Former Uncharted 4 and The Last of Us director Bruce Straley has opened up a new studio called Wildflower Interactive. The studio is made up of developers who’ve worked on games such as Call of Duty, Abzu, Kena: Bridge of Spirits, and Astroneer.
“In 2017 I left the industry not sure if I wanted to make games anymore,” says Straley. 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.”
OMG – it’s finally happened!! We’re doing a thing!!!
Head over & follow @playwildflower to check us out. Thanks! pic.twitter.com/GvMM39TEdG
— Bruce Straley (@bruce_straley) July 20, 2022
According to Wildflower Interactive’s website, the studio is aiming to create “small-ish”, creatively charged, and uniquely-stylized games. While the studio didn’t reveal any other information about any projects, it is currently embracing remote work. It looks like Wildfire Interactive is still in early development as they are hiring for roles such as COO, audio designer, character designer, and environmental artist.
Wildfire Interactive’s current employees include:
- Almudena Soria Sancho – Animation
- Wouter Gort, Eyton Zana – Art
- Doug Holder, Arno Azar, Nicholas Lance, Liz Fiacco – Design
- Cosmo Fumo, Ole Ciliox – Programming
- Vivian Alcala – Production
- Bruce Straley – Director | Studio
When Straley left Naughty Dog in 2017, he had no announcements about his next steps but wanted to “continue the journey into the creative process.”
George Yang is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @yinyangfooey