Game development begins with destroying Girls' Frontline.

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Chapter 534 Magic Assassin's Creed

at the same time.

While Paradise Survival was a global phenomenon.

At the survival studio, members of each household were opening champagne at home.

Montreal, France

育碧

Penny Durant is packing his bags.

He was fired.

The reason for his dismissal was quite interesting.

During the meeting, he simply expressed his opinion on whether it was necessary to "optimize" the role of women in the new project.

Yes.

At the start of 2020.

While Spark was striving for further progress, Ubisoft issued a bizarre document requiring all development teams to "review" female characters in their existing projects.

At first, Penny Durant didn't know what he was being vetted about.

Then he saw a strange-looking guy come into the office and start questioning his project team.

Durant tolerated it at first, but after a week, he realized he really couldn't take it anymore.

Because the existence of these guys has completely interfered with the normal development of the game.

More importantly, he soon discovered that the atmosphere within the development team had begun to change; it seemed that as long as the demands of that inhuman creature were met, the normal development progress of the game could be ignored!

After realizing the problem, Penny Durant hesitated for a long time before finally speaking his mind in the meeting room.

"Can we stop worrying about what the female characters should look like? Let's focus on game development first! Is that okay?!"

Penny Durant was thrilled when he practically roared out the question.

Then, in the afternoon, he received an invitation for a conversation from the human resources department.

And then...

He was packing his luggage.

Ubisoft's headquarters offices are actually quite large, and everyone's desk is decorated with many items, including Penny Durant's.

The group photo of the original Assassin's Creed development team hanging on the wall was particularly jarring at that moment.

In the photo, he looks young and confident, with eyes full of hope for the future.

Now, that photo seems to mock his failure.

"Ten years...a full ten years..."

He murmured softly, his voice tinged with bitterness and resentment.

From a regular game tester to a core designer at Ubisoft Montreal, he thought he had established himself. However, reality dealt him a harsh blow.

The emails from the company's top management were concise and cold.

"Your position has been cancelled due to project adjustments and budget cuts. Thank you for your contributions over the years."

There was no explanation, no attempt to keep him, not even a word of comfort.

Durant feels completely unfamiliar with the current Ubisoft, and even with the world at large.

He had heard before that some people in the company had been laid off for resisting LGBT rights and the censorship of female roles, but he never expected that he would be one of them.

He crouched down and picked up a notebook from the ground. It was his treasure trove of game design inspirations recorded over the years, with every page filled with dense notes and sketches.

He turned to one of the pages, which contained an unfinished game concept art.

An Assassin's Creed concept set in a magical world.

This plan was originally inspired by Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, an action-adventure game set in the Lord of the Rings universe, which won unanimous praise from players and the industry for its unique "revenge system" and open-world exploration gameplay.

This game, released in 14, once greatly impressed him.

This plan in Durant's notebook was inspired by Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and the successful concept of Warhammer of Middle-earth.

Therefore, he and several core creators of Assassin's Creed attempted to combine the classic gameplay of Assassin's Creed with the fantasy elements of the magical world.

To create a completely new gaming experience.

This is actually a very interesting concept. Flipping through the sketches in the notebook, the unfinished magical world comes to mind: towering magic towers, mysterious forests, ancient ruins, and assassin organizations hidden in the shadows.

Players will take on the role of an assassin cursed by magic, searching for a way to break the curse in a world full of danger and intrigue, while uncovering a grand story of power and betrayal.

When Durant was developing this plan, he used Total War as an example. Total War: Warhammer also transitioned from historical to fantasy and achieved unimaginable success.

Just imagining a hooded protagonist stabbing a dart into the body of a glamorous villainous archmage is enough to make one shudder.

Imagine the player, after the assassination, disappearing into the crowd amidst various magical explosions.

The idea is that players can also use various magical items to trigger explosions.

An assassin in the magical world.

Just looking at this topic, Durant's mind was filled with endless creative ideas.

However, as his fingers gently traced the sketches in the notebook...

He knew that this plan would never come to fruition; Ubisoft's executives had long lost the courage to take risks.

When he and several of the Assassin's Creed creators submitted this proposal a few years ago, what did those old guys say?

It seems to be saying that it doesn't align with the company's strategic direction.

"Ah, strategic direction..."

Peiwen sneered, slammed the notebook shut, and stuffed it into her suitcase.

He knew very well that the so-called "strategic direction" was just an excuse for Ubisoft's top management to pursue short-term profits; they preferred to repeatedly produce those already successful IPs.

They'd rather repackage and repackage existing products and serve them to players than risk trying new ideas.

Carefully placing the notebook into the suitcase, Peiwen then stood up.

He finally looked around the office where he had worked for ten years.

Besides the group photo of the original Assassin's Creed development team, the wall is covered with various game posters and design sketches. Each poster and each sketch records his and his team's efforts and dreams.

After packing her luggage, Peiwen stood by the window, gazing at the gloomy sky over Montreal.

Just as he was feeling inexplicably sad, his phone suddenly vibrated; it was a message from a former colleague.

"Peiwen, I heard you got laid off? Is it convenient for us to chat? I'm downstairs."

~~~

"Why do you seem so happy when it looks like I've been laid off?"

Cafe.

Pevin sat in the corner of the coffee shop, holding a cup of coffee in his hand. His former colleague, Mark Reynolds, was looking at him excitedly across from him, a smile he couldn't hide on his face.

"Happy? Of course, I am a little happy, after all, you laughed at us when we left before, but... that's not the point."

Chapter 535 Foolish Thief

Peiwen remained expressionless.

He did mock Renault before, but that was a year ago.

When Mark Reno left Ubisoft with a few people, Pavlov tried to persuade them to stay, saying they were foolish and that it would be better for them to stay at Ubisoft than to start their own business, since Ubisoft offered more stable jobs.

Moreover, Ubisoft had just emerged from Vivenda's takeover crisis and had just received investment from Spark, so everything seemed to be going very well.

I just didn't expect the boomerang to come so quickly.

"The key point is that I think this departure is an opportunity for you."

“An opportunity?” Peiwen frowned slightly.

"You call being laid off an opportunity?"

Mark shook his head, his smile widening.

“Listen to me, Pavlova, Ubisoft today is not the Ubisoft we used to know. It has changed, become… well, how should I put it, it has become more like a politically correct machine than a game company.”

Peiwen sneered, picked up his coffee and took a sip; the bitter taste made him frown.

"Do you even need to tell me? That's exactly why I was laid off."

"That's right, but have you considered that this is actually an opportunity?"

Mark's eyes turned serious.

"You're not the only one who has grievances against Ubisoft; there are several other old colleagues as well. Don't laugh at me, but I didn't actually accomplish anything significant in the year I left."

"But that's because I'm short-staffed."

“But things are different now. Ubisoft is no longer the same Ubisoft. We can persuade more people to leave that company that has lost its soul.”

"Do you remember that game we designed together a few years ago? Didn't you ever think about doing it ourselves without Ubisoft?!"

Peiwen paused for a moment, her coffee cup hanging in mid-air.

He and Mark met during the development of Assassin's Creed Syndicate, so the game Mark mentioned that they designed together was the draft of the magical Assassin's Creed in Peven's notebook.

"Do it yourself?"

"That's right!"

Mark excitedly slapped the table, drawing several disapproving glances from those around him.

He lowered his voice and continued.

"You can join our studio directly and make the games we want to make. There are no inexplicable censorships, no boring political correctness, only pure creativity and passion."

Peiwen remained silent for a while, her expression gradually becoming complicated.

He put down his coffee cup and said in a low voice.

“Mark, do you know how difficult it is to develop independently? Funding, technology, marketing, not to mention our previous project, which wasn't a small project, and we had to rely on ourselves…”

Assassin's Creed in the magical world.

Even without looking at the specific development plan, it's easy to tell from the name alone that the research and development costs for this thing are definitely beyond the reach of a small studio.

"Who said it's just us?"

Mark smiled and handed a document to Peven.

"Look at this."

Peiwen took the paper, unfolded it, and found that it listed more than a dozen names.

He recognized every name; they were all former colleagues at Ubisoft, some programmers, some art designers, and others planners.

Ubisoft's development strategy is actually quite similar to miHoYo's... no, to be precise, miHoYo's industrialization approach is similar to Ubisoft's.

Both fall under the project-based system.

When a project ends, everyone is reassigned to a new project team.

So although Pevin knew and was familiar with all these people, since the release of Assassin's Creed Syndicate in 2015, the project team was split up, and he was assigned to a new project team. He had actually had very little contact with the people on that team.

"These people... have all been laid off?"

Pev looked up and stared at Mark in surprise.

Mark nodded, his tone tinged with a hint of bewilderment.

"Yes, they were all laid off because they 'did not fit the company's strategic direction.' I've already contacted them privately, and most of them are willing to join us and do something truly interesting together."

Looking at the names on the list, Peiwen suddenly felt a long-lost surge of passion.

He knew that these people were all elites in the industry, and if they could really get together, they might be able to create something amazing.

"But...where's the funding?"

Peiwen looked up, her tone still carrying a hint of hesitation.