Nate Wells departs Naughty Dog, joins The Unfinished Swan dev
Art director Nate Wells switched animalian employers by leaving Naughty Dog this month for independent studio Giant Sparrow. 2012 saw Giant Sparrow come to the fore with PS3 game The Unfnished Swan, and the Californian dev is working on an unannounced project.
Formerly at Irrational Games for 13 years, Wells joined Naughty Dog as Lead Artist back in August 2012. After nearly two years, including ten months of work on The Last of Us, Wells revealed he left the Sony-owned studio to join Giant Sparrow on April 3, where he'll likely work on the developer's next project. Giant Sparrow announced that game last year as Edith Finch, only to quickly retract the news and roll its title back to the much catchier "Unfinished Giant Sparrow Project." The studio promises that whatever that next game may be, "it's not a sequel to The Unfinished Swan but it's not a million miles away either."
Wells' departure from Naughty Dog follows those of game director Justin Richmond, now at League of Legends studio Riot Games, and Uncharted writer Amy Hennig, who joined EA to work on Visceral Games' Star Wars project. The circumstances that surrounded Hennig's departure remain unclear, and the studio has vehemently denied a report that The Last of Us directors Bruce Stanley and Neil Druckman were "involved in what transpired."
[Image: Sony Computer Entertainment]
