14 DAY TRIAL // Amy Hennig, the writer and creator of the Uncharted series and former director of design for Naughty Dog, has just joined the team at Visceral Games and will serve as creative director of the studio's new Star Wars project.
Naughty Dog is one of Sony's most talented internal teams, producing huge hits like Uncharted or The Last of Us. Unfortunately, in recent months, a series of departures have rocked the leadership of the studio, as design director Amy Hennig left, amidst rumors of being forced to leave, and shortly after that Justin Richmond, the producer of Uncharted 4, also quit in order to join League of Legends developer Riot Games.
Now, Visceral Games General Manager Steve Papoutsis has confirmed on the official Electronic Arts website that Amy Hennig has just joined his team as creative director and will lead the creation process for the new Star Wars project.
"As both a colleague and friend, I’ve always admired her approach to creative development – focusing on nailing down the soul of a game first, and then making sure the writing, the gameplay, the design and the art comes together to form a unified, interactive experience for the player," Papoutsis said about the new move.
"This fits in perfectly with what we’re trying to do here at Visceral and Amy’s going to help us continue in our pursuit to make the most thrilling, immersive games in the world."
Papoutsis added that Hennig was being assaulted with plenty of different offers after her departure from Naughty Dog, but the ultimate promise of working in the Star Wars franchise has drawn her in.
"There are a lot of different directions we could have gone, but I could sense that what really excited her about this opportunity (because let’s face it, we weren’t the only ones knocking at her door) was Star Wars. Amy’s a huge fan. We happen to be making a Star Wars game. Just thinking about the possibilities made both of us even more excited about having her join the team."
You can bet that Electronic Arts and Visceral are thrilled about this major addition to the team so it's going to be interesting to see what Hennig can do with the studio's Star Wars project, which is rumored to be an open world action game.
As of yet, however, no other details are known, so expect to hear some more info probably at E3 2014 in June or later in the year.