We have picked up a small fragment of information about Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, but one that certainly comes with a huge disclaimer.
As shared on the Intergalactic reddit by user 22Seres, a former Bend Studio and Naughty Dog developer has listed their work experience making Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet on their LinkedIn.
Based on the screenshot that we took from their LinkedIn profile ourselves, they worked at Naughty Dog as an Associate Technical Designer from August 2022 to February 2024. These are the actual credits they provided for their experience in the company:
– RPG progression systems on Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet
– Accessibility, metagame, gameplay systems, level scripting on The Last of Us Part II Remastered
– Metagame, player comms on The Last of Us Online
It’s certainly hard to miss it, but yes, part of their work will never see the light of day, because it was in the cancelled The Last of Us Online. While that is certainly a shame, they can say that they did a lot to overhaul the game design on The Last of Us Part II Remastered. While we know some fans may not have felt that this remaster was necessary, for those of you who enjoyed this game, we believe that you may have this person to at least partly credit for it.
For those who were curious, their work experience at Bend Studio was comparatively minor. As an intern, for less than a year, they “pitched, designed, and implemented gameplay prototype in Unreal Engine for player-facing scripting language for a programmable companion.” It’s clear that they really made their name in Naughty Dog, and they may have made a lasting mark on their latest game.
Now, one could argue that Naughty Dog’s signature style places more importance on the existing narrative that they already want to tell over gameplay. So, their games don’t have the open feeling of action RPGs like The Witcher or Assassin’s Creed. Their gameplay systems are deliberately constrained to serve the purposes of the story, instead of having the game design be incorporated into the story itself.
It’s not entirely clear if this RPG progression system is the same kind Naughty Dog players are already used to from their games, but given that the studio is now putting new directors in the front seat, they may be venturing to take more risks. This may be more than a Neil Druckmann game with a different story, which we think is what a lot of people are expecting.
Are we ready for a completely non-Druckmann Naughty Dog game? Will this even survive the final product? We’ll see what they have to show us, when they decide it’s time to show us.
