Amy Hennig, the creator behind the Uncharted games and the brains behind what used to be Visceral’s Star Wars game, has left EA to form her very own indie studio. Hennig had been the creative director behind the secretive Star Wars project – codenamed Ragtag – and had followed its development over to EA Vancouver. Not much is known about the game apart from that it was described as ‘too linear’ at one point by EA bosses. But apart from that? Fans have been answered with silence about the game’s development as well as Hennig’s involvement.
However thanks to Eurogamer’s Rob Purchese, who spoke to Hennig at today’s Gamelab conference, we now know that Hennig had actually parted ways with EA during January. But that’s not all, Hennig is also in the process of starting up her new indie studio, however, hasn’t had the chance to publically announce the change.
For Star Wars fans out there, who are still hoping against hope that there’s good news on the horizon about the Uncharted-inspired Star Wars game. We ask you to sit down, drink plenty of water and make sure not to dehydrate yourselves through tears. While the game is still in development, Hennig will not be working on it.
Talking to Purchese, Hennig stated, “I’m not [working on the project], I have not worked at EA since January, technically, legally. Yes. This is the problem, it was hard enough for them, but people were immediately asking them ‘is Amy working with you?’ and the answer was ‘well, we’re in negotiations…’ like, hmm. It was, sort of the soft pedal answer.”
She continued, “I haven’t been in, but look – I get along with all those people, I consider even the guys on the exec team friends. But it made it awkward because it was like, ‘I never got the chance to announce that I’m not at EA so I need to just pull off that band-aid at some point – but also had nothing to announce.”
What is Amy Hennig doing now?
While Hennig may not be working on the Star Wars project any longer, she’ll at least be building her very own independent studios. Speaking about the studio, she said, “I’m working independently and staying independent. I just started my own small little independent studio and am consulting with some people.”
“I’m hoping to bring some people on board, I would love to have a little company of about six to eight people, 15 at the most, and do some more projects, do some VR stuff – I’m consulting with some VR companies and doing a ton of research because I haven’t played a lot to immerse myself in it.”
The news of Hennig not leading her previous project is sad, but we’re eager to see what new things she’ll be doing in the future.