Naughty Dog’s lead character artist leaves

Naughty Dog lead artist Michael Knowland has left the studio.

That’s according to Superannuation, who spotted Knowland’s LinkedIn profile has been updated to mark the end of his time at the developer.

The artist had been at Naughty dog since January 2011, going on to become lead character artist in October of the same year. Prior to that Knowland had worked for a year at Frontier Developments.

Knowland’s apparent departure comes as a number of other senior staff have also left the studio, responsible for hit titles such as The Last of Us and the Uncharted series.

Creative director Amy Hennig left last month and has now joined Visceral Games to pen a new Star Wars title along with actor and writer Todd Stashwick, who was set to voice a character in Uncharted 4 before making the move.

Other departures include Uncharted 4 game director Justin Richmond, who has joined League of Legends developer Riot Games, and The Last of Us lead artist Nathan Wells, who headed to Unfinished Swan studio Giant Sparrow.

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