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Michael Knowland (Lead Character Artist) leaves Naughty Dog
- Thread starter nbnt
- Start date
see this falls apart the moment you talk about them worrying about level design in a jak game.
Cock of War
Member
Liamario
Banned
I was tempted :-DFixed
much surprise
You're basing all of this on what exactly? Can you expand on your thoughts and why you think them, please?
What narrative are you trying to push?!
Very few game announcements? Do you mean just from WWS? You're complaining about this week's before E3? Delay of one game? Driveclub? Yosp and Boyes never tweet about internal business. Stig, whose game sucked years of time and money. The Second Son designer who himself says there's no "sinister pattern to the departures". Ueda for The Last Guardian? Who's now working on TLG on contract and under tighter milestones? And Jack Tretton. The worst offense on your list in my opinion. A man who left most likely because he was unable to advance further up the corporate ladder and not for some weird sinister thing you're imagining? And that no exclusives thing is infuriating. Just because you're not interested, games vorp out of existence?
These threads bring out the worst in GAF. I can't wait for E3, this forum needs a positivity injection. Everyone has been angsty and ancy since January.
Edit : Dear lord, I'm going to sleep. I wish I could hide threads so I don't have to see this one transform into a 10 page monstrosity when US-GAF starts waking up.
Dabookerman
Member
He cant do hair
Sarcasm, right?
Frank Tzeng works there. It's likely he might take over.
Michael Knowland has had an amazing career thus far, so I'm guessing he's wanting to further his career elsewhere. He's pretty much set for a good while. He's very young.
MrCunningham
Member
He cant do hair
He's also inept at shaving, just look at all those bits of toilet paper all over his face.
bernardobri
Steve, the dog with no powers that we let hang out with us all for some reason
Yeah, if Rare had this kind of attention back in the day, there would have been nearly one firing thread per hour.
Also, DRUCKMANNNNNNNNN!
Liamario
Banned
It's offensive to those still working there and to my brain from reading them.
fvng
Member
Cool your jets man I'm not sure what set you off but I'm talking about the fact that the bulk of their output was Wipeout games. What am I basing that on? Recent History.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCE_Studio_Liverpool#Games_developed_as_SCE_Studio_Liverpool
Or like ND isn't hiring new talented people
Who knows what the working conditions are at ND; maybe it's just too stressful for some individuals since the pressure on the studio from crazy fans and the industry itself is insane
And then there's Druckman watching over the shoulder of every employee with his beautiful eyes that pierce your work like longswords to detect if you've put enough soul and emotion into it so that he can measure if you're qualified for receiving a little fast kiss on the back of the head and a 'Thank you'
What I'm saying is that with other studios we learn about their lost talent when those people are already at a new place. Retro lost a bunch of people as well and DKCTF is one of the best games ever made by them, so I think this isn't as wild as people think
And then there's Druckman watching over the shoulder of every employee with his beautiful eyes that pierce your work like longswords to detect if you've put enough soul and emotion into it so that he can measure if you're qualified for receiving a little fast kiss on the back of the head and a 'Thank you'
What I'm saying is that with other studios we learn about their lost talent when those people are already at a new place. Retro lost a bunch of people as well and DKCTF is one of the best games ever made by them, so I think this isn't as wild as people think
Earthpainting
Member
Can't fault GAF members or gaming journalists for being interested in the comings and goings of development leads of big name studios. It's a shame that these things start leading a life of its own, but that's where people's journalistic chops are supposed to step in. An inquiry to the company could get a simple PR statement that can frame the subsequent reporting correctly. All this tight-lipped business is an ugly breeding ground for sensationalist speculation.
I do agree on the point of key hires, though I bet they would be discussed as well if people were informed about them. Departures are easier to track since we know who is there.
Who is to say they're more talented than the previous employees though? Why fix what ain't broke?
dl77
Member
The one with Amy Hennig was odd, but none of my business. The others however I'd just assume is because ND only work on AAA titles.
You're looking at 3-4 years of your life invested solidly on one game. When that's finished, more often than not, you start planning for the next in the series. I think it's a case of people wanting to do something new rather than continue on the same trail. To the best of my knowledge it's fairly common for people to move on to another studio/challenge after a game's finished.
In terms of artists I imagine that most of the design work on UC4 is finished and it's the mundane stuff of putting it into place and bug checking/refining it that they're working on now. If I was an artist I'd probably prefer the creative part of the process rather than the actual putting it all together. Plus, if they're just starting pre-production on a sequel to TLOU then I'm sure some people don't fancy doing it all again for another 4 years.
Given that there's probably a few hundred people at the company I don't see a big deal about a handful leaving for new pastures.
You're looking at 3-4 years of your life invested solidly on one game. When that's finished, more often than not, you start planning for the next in the series. I think it's a case of people wanting to do something new rather than continue on the same trail. To the best of my knowledge it's fairly common for people to move on to another studio/challenge after a game's finished.
In terms of artists I imagine that most of the design work on UC4 is finished and it's the mundane stuff of putting it into place and bug checking/refining it that they're working on now. If I was an artist I'd probably prefer the creative part of the process rather than the actual putting it all together. Plus, if they're just starting pre-production on a sequel to TLOU then I'm sure some people don't fancy doing it all again for another 4 years.
Given that there's probably a few hundred people at the company I don't see a big deal about a handful leaving for new pastures.
Nightengale
Member
The association of this with Amy/Justin, other Sony departures or UC4 is stupid though.
Like when some news site or IGN said that Nate Wells was art director at ND. Do some minimal amount of research before making assumptions.
No one is assuming this. They're assuming that some shit went down in the office last month that spawned these key departures.
I do, however, love seeing people try to rationalize more than half a dozen top level people leaving one of the most renowned developers all at once. Yeah, they're just moving on...TOTES!
Can you, or anyone here on GAF, even speak intelligently about what was "broke" about working inside Naughty Dog?
Come the fuck on.
Nightengale
Member
Nobody threw a shitstorm when Lemarchand and Minkoff literally left the gaming industry altogether after working at ND.
bigboss370
Member
BlackBuzzard
Banned
Naughty Dog: Go play some fucking games.
Pound_lb003
Member
Minkoff, he's still at ND.
And just by the way, this thread is ridiculous. A lead character artist? For god sake, there's reason to be up in arms about Amy Hennig leaving, while she's directing a game. But a lead character artist is... Well not exactly hard to replace.
I didn't even imply anything like that.
What I'm arguing is that it's as equally silly to suggest that these departures are going to be so easily replaced and that referring to the prior members contributions as practically disposable is screwed up and dumb.
Dragon Puncher
Member
I feel like some of these departures could be salary related. Sony studies are known for paying less, but giving more creative control, than many other studies.
ND just made of the most critically acclaimed games of last generation, so people like Knowland will choice pickings between new jobs and could probably get one where he's payed a good deal more.
Leaving while the buzz behind The Last of Us is still at a high point, doesn't seem like the worst idea.
ND just made of the most critically acclaimed games of last generation, so people like Knowland will choice pickings between new jobs and could probably get one where he's payed a good deal more.
Leaving while the buzz behind The Last of Us is still at a high point, doesn't seem like the worst idea.
Ovek
7Member7
Nightengale
Member
Except that the last two departures had nothing to do with Uncharted at all.
Nate Wells joined in 2012. Micheal Knowland joined in 2011.
The only game they ever worked on in ND I'd TLoU.
All within 2 months of each other? Do you realize how insane that sounds? Especially when one of them started the whole series.
Also Nate Wells was there for just over 1 year. I doubt he got sick of never shipping an uncharted game.
PeakPointMatrix
Member
4 or 5 people. In a studio of hundreds upon hundreds. Thats it. But let's panic and pretend something horrible is happening, Naughty Dog is doomed, etc.
Newsflash: top people can do as they please and leave to work for whoever the fuck they want on a whim. Who expects these leads and directors to stay put in the same studio forever? Like someone mentioned, colleagues departing force others to reevaluate their position.
Their biggest project just finished, The Last Of Us.
It's not strange to see people move around when a company is between games and in a transition phase.
Is that a meme now, or something?
ND has over 250 employees. People are coming and going. 4 were leaving and more are gonna follow. Are we getting several threads each time an employee leaves + the ~wtf is goin on~ concern posts?
Here we go again...
You can perfectly allow such a person to leave if you've got people with as much or better talent in your kennel...
news to me. I thought that the last person to leave evo was Col Rodgers, the game director?
Nothing stays the same forever too. New people will step up and make their names known.
Nothing. Holy crap, people, NOTHING.
People are leaving from every major studio. It's just that media tend to report only on those from Naughty Dog, lol
I've said in another topic - after Witcher 2, about ~30 devs left to do something different. It's normal.