Recently, GameSpy was invited to stop by Naughty Dog's newly leased Santa Monica headquarters. The new offices were beautiful, and we're insanely jealous. But more to the point, we got to check out the upcoming Jak III and catch up with the developers. Amy Hennig, formerly of Crystal Dynamics and the Legacy of Kain series, is the director of Jak III. We sat down with her to get the scoop on working at Naughty Dog, the challenges of making a sequel to Jak II, and just how they manage to thrive under such amazingly tight production schedules.

Amy Hennig
GameSpy: Please tell us who you are, and what you're doing on this project.
Amy Hennig: I'm Amy Hennig, and I'm the game director on Jak III. Which means that I kind of try to run the team on a day-to-day basis. I'm kind of producer-y in the sense that I'm trying to organize tasks and make sure everyone knows what they're doing but then the design aspect of it is laying out levels, reviewing levels, working on the levels, tweaking the levels, putting objects in and working in the editors and working with the programmers to get things implemented. It's kind of everything but story and dialogue, which is Dan Arey's realm. So that's basically ... I'm trying to replicate what Evan Wells did on Jak II, but obviously those are giant, giant shoes to fill. That's why he's helping me out, sometimes part-time and sometimes full-time just to try to get everything done.
GameSpy: So you pretty much have final say on many aspects of the gameplay and such.
Amy Hennig: Well yeah, if it's needed to make a decision quickly of course, I can kind of make the call. But we try to be more collaborative than that. Especially between Dan, Evan and I and Jason, just to make sure we all agree on something and make sure we're making the best call for the game. Nothing is too unilateral. But at any point where collaboration would slow the process down we can go ahead and make a unilateral decision and try to live with it.
GameSpy: So you're from Crystal Dynamics ...
Amy Hennig: I was there for eight years, yeah.
GameSpy: How does Naughty Dog's environment differ from Crystal Dynamics'?
Amy Hennig: I'm still sort of getting my sea legs, getting used to it. I don't want to make any of the comparisons sound pejorative in either direction, know what I mean? I think Naughty Dog is equipped to implement things much more nimbly than I've seen in other companies. They're a lot more flexible, there's a lot less bureaucracy. So it's not just a comparison to Crystal, it's a comparison to other companies I've either been at or seen. If something needs to get done we just do it. If a decision needs to be made we just make it. If something needs to be changed to be better or more fun we just change it. That means it can be a little organic and chaotic sometimes, but I think the end results speak for themselves.

I guess that's the major difference for me, it feels a little bit more like you have your sleeves rolled up, and can get in there and really muck in the work, and make things happen on a day-to-day basis. It's a lot more gratifying sometimes. Obviously ... the reason I was at Crystal for eight years is that it's an excellent company. I miss my team, and the technology and the IP and stuff like that we developed, but when Evan called, it was just an opportunity I couldn't pass up.