One of Naughty Dog’s former and most prominent directors has unveiled a brand new video game studio. Bruce Straley has announced Wildflower Interactive, a new video game studio that will be focused on making titles that “creatively charged, uniquely-stylized games that explore the possibilities of our medium.” The studio will also be composed of veteran industry workers, and will be lead directly by Straley himself. The studio is also hiring for their first potential projects.
The website, which is composed of a beautiful art rendering of white lines forming on a black landscape, briefly explains the studio’s mission in what they’re trying to achieve. In addition, they also released an introduction video on YouTube, in which Straley himself appears and reiterates the aforementioned goals. Straley also revealed that their first project is already “underway” although he did not mention any concrete details in regards to it. Straley also teased that the studio has a “an exciting partner that supports what we’re doing and is going to help us reach the broadest audience possible.”
Straley’s long-tenured history in the video game industry has been well documented, especially in the past 10-plus years. He started out as a designer for the Gex titles in the mid-1990s. He joined Naughty Dog in 1999 and was primarily an art designer for the Jak and Daxter franchise. His career would take a major turn, as he was put onto the Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune team as the Co-Art Director. Then came one of his biggest breaks, Co-Directing alongside Amy Hennig on the critically acclaimed Uncharted 2: Among Thieves.
Hennig would stay on the Uncharted series for the third entry, but Straley was placed with Neil Druckmann as Co-Director once again, on what would eventually become what many still consider to be one of the greatest games of all time; The Last of Us. The game was overwhelmingly praised, and Straley essentially became a household name in the video game community overnight. After Hennig’s departure from Naughty Dog, Straley returned to the Uncharted franchise alongside Druckmann to Co-Direct Uncharted 4: A Thieves End. Once again, Straley’s title was critically acclaimed. Straley departed Naughty Dog in September 2017 citing burnout, but now it appears he’s ready to return to the fold. Hopefully, we’ll hear more about this new project very soon.