OtherSide Entertainment, the newly formed studio behind the upcoming Underworld Ascendant RPG, has announced that it's hired The Last of Us, BioShock Infinite, and Rise of the Tomb Raider art director Nate Wells. He joins the Boston-area studio in the role of studio art director for Underworld Ascendant.

　　Wells previously worked on Thief and System Shock 2 at LookingGlass, whose co-founder, Paul Neurath, is also the founder of OtherSide. "I'm thrilled to be working with Nate again," Neurath said in a statement. "Nate showed huge promise at LookingGlass early in his career, and it's wonderful to see how he has grown into a supremely talented art director."

　　Wells added: "Paul was my first boss nearly 20 years ago, so there is a feeling of coming full-circle. I'm excited to be working with veterans on a sequel that is long overdue."

　　Underworld Ascendant is a spiritual successor to 1993's Ultima Underworld II, the first to create a real-time 3D texture-mapped world and player-driven sandbox gameplay that inspired games like Thief and Deus Ex. The game was successfully funded on Kickstarter, while pledges are still being accepted at the game's website.

　　For lots more on Underworld Ascendant, check out GameSpot's interview with Neurath.