text: bruce straley bruce straley is an american game director , artist and designer for the video game developer naughty dog , known for his work in the video games the last of us and uncharted 4 : a thief 's end . straley 's first video game work was as an artist at western technologies inc , where he worked on two titles . following this , he worked as a designer on titles for different companies , prior to his employment at crystal dynamics , where he worked as a designer on gex : enter the gecko and gex 3 : deep cover gecko . straley was employed at naughty dog in 1999 . he worked as an artist on crash team racing and the jak and daxter series . following this , he became co - art director on uncharted : drake 's fortune , and was appointed to game director of uncharted 2 : among thieves . he was later chosen to lead development on the last of us as game director , a role he continued during the development of uncharted 4 : a thief 's end . straley has received praise for his work . in particular , his work on the last of us was highly praised , and the game received several awards and nominations . career straley worked in the art and design department on two games at western technologies inc : the menacer 6 - game cartridge in 1992 , and x - men in 1993 . following this , he worked as designer on pacific 's generations lost in 1994 , and on incorporated 's mr. bones in 1996 . he was later employed at crystal dynamics , where he worked alongside amy hennig , who later became creative director of the uncharted series , and evan wells , who later became co - president of naughty dog , as well as other future naughty dog employees . at crystal dynamics , straley worked as designer on gex : enter the gecko ( 1998 ) , and provided additional art for gex 3 : deep cover gecko ( 1999 ) . following the release of gex 3 in march 1999 , straley was employed at naughty dog . at naughty dog , straley worked as an artist on crash team racing in 1999 . although he was employed as a texture artist , the small size of the team resulted in straley performing various jobs , including design , background modeling and foreground animating , among others . as the size of the studio grew , the tasks became more specific . straley acted as artist on jak and daxter : the precursor legacy ( 2001 ) , jak ii ( 2003 ) and jak 3 ( 2004 ) . straley is credited with creating the technology that managed the appearance of the jak and daxter series , and having the knowledge to understand the technical and artistic features , bridging the communication gap between the two departments . for uncharted : drake 's fortune ( 2007 ) , straley was appointed the role of co - art director , alongside bob rafei , which involved advancing the team 's technology from the playstation 2 to the playstation 3 . he was then given the role of game director for uncharted 2 : among thieves , which was released in 2009 . following the development of uncharted 2 , naughty dog split into two teams to work on projects concurrently . with one team working on uncharted 3 : drake 's deception ( 2011 ) , co - presidents evan wells and christophe balestra chose straley and neil druckmann to lead development on a new game ; straley was selected to lead the project , as game director , based on his experience and his work on previous projects . though they were originally set to develop a new game in the jak and daxter series , the team felt that they " weren 't doing service to the fans of [ the ] franchise " , and decided to create a new game , titled the last of us . straley and druckmann had previously worked together on uncharted 2 , and found that they shared similar interests . during the development of the last of us , straley and druckmann often joked that their relationship was " like a marriage " , in which they have many differing ideas , but ultimately wish to achieve the same goal . straley 's role in developing the last of us was to handle gameplay . however , in the final weeks of development , straley undertook roles from different departments that were busy with other tasks ; for example , he was seen hand - arranging the texts on the game 's training screens , a task that lead artist nate wells found unusual . " i have never even heard of a game director doing that ! that 's like ... an intern task , " wells said . at the electronic entertainment expo 2012 , straley showcased a gameplay demonstration of the last of us at sony 's press conference ; his stance on the stage became an internet meme , and was referred to as " the bruce " . the game was released on june 14 , 2013 to critical acclaim . for his work on the game , straley and druckmann were nominated for best director from the daily telegraph ; it was ultimately awarded to davey for his work on the stanley parable ( 2013 ) . straley later continued his role as game director for the downloadable expansion pack the last of us : left behind ( 2014 ) . following hennig 's departure from naughty dog in march 2014 , it was announced that straley and druckmann were working on uncharted 4 : a thief 's end ( 2016 ) as game director and creative director , respectively . initial reports claimed that hennig was " forced out " of naughty dog by straley and druckmann , though co - presidents evan wells and christophe balestra later denied this . straley presented gameplay demonstrations of uncharted 4 at the playstation experience in december 2014 , and at the electronic entertainment expo in june 2015 . works video games literature film and television