14 DAY TRIAL // Richard Lemarchand, who was one of the veterans of the Naughty Dog development team and served as co-lead designer on Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception, has announced that he was leaving video game development and will join the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California.
He will take on a teaching position at the Interactive Media Division of the academic institution and will also work on a number of experimental video games that are linked to a research project he is pursuing.
He spoke to Gamasutra about the transition to academia and stated, “I was involved with the development of the Uncharted series not quite from the beginning, but almost... and even though the Uncharted series isn't intended to be viewed as a trilogy, maybe there's something about the number three that felt... there is a certain amount of completeness for me.”
He added, “For about 10 years now, I've wanted to make a different kind of game, alongside my professional practice. I've always really loved working on the kinds of blockbuster AAA games that I've had the opportunity to work on, and I think I've been exceptionally lucky -- it's partly by luck and a little bit of judgment I've gotten to work on big games that are also, I think, real exemplars in terms of craft, and hopefully, ultimately, with some transcendent aspects to them.”
During his time at Naughty Dog, Lemarchand was dedicated to the various Uncharted projects the studio was pursuing, published by Sony, but he always felt a strong attraction to the independent development community.
When Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception was launched, Sony announced that it had shipped more than 3.8 million copies to retailers and since then it has stated that initial sales were double those of the second game in the series.
Naughty Dog recently suggested that it was working on new intellectual property and that other Sony studios might create future Uncharted titles.