Skip to main content

Naughty Dog art lead Nate Wells joins Unfinished Swan dev

The Unfinished Swan
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Nate Wells has left his gig as Lead Artist at Naughty Dog to take on a new, as-yet-unrevealed role at Giant Sparrow, the California team behind PlayStation exclusive The Unfinished Swan. Wells revealed his new job in a tweet on April 3, though it’s not clear when he left Naughty Dog. 

The veteran artist joined Naughty Dog in September 2012, coming on as the Lead Artist overseeing The Last of Us. Before that, Wells spent 13 years as an Art Director at Irrational Games, a gig he likely scored after working with Irrational founder Ken Levine at Looking Glass Studios for three-plus years. 

While we don’t know exactly what Wells will be working on at Giant Sparrow, it’s a safe bet that he’ll continue to serve in an art-focused role on the studio’s next project. Little is known about the upcoming so-called “Unannounced Giant Sparrow Project” – first identified shortly after Swan‘s launch as “Edith Finch” – though the dev has confirmed that it’s for those that like “surreal experiences and games that aren’t much like anything you’ve ever played before.”

Nope, not too specific. But given Wells’ background with BioShock and The Last of Us, delivering games that aren’t like anything you’ve played before can be considered a particular specialty.

Editors' Recommendations

Adam Rosenberg
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Previously, Adam worked in the games press as a freelance writer and critic for a range of outlets, including Digital Trends…
Volgarr the Viking 2 will take you back to your Ghosts ‘n Goblins days
A viking slashes a tree in Volgarr the Viking 2.

Developer Digital Eclipse is working on a surprising project: Volgarr the Viking 2. The 2D retro sequel will launch on August 6 for PlayStation 4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and PC.

The news is an out of left field reveal. The first Volgarr the Viking game released in 2013 and was made as an ode to 1080s classics like Ghosts 'n Goblins. Despite being a small release, it sold over 1 million copies over the past decade. As revealed during today's Guerrilla Collective stream, the series is coming back with a new sequel by Digital Eclipse, the team behind this year's Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story.

Read more
3 Days of Play PS Plus games to try this weekend (June 7-9)
Key art for Streets of Rage 4.

June 2024 is shaping up to be a pretty great month for PlayStation players. Not only are we coming off an entertaining State of Play showcase, but a new Days of Play initiative surrounding all the video game showcases this month is bringing a lot of new PS Plus additions with it. Many of those games hit PS Plus this week, and three in particular stand out to us.

For owners of Sony's oft-neglected PlayStation VR2, the first game is one of its rare exclusives that take full advantage of the headset's eye-tracking by seeing how often players blink. The next is a new PS Plus Essential game that's a revival of Sega's classic beat-'em-up series for the modern gaming era. Finally, the last title is an atmospheric and eerie fishing game that should entice fans of Lovecraftian horror.
Before Your Eyes

Read more
3 first-party Xbox Game Pass games to try this weekend (June 7-9)
Gears 5 Kait Hero Close Up

Microsoft will hold an Xbox Games Showcase and Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Direct. this Sunday. These shows will provide a much better idea of what to expect from Xbox over the course of the next year or two. That's really needed right now, as Microsoft has struggled to keep online discussions around Xbox positive as it went multiplatform with some games, laid off thousands of developers, and outright shut down the developers of Hi-Fi Rush and Redfall. Based on leaks and my personal expectations for the showcase, there are three games you can play on Xbox Game Pass this weekend to prepare for the event.

The first is the latest first-person shooter in a long-running series by id Software that might be getting a medieval-set spinoff. After that, we have the fifth entry in a sci-fi Xbox series that still looks fantastic on Xbox Series X/S even though it came out in 2019. Finally, you can prepare for Avowed with the latest RPG from Obsidian Entertainment, a satirical sci-fi game where player choice is critical.
Doom Eternal

Read more