.