Amy Hennig joins Visceral/Star Wars

Visceral is the team that made Dead Space and less memorably Dante's Inferno. Their Dead Space franchise was first mutilated and later killed by EA for not selling well enough, but EA still clearly has a lot of respect for Visceral because they are entrusted them with Star Wars.

Amy Hennig has the same job title at Visceral (creative director) that she had at Naughty Dog.

Hennig is generally a great writer (U3 was a low point, but even in that the dialogue was strong) and in terms of gameplay/game design Visceral has done some quality work in the past. The original Dead Space is the game RE5 should have been and Dead Space Extraction is one of the better rail shooters out there (I got it free with Dead Space 2 and enjoyed it more than Dead Space 2).

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Hennig's first project at Visceral will be a big one, as she has been tapped to be the creative director on the studio's unannounced Star Wars project. The move also represents a reunion of sorts for Hennig, who previously worked with Visceral VP and general manager Steve Papoutsis at Crystal Dynamics.

I was hoping for her to come back to Crystal Dynamics, oh well...

I would not blame U3s story issues on Amy. ND made a concious decision to put setpieces over story. The story was doomed from the beginning.

She turned it into a character driven story but again was dealt a bad hand when her lead actress left in the middle of the shoot.

Judging by this interview, U3's design process was no different than that of U1 or U2.

However, you're right that the most of the actors being mostly unavailable undoubtedly complicated the work of the scriptwriters and game designers.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/30/tech/gaming-gadgets/uncharted-3/

"Yeah, that would be pretty cool. Let's do it," Naughty Dog co-president Christophe Balestra recalled saying then. In an interview this week, he and creative director Amy Hennig offered a look at his studio's unusual storyboarding process.

Their goal at the start of each game's production is to "try to come up with these set-piece moments that aren't just for show," Hennig said. "In many ways, they become the signature pieces of the game."

Those segments also take the longest to plan and build, which is why they need to be conceived as early in the process as possible.

Anyway, Amy Hennig might be the best thing to happen to Star Wars since Timothy Zahn (if only the Thrawn trilogy had been turned into movies rather than the awful prequels).

As long as she continue to contribute to great games I'll be satisfied, wherever she is :)

Which Means Visceral Games is going to start doing cutscenes again in Star Wars. Say goodbye to uninterupted interactions and hello to "put the joystick down... Its story time" lol !

No seriously... Cutscenes suck.

They do when they get in the way. Actually the whole point of a cutscene is to get in your way so yeah. They suck. Don't get me wrong. They're well done....... but they suck. :p

Visceral is a pretty talented team so this is extremely good news.

Battlefront 3 with a great story? Who would say no to that.

Wow, that's some excellent news. Visceral is a really talented developer and having Amy on board should provide for a great story.

EA just picked up a great talent.. i bet she has a ton of studios knocking at her door

Ehh each to his own, but I really enjoy cutscences.

Ofcourse You do.