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Amy Hennig brings in Star Wars Project Ragtag co-writer for a new "AAA story-driven action-adventure game" built on the Unreal Engine

3liteDragon

Member
Two of the key creative minds from the canceled Star Wars Project Ragtag have reunited to work on a new single-player action-adventure game. Ragtag writer Todd Stashwick revealed on Twitter that he's working with Amy Hennig, who co-created and led the Uncharted series before leaving Naughty Dog in 2014, on her new studio's first new project. Skydance New Media was formed jointly by Hennig and former EA executive Julian Beak in 2019, and this is the most we've heard of its new project yet.




Stashwick kept specific details on the new project brief, though he did link to a pair of job openings for the project which reveal a little bit more. The listings for a senior animation engineer and senior software engineer state that the studio is "laser-focused on premium action-adventure games with rich, compelling stories" and that its first productions "will tap into the traditions of adventure cinema." Skydance New Media also plans to make products that are "best-in-class for both visual fidelity and innovative gameplay" across PC and consoles.

As for this project in particular, Skydance says it will be "a high quality, AAA single-player story-driven action-adventure game built using the Unreal Engine." This doesn't sound too far off from the vision for Project Ragtag, which would have been a Star Wars caper story starring an ensemble of heroes all working together in parallel. We'll never know what Ragtag could have ultimately become (though it was apparently further along than most people realized) but it's exciting to know Hennig and Stashwick are back at it again with a new studio and project.

Hopefully we won't need to wait another two or three years to add Skydance's new project to our big list of video game release dates.
 
amy hennig is a little overrated imo. she has been riding off the success of uncharted 2 but its been 12 years since than and she hasnt helmed a successful new ip or even had a game out. if she was so good, why her projects keep getting cancelled?
 
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amy hennig is a little overrated imo. she has been riding off the success of uncharted 2 but its been 12 years since than and she hasnt helmed a successful new ip or even had a game out. if she was so good, why her projects keep getting cancelled?

Bit hyperbolic. Her only cancelled game we know of is ragtag

Cancelled projects happen to every developer anyway
 

Fbh

Member
Nice, hopefully this ends up working out better for her than Ragtag.

It's been too long since one of her games.
 

coffinbirth

Member
Just remember, the last shipped game she had a hand in was six years ago...and it was Battlefield Hardline, so keep those expectations appropriately low.
 

zkorejo

Member
I hope this one sees the light of day. Hennigs uncharted games had the perfect balance of adventure and fun along with action. I would love to play in a new universe from her.
 
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SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
Lets hope she doesnt waste 3 years making a prototype this time.

Those San Francisco studios are way more expensive than even LA based studios so its understandable that EA killed it after they failed to produce a prototype in 3 years, let alone a full game. this was the dead space team i think. not sure what happened there. they were usually very productive.
 

coffinbirth

Member
Lets hope she doesnt waste 3 years making a prototype this time.

Those San Francisco studios are way more expensive than even LA based studios so its understandable that EA killed it after they failed to produce a prototype in 3 years, let alone a full game. this was the dead space team i think. not sure what happened there. they were usually very productive.
I believe it was well beyond prototype stage, and if memory serves, it was a vertical slice of a Tatooine level/area that was in such shambles it got everyone shitcanned....except for Hennig, whom left EA shortly after anyways.
 

kuncol02

Banned
Don't get too excited cause we'll probably never see the shipped product. How many games has she worked on since leaving ND?
She wrote story for Battlefield Hardline, then moved to make Star Wars game. After EA canceled that game she started small company to explore possibilities of VR. That's all. Literally one canceled game because of EA business practices.
I believe it was well beyond prototype stage, and if memory serves, it was a vertical slice of a Tatooine level/area that was in such shambles it got everyone shitcanned....except for Hennig, whom left EA shortly after anyways.
All we know is that EA at the time was pushing heavilly into MTX ridden games. You don't remember random cards in Need for Speed or fallout of Battlefront 2 launch? Big single player AAA game is opposite of that business model.
 
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SantaC

Member
they already struggled to meet their vision for their previous cancelled star wars game due to problematic frostbite engine and EA management. now with new studio and UE4 they should be able to achieve their vision.
A frostbite engineer called bs on that one.
Any Henning is overrated as fuck.

Go away loser.
 
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coffinbirth

Member
She wrote story for Battlefield Hardline, then moved to make Star Wars game. After EA canceled that game she started small company to explore possibilities of VR. That's all. Literally one canceled game because of EA business practices.

All we know is that EA at the time was pushing heavilly into MTX ridden games. You don't remember random cards in Need for Speed or fallout of Battlefront 2 launch? Big single player AAA game is opposite of that business model.
LOL, what?
You think EA spent all that money only to cancel a game 4 years into development because it didn't have enough microtransactions? Odd take.
And, no...it's known to those that followed this game that it's development(started out as a non Star Wars pirate game, lol) was a mess due to Frostbite and EA meddling, and the playable build was hot garbage. There is footage out there of the playable build, btw.
 

coffinbirth

Member
A frostbite engineer called bs on that one.
Any Henning is overrated as fuck.

Go away loser.
Seems like a grrrreaaat source for an unbiased opinion, lol.
Fact is, EA forced them to ditch VTE(Visceral Tech Engine) in favor of Frostbite, just like everyone else back then. And nearly everyone that has since left EA has sang the same tune that Frostbite is simply not a good, efficient, scalable, engine.
 
It's doubtful and I can totally understand why she would want to do something totally different, but it'd be cool if this was another thing in the adventure genre ala Uncharted, just maybe this time with a period setting?

ND did Amy so dirty

They should have given her an entirely separate team. I enjoyed her more adventurous, lighthearted games to contrast the overly serious tone of Druckman’s games
It's absurd that ND ever let her get away.

The biggest missed opportunity with Uncharted is they never did anything set in Egypt, they did do the middle east and maybe Egypt is too obvious but it would have been cool.
 

Faithless83

Banned
It's doubtful and I can totally understand why she would want to do something totally different, but it'd be cool if this was another thing in the adventure genre ala Uncharted, just maybe this time with a period setting?


It's absurd that ND ever let her get away.

The biggest missed opportunity with Uncharted is they never did anything set in Egypt, they did do the middle east and maybe Egypt is too obvious but it would have been cool.
She wasn't woke enough, the end.
 
She wasn't woke enough, the end.
Ironic given she's a female developer.

And it also proves they don't actually give a shit about women in video games, the Woke care about mind control, they'll kick an unwoke woman to the curb as quick as they'd kick an unwoke man to the curb.

I also have to appreciate the irony because as someone who's always been strongly opposed to Woke in gaming according to stereotypes I should dislike Amy Henning, yet I've always been a fan, somehow these morons really do think it's all about "excluding women from gaming" when in reality it's about excluding assholes of every stripe from gaming.

It just really does say it all that one of the all time great female developers has been struggling during a time in which female developers are supposedly being championed, but hasn't she gotten in hot water by going against the party line and saying that she never faced any discrimination?
 

Loope

Member
amy hennig is a little overrated imo. she has been riding off the success of uncharted 2 but its been 12 years since than and she hasnt helmed a successful new ip or even had a game out. if she was so good, why her projects keep getting cancelled?
I know, right? She only directed Soul Reaver and was the director of the most acclaimed Uncharted.

Seems to me someone's been riding the wave she left behind and not the opposite.
 
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NickFire

Member
"Two of the key creative minds from the canceled Star Wars Project Ragtag have reunited . . . "

That is far, far from a reason to be excited by something imo. Hey guys, our last project got cancelled, so be excited for the next one.
 

Astral Dog

Member
I always see people idolizing Neil Druckmann, but Amy Hennig and Bruce Straley(director of TLoUS part 1) at least deserve as much credit as him in the creation and direction of The Last of Us and the Uncharted series, always found a little weird how they are rarely mentioned on game forums in comparison to Druckmann 🤔
 
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SSfox

Member
I wish Amy didn't left ND, studio would probably be better with her than the other politician.

I always see people idolizing Neil Druckmann, but Amy Hennig and Bruce Straley(director of TLoUS part 1) at least deserve as much credit as him in the creation and direction of The Last of Us and the Uncharted series, always found a little weird how they are rarely mentioned on game forums in comparison to Druckmann 🤔
TLOU1 was Bruce Straley and Neil Druckmann, Amy Henning worked on Uncharted 1,2,3.
 
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amy hennig is a little overrated imo. she has been riding off the success of uncharted 2 but its been 12 years since than and she hasnt helmed a successful new ip or even had a game out. if she was so good, why her projects keep getting cancelled?
She's got a proven record of great work. That's not overrated. That's people looking at multiple great, completed projects.

Legacy_Of_Kain-_Soul_Reaver_Cover.jpg
 
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