Described by one Brad Shoemaker as the most affable man in video games (it’s true), Naughty Dog co-lead designer Richard Lemarchand is now a former co-lead designer at Naughty Dog.
Gamasutra reports Lemarchand is leaving Naughty Dog for the Interactive Media Division of the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California.
"I've always loved the experimental and avant-garde," he told the site. "I wanted to try to make a game in that sphere for the best part of a decade now."
Besides branching into experimental design, Lemarchand will be teaching at the place where creatives like thatgamecompany’s Jenova Chen and Kellee Santiago went to school.
Lemarchand had been with Naughty Dog since Jak X in 2004, and was previously a designer alongside Uncharted head writer Amy Hennig at Crystal Dynamics. Hennig also wrote the Soul Reaver arc of the (incredible) Legacy of Kain series, which Lemarchand was a designer on.