Nate Wells, an art director formerly with Naughty Dog, has left the company for the “wild, wacky and ultimately brilliant folks” at Giant Sparrow, the studio behind The Unfinished Swan.
Wells, who joined Naughty Dog in 2012 and had worked on The Last of Us, made the announcement late last night in Tweet, yet his LinkedIn profile page notes that he is “currently between careers.”
“Hmmm….seem to be some threads here,” Wells wrote. “Yes, I joined the wild, wacky, and ultimately brilliant folks at #GiantSparrow on April 3rd.”
Wells got his start with Irrational Games and worked as an art director on Bioshock and Bioshock Infinite. Wells also worked on the Thief franchise (Deadly Shadows, The Metal Age and The Dark Project) and SWAT 4.
Giant Sparrow is currently under a three-game deal with Sony, the first being The Unfinished Swan that released in 2012 on the PlayStation Network. In this single-player adventure, gamers find themselves in the shoes of a boy named Monroe as he chases a swan that has escaped from a painting.
This move probably means that Wells is getting brought on to contribute to a new mystery project that is likely their next game in the contract. Giant Sparrow had previously announced the title as Edith Finch, but that has since been retracted.
“The working title is ‘Unannounced Giant Sparrow Project’ and there’s no release date yet or platforms announced,” the developers have listed on their website. “It’s not a sequel to The Unfinished Swan, but it’s not a million miles away either. If you like surreal experiences and games that aren’t much like anything you’ve ever played before, then you’ll probably like it.”
The announcement from Wells marks the third high-profile departure from Naughty Dog in recent months. Amy Hennig and Justin Richmond both left in March and were confirmed to be working on Uncharted 4. Hennig left in early March and has since joined up with Visceral Studios to work on an upcoming Star Wars title. Richmond left near the end of March and is now with League of Legends developer Riot Games.