Richard Lemarchand, one of the vertebra in the backbone of the Uncharted development team, announced this morning that he is to leave his post at Naughty Dog after eight entirely awesome years. Naughty Dog’s loss will be the gain of the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California. He will be teaching at the school’s Interactive Media Division, so students; if you want to be taught by one of the nicest and most talented guys in the business, get your applications in now. Gamasutra, who broke the news, inform us that he will also be conducting a research project that will see him working on a series of experimental games.

Lemarchand has been on the front line of Uncharted development almost since the series’ inception, but feels that now is the time to move on. Although we don’t know what the future of Uncharted is, we do know that it will be affected by this departure. I am confident, though, that should the Uncharted series continue without him, Naughty Dog will have the know-how to make the transition as seamless and unnoticeable as possible.

Please join us in wishing Rich well; it sounds like his new role will be both exciting and challenging. You can follow him on Twitter at @Rich_Lem, and I strongly recommend that you do so.