14 DAY TRIAL // Ubisoft Montreal has shared a few impressions about its work on Watch Dogs and how it's helped the whole team learn more about the design process for an open world and, more specifically, how it can offer activities to players in ways that don't feel artificial.
Watch Dogs was one of the most anticipated games of the year and it confirmed this by becoming Ubisoft's fastest-selling game of all time in 24 hours, delighting millions of fans across the PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.
While many issues have popped up since the game's debut last week, quite a few players are enjoying their time with the open world action adventure experience.
Ubisoft Montreal's Lionel Raynaud has talked a bit about the whole development process and how the team has learned a lot about offering activities to players in open worlds.
The Montreal team has led the development of big titles with open environments, from Assassin's Creed to Far Cry, and Watch Dogs has offered some great new elements.
"What we have learned is how open-world games can be seemingly integrated with online multiplayer. I think it's only the beginning, but the IP and the whole fantasy of hacking became a way to discover a new process for unlocking content and offering activities, in a way that feels totally unique and integrated with the message of the game," he told CVG.
According to Raynaud, an open world experience needs to strike the best balance between activities, progression, and delivering a great-looking environment.
"Even though we have similar activities inside the structure of Far Cry and Assassin's Creed, it's important to deliver an open-world in which the density of activities is just right, and where the feeling of progression and ownership of the city develops as you play. This is quite difficult to pull off and I know that many other publishers are struggling with that."
One great example of relaying activities to players is by allowing them to profile regular NPCs that have connections to side activities, such as illegal races. This then leads to the player unlocking a new event in a fresh way that doesn’t feel like the game is forcing him to do that.
"A good example of Watch Dogs' new approach is the ability to profile citizens and maybe discover people who for example enter illegal car races at the weekend. If the player then hacks them, they will access their contact and unlock new activities. This was the kind of approach that was made possible by the pitch."
Watch Dogs made its debut last week and, even with quite a few serious problems, Ubisoft is delighted with its performance.