Back in 2019, film production company Skydance Media announced its new interactive division would be led by industry veteran Amy Hennig and former EA executive Julian Beak. Both had previously worked for EA on a cancelled Star Wars game codenamed Ragtag.
Now, Hennig has been joined by another former colleague from her Ragtag days, writer and actor Todd Stashwick, who revealed he would be working with the studio on a new adventure game.
I’m working with @amy_hennig and a core team of industry vets on an exciting action/adventure game. Seeking folks that want to push-state-of the art animation tech: https://t.co/GnqmA1YyeF. Also If u have extensive Unreal Engine experience see more here: https://t.co/3OjTQZ2lFF. pic.twitter.com/wQJ8JjwphfMay 17, 2021
The tweet also mentions that the studio is looking for a Senior Animation Engineer and a Senior Software Engineer. In a separate tweet, Stashwick said he's "very excited to be working with Amy Hennig as always."
Amy Hennig is the former creative director at Naughty Dog and co-creator, director and writer on the first three Uncharted games, as well writer on games such as Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver and Battlefield Hardline. Expectations for her new game are likely high, but seeing that the studio is still in the hiring phase, it's going to be a while until we hear anything concrete.
In a 2019 interview with GamesBeat, Hennig has described finite, author crafted stories as her sweet spot, as opposed to service-type games. She also said that she plans to put a lot of work into "visual fidelity, character fidelity, performance", as these are important to players and the experiences she wants to create.
As someone who likes what we often (perhaps mistakenly) call 'story-focused' games, that dedication to the craft does sound exciting to me, and with Hennig's track record, it sounds like the new studio has great things in store. It will also be nice to see Hennig's work on more platforms, as the Uncharted series is still a PlayStation exclusive. With how Sony wants to publish more games on PC though, I wonder if Uncharted will make it over to us at some point, too.
