Former Uncharted and Last of Us director Bruce Straley has announced a new studio

Naughty Dog veteran Bruce Straley has announced his return to game development with a new studio called Wildflower Interactive.

Straley spent 18 years at Naughty Dog, where he served as co-game director on Uncharted 2, The Last of Us and Uncharted 4, before stepping away from game development five years ago,

“In 2017 I left the industry not sure if I wanted to make games anymore,” he said in a video announcing his new venture, which is viewable below.

“But the longer I was away, I kept thinking about this medium, and everything yet to be done and everything I wanted to do still. And this idea kept following me.

“So, I grabbed some friends and we started prototyping. And the idea started getting good. It started becoming exciting again. And I realised, I need to make this game.

“But if I’m going to make this game it means I have to build a team,” he continued. “And if I build a team, I have to build a company. And, well if we’re going to do that, then we have to do it the right way.

“It has to be inclusive, equitable and collaborative. Full of big-hearted people that want to grow both professionally and personally. The culture needs to be as iterative as the way we make games.”

According to Wildflower’s website, the studio is “making ‘small-ish,’ creatively-charged, uniquely-stylized games” that explore the possibilities of the medium.

Its currently a fully remote work environment and it’s hiring for a number of positions, including a COO/studio manager.

The existing team has worked on the Call of Duty series, The Pathless, Abzu, Astroneer and Kena: Bridge of Spirits.

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Straley said: “We’ve got an exciting partner that supports what we’re doing and is going to help us reach the broadest audience possible.

“I’m super excited by what we’re building over here. We’re making something I’ve never played before.”