The Uncharted series has garnered quite a bit of acclaim both in terms of its visual powers and immersive gameplay mechanics that it brought onto the PlayStation 3. So immediately after the completion of the project, majority of the community assumed that the company had already started working on its sequel. While this may be true to a certain point, a few people within Naughty Dog studios are also working on other Sony projects simultaneously.
thatgamecompany is famous for its games Flower, flOw and Cloud. They recently unveiled their latest game that is under works and is titled “The Journey,” which looks to be inspired from Ico set in an online world. At LinkedIn, we discovered Eytan Zana’s profile who has been working as a concept artist for Naughty Dog for the last three months working on the same project. His profile connects us to his blog titled “EZ DRAWS”, where he has put up a display of his current work. In a post that is dated July 13, 2010 we found the following quote, “Part of an ICO inspired project I’m doing with my buddy Matt Nava, will post more thumbnails.”
He has also posted a bunch of his paintings on July 19, which states, “For the Ico project. Wanted to capture some outskirts, an establishing shot, and some platforming areas. Will be finishing three of these.”
Matt Lava, if you guys are not quite aware is, the Art Director of thatgamecompany. So it seems that a few individuals from Naughty Dog are working on this project as well, which also looks to be quite a definitive game when it is out. Uncharted 3 may be coming along but it is nice to see that the company is actually helping out other developers who are working out to develop awesome stuff for the PlayStation 3. More on both titles as information trickles down.
UPDATE:
Besides commenting on the article below, Naughty Dog’s Eytan Zana mailed us saying that it has nothing to do with Sony. Zana writes, “I wanted to shed some light on the recent Naughty Dog rumors. In your Article here you mention the ICO project. I want to clarify that this has absolutely nothing to with Sony, Naughty Dog, or any other company. This was an assignment I was given in class, to redesign my favorite game. I asked my good friend Matt Nava if he wanted to join in on the fun since he too has a love for all things Ico. This is nothing more than an after work side project we work on when we have spare time. I have also commented on the articles comment section. Again, you have to realize, if I posted work from a top-secret project I would be fired immediately. Sorry for the miscommunication.”