Nate Wells, the former lead artist on Naughty Dog's award winning action-adventure video game The Last of Us, has just joined the ranks of Rise of Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics.

Nate Wells rose to fame working on Thief: The Dark Project, and then joining Irrational Games to help create System Shock 2, BioShock and BioShock Infinite.

He left the makers of BioShock in order to join the creators of Uncharted, where he worked on The Last of Us. He left Naughty Dog earlier this year in April, and joined Giant Sparrow, a much smaller company known for The Unfinished Swan.

Wells announced the news via Twitter, stating that "you can smell the trees up here," where up here refers to Redwood City, California, where Crystal Dynamics' headquarters lie.

A bit of history

Crystal Dynamics is known for making Gex, a quirky platformer, and the highly popular Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, Soul Reaver 2, Blood Omen 2 and Legacy of Kain: Defiance, a series of action-adventure video games on which parent Square Enix's multiplayer arena brawler Nosgoth is based.

The studio's more recent projects include Tomb Raider: Legend, Tomb Raider: Anniversary, Tomb Raider: Underworld, and Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light.

The company started focusing exclusively on the Tomb Raider franchise back in 2009, and its efforts culminated with the release of Tomb Raider, the reboot of the entire series, aiming to pump some fresh blood into the aging property's veins.

The game turned out to be pretty popular, due to its morally challenging nature, showing a battered and hunted Lara Croft, the action being set before she became the world-famous action hero.

Moving forward

Crystal Dynamics is currently working on The Rise of Tomb Raider, an action-adventure video game meant to continue Lara Croft's saga, and set to launch during 2015's holiday season.

The game will be a timed Xbox One exclusive, and the poorly worded announcement caused some concern among the franchise's fanbase, as it led many to believe that it would not be available on any other platforms. The gaming community exploded when confronted with Microsoft's apparent hijacking of the franchise, and Phil Spencer, the head of the Xbox division, was quick to explain that the game would only be platform exclusive for a limited duration.

For the time being, it is unclear whether or not Nate Wells will be involved with Rise of the Tomb Raider, as the studio is also rumored to be working on a brand new, yet unannounced intellectual property.