Amy Hennig is an American video game director and script writer who is known for her well-developed game Uncharted 2: Among Thieves in 2009. The Uncharted Director was then hired by EA to work at Dead Space Studio Visceral to develop a new Star Wars game.
Not long after the development took place, Amy decided to stop the production of the new Star Wars game and depart from the studio. Many fans of Hennig’s work were left with questions regarding her reasons for leaving the studio and her plans after her departure.
When Amy was asked about the whole Star Wars situation, she kept many details to herself due to confidentiality, but she also didn’t leave her audience without reason either. During a DICE summit event in Los Angeles, Amy said that as upsetting as it is, she is still passionate about creating deep stories and complex characters. In the process, she has began developing her own independent game studio, and she is deeply inspired by her younger game developers that tell her she is the reason they pursued the gaming business.
Hennig went on to say the Star Wars game faced a number of challenges, one being that it was very expensive to run since it was in the middle of San Francisco Bay Area. “It’s very hard to support compared to studios that cost a third of the price in places where there are tax credits.” She also mentioned the game was very far into development and EA decided to pivot the game design, making it something players would want to continuously come back.
They also wanted to including other modes and extensibility to make the game more linear, but it never worked out. Even though Visceral and EA Vancouver’s Star Wars game may not ever be developed, there’s been talk that EA is developing a smaller-scale title that will be released soon.
As for Amy, she has moved on from Visceral and is currently working on her own independent studio and consulting with Virtual Reality companies about the matter, hoping to hire at least 15 people as of right now.