Hugues Ricour : Ocean Tech

Hugues Ricour:

The studio is four and a half years old. It started with TMT title for Xbox Live. And then very quickly, we got engaged with the assets and straight IP, and started to build linear gameplay sequences. Those are some sort of Uncharted moments, or Prince of Persia moments inside that open world of a system screen. We are also working on 'ghostery come online', a free to play shooter that is very, very promising.

Hugues Ricour:

So we are over 250 people now.

Hugues Ricour:

It started with arts we have a very, very good art community- very detailed focus. their standards are very good. And then step by step we do more and more gameplay, more engineering. And of course, Glossary Khan is exploring an online service. So we're growing an online team. And so far, so good we've had some good successes. And of course, a key moment for us was the naval battles that we worked on for our system speed three. And that was what we call the gameplay game through- Sorry breakthrough. So an innovation inside the brand. And that today is going to be expanded with Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag.

Hugues Ricour:

Alexandre Atchison wanted to revisit that historical period of the American Revolution, and a big chunk of the stakes, political and economic stakes, were taking at sea, we've all the trade and everything coming from the old continent. So there was, since the very early stage, the concept phase, there was this idea to explore naval combat and ships and how could that play a role in the story arc and in the fantasy? So we started prototyping. And we had some good results at each stage of the production. And that it made it. it got expanded, it really had its own little story inside the game and the fantasy was really well received. So we're very happy what came out of it.

Hugues Ricour:

The collaboration is a daily thing. It's a routine. It's a process we have in place, we work with the same code and the same engine and same assets. We talk daily. we have common processes, common dates in our milestones and development plans. Now, what worked really well is that the creative direction and the production in Montreal gave us that very accurate mandate. trying to come up with the best looking ocean, on console, coming up with a new breakthrough and a new gameplay with naval battles. And that gave us a frame. And then they gave us a lot of autonomy to deliver on these two promises. And we had regular checkups, a feedback loop and that freedom, but also that tight relationship made us stronger. The team in Montreal were very, very ambitious about the system suite three, they created an amazing buzz around the game. And that really helped to motivate the troops in Singapore. And we really felt like we are one team- trying to achieve the common goal.

Hugues Ricour:

The way we designed it and engineered It was so that it's scalable. And so we'd say it's a continuity, it's not a revamp, and we didn't restart from scratch for Black Flag, it's actually a continuity and I think it's part of the root of how we came up with black flag and that new setting.

Hugues Ricour:

So, absolutely part of the gameplay was simply with the physics of the ocean. It's also with the weather, with tons of new things and the physics as well as the cannon shots. So we're expanding this. The limitations I think were around memory, budgets, of course performance because trying to build a beautiful ocean is conflicting with adding more gameplay, adding beautiful ships and details in these ships and being able to climb on these ships being able to have what we call life on board which is that crew that's animated and moves around. To get that feeling that things are happening, and it's a real battle, because there were a lot of people on these ships, so everybody's fighting for, you know, more processor, power and memory. And at the end, it's a nice exercise it's a teamwork to try to come up with the best solutions and the philosophy at Ubisoft is really to put gameplay first and the user experience first. So we get to try play with the, you know, play with the game and that really is the defining factor is the fun that you receive while you're playing and the immersion.