 To aid in the visual aspect of production , David Siller recruited Joe Pearson of Epoch Ink , who in turn recommended that Charles Zembillas of American Exitus be brought on board as well . Pearson and Zembillas would meet with Naughty Dog weekly to create the characters and environments of the game . Because the main character was Tasmanian , it was decided that the game would take place on a mysterious island where every possible type of environment could be found , with the added reasoning that an evil genius like Doctor Neo Cortex would require an island stronghold . On creating the levels for the game , Pearson first sketched each environment , designing and creating additional individual elements later . Pearson aimed for an organic , overgrown look to the game and worked to completely avoid straight lines and 90 @-@ degree corners . In January 1995 , Rubin became concerned about the programmer @-@ to @-@ artist ratio and hired Bob Rafei and Taylor Kurosaki as additional artists . A Naughty Dog artist sketched every single background object in the game before it was modeled . Naughty Dog 's artists were tasked with making the best use of textures and reducing the amount of geometry . Dark and light elements were juxtaposed to create visual interest and separate geometry . The artists would squint when sketching , texturing , and playing the levels to make sure they could be played by light value alone . They ensured to use color correctly by choosing mutually accentuating colors as the theme for the " Lost City " and " Sunset Vista " levels . The interior of Cortex 's castle was designed to reflect the inside of his mind . 
