PS4 system architect Mark Cerny working on a new indie game
And yes, it's for PS4.
Mark Cerny, the system architect of the PlayStation 4 and director of PS4 launch title Knack, is now working on a new indie game.
At the Develop conference last week Cerny told Eurogamer the mystery game is fully funded and he has a genre in mind, although he wouldn't say what it is, or offer a time frame for release.
But for Cerny it's all about "getting back to making games" after his work on action platformer Knack and the PS4 itself.
"I have a few projects," he said. "I'm getting sort of an indie title going - it's not really indie because it'll be fully funded. But it'll be nice to be on a project where I know the name of everybody on it, as opposed to one of these large triple-A titles that staffs hundreds.
"It's a very different experience. Also you get to try more concept-based work because it's smaller. That should be very exciting."
Although Cerny played a key role at PlayStation during the design of both the PS4 and the Vita, he isn't a member of Sony's staff. Rather, he is a video game consultant, with a studio, Cerny Games, based in California.
But despite being independent, Cerny seems closely tied to PlayStation. Whatever the new game is, it'll definitely launch for PS4 - as you'd expect. "Oh yeah. It's definitely for the console," Cerny said. "Cerny Games is not self-funding a title for some other platform.
"This is because I like making games and I like playing games, so yes, that's what I'm doing now."
After PS4 launched in November Cerny took time out to try as many PS4 games as he could in an effort to check out what others had made for the console he played such an important role in creating.
"As system architect I was done the day it shipped," he said.
"I took on the role in the first place because it was all about the games and I wanted to make sure we had a platform that would support the creation of those titles. And so mostly what I did after the system had shipped was not monitor its sales - I went and got all of the games and I played them.
"I have to say I'm a little bit obsessive at times. At one point I had the number five score in the world on Resogun."
And right now, Cerny is playing the PS4 version of Machine Games' first-person shooter Wolfenstein: The New Order.
"The story is so... indescribable," he said. "I'm really enjoying it. And I feel strange I'm enjoying it that much, but I am. 10 minutes into that game and you're fighting Nazi robot dogs."
