the first game called The Last of Us: One Night Live (2014). In the drafts, Esther lived in a town about two hours away from Jackson. In an early version of a flashback, Ellie and Joel traveled to Esther and found that she had been bitten; her death triggered a conversation between Ellie and Joel about a cure. The character was later scrapped as the writers felt she was established too quickly, and was more relevant to Joel's arc than Ellie's. A love letter from Esther remained for some time afterwards, but was eventually cut from the final game. Druckmann identified that the first game's pacing was like a film, but he wanted Part II to be reflective of a novel, with several quiet moments. Some of the game's dialogue was inspired by the British dark comedy series The End of the F***ing World (2017–2019). The notes scattered around the world were developed out of discussions with the team; as a level was built, the team would discuss the stories behind particular objects in the environment. The team decided to use Seattle as the game's primary location as its hilly nature and varied weather led to more interesting gameplay scenarios. Artists at Naughty Dog traveled to Seattle to analyze the architecture, vegetation, materials, topography, and lighting, and capture photorealistic textures. The team experimented with larger open world environments in Part II, as they had previously done with Uncharted 4 and The Lost Legacy. Druckmann wanted the open world of Seattle to contribute to Ellie feeling lost and frustrated. The final chapter of the game originally took place in Mexico before being moved to Santa Barbara, California. Character development Ashley Johnson and Troy Baker reprise their roles as Ellie and Joel, respectively. Druckmann pitched the narrative to Johnson at a restaurant during early development of The Last of Us: Left Behind (2014), and to Baker after the 10th British Academy Games Awards. Druckmann recalled that Johnson's approval was the first feeling of validation for the narrative. The actors' performance were recorded at a studio in Playa Vista, Los Angeles using performance capture, recording motion and voice simultaneously. The actors wore motion capture suits and head-mounted cameras that track facial muscles and eye movements. Recording ran from 2017 to April 2019. The actors were allowed to improvise or suggest ideas while performing; Druckmann said that he would do "20 or 30 takes