Richard Lemarchand, Uncharted 3’s lead game designer, has announced that has left the studio in order to teach at the prestigious School of Cinematic Arts in USC.
The headline may have been slightly misleading for those who have a particular concept as to what ‘experimenting’ in college means, however, the reader may rest assured that it has nothing to do with ‘that’ kind of experimenting.
Explain his move to leave the studio where he spent the last eight years of his career, Lemarchand explained that although he was giving up working in the video game industry he will be would still be working on games, albeit in more of an experimental way.
He said, "In other words, I'll be surrounded by awesome people, talking craft and philosophy, and building strange new things,"
Lemarchand explained that he felt that the Uncharted series felt complete as a trilogy and that he wanted to move on after spending what was almost a decade at the studio working on the same IP.
"I think the simplest answer is that it seems like a natural transition point...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.”
The move to the University of Southern California’s renowned School of Cinematic Art seemed the next logical step for the game designer who always wanted to experiment with different ideas and approaches to video game development.
"I've always loved the experimental and avant-garde. I wanted to try to make a game in that sphere for the best part of a decade, now."
It seems that Naughty Dog have exhausted the Uncharted IP on the current generation of consoles in terms of advancements in graphics and visuals and will probably wait until the PlayStation 4 before announcing the next instalment in the immensely popular
series.
In the mean time, the studio has been busy working on a brand new PlayStation 3 exclusive, The Last of Us, which is expected to be released by the end of the current year.
Tags: