Ready At Dawn Studios (Daxter, God Of War: Chains Of Olympus) has announced that former Naughty Dog creative director Daniel Arey (Jak & Daxter, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune) has joined the company to work on an in-production, thus far un-named original IP game franchise.

Involved early on in Naughty Dog's history on the Crash Bandicoot franchise, Arey was one of the lead creators on Jak & Daxter, and has worked with publishers and developers ranging from Electronic Arts, Accolade, Sega of America, Crystal Dynamics, Sony, Pandemic, among others, holding senior designer and creative director positions at Naughty Dog in his 10-year history there.

Arey will take the title of Creative Director for Ready At Dawn Studios and is now working, together with Ru Weerasuriya, co-founder and Vice-President of Creative Development, on the company’s first original IP, details of which will be announced at a later date.

The designer commented of this change: "When I first got the chance to hear about this new property, I immediately knew I had to be a part of it and get a chance to join forces with the... talent over at Ready At Dawn Studios. These guys have taken the time to mature their team, their technology and this new concept. Believe me, this is going to be something special."

Ready At Dawn, which was originally formed in 2004 by senior figures from both Naughty Dog and Blizzard, has previously targeted the PlayStation Portable for both of its Sony-published titles, but platforms for this new IP have not yet been revealed.