Building The Tools That Built London – An Interview With Damien Bastian

Damien Bastian works as a team lead – tools at Ubisoft Quebec, where he and his team build toolchains that help production teams make their creative visions a reality. Damien will travel to GDC, where he’ll speak on March 17 about the tools used to build the streets and roads of Victorian London in Assassin’s Creed Syndicate. We sat down with him to learn more about his experience on Assassin’s Creed and why he’s looking forward to GDC.

What’s it like to be to a tools programmer at Ubisoft?

Damien Bastian: Tools programmers provide production teams with intuitive tools that allow them to efficiently create the innovative features they’ve imagined. At Ubisoft, I love that the teams I’m supporting are often sitting right next to me. We’re constantly interacting and discussing how to optimize the tools so that they can stay concentrated on making high-quality, innovative content.

At GDC, you’ll talk about the tools you created to build the road network in Assassin’s Creed Syndicate. Can you tell us a bit more?

DB: In Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, systemic traffic and drivable vehicles are key features – not an easy feat, as it’s the first time players can really drive in Assassin’s Creed. At GDC, I’ll discuss the toolchain we built to create this road network, which allowed us to generate meshes for the streets and sidewalks, build and place buildings along the streets, and add a lot of props like balconies, awnings, lampposts, and mailboxes. In order to improve the driving component of the game, we were constantly moving streets around and adding back alleys. Despite the challenges, the toolchain we used to create the road network actually helped us to build London more quickly. London is 30% bigger than Paris, but we were able to build it more efficiently.

My talk will also focus on the UI of our tools, and how we anticipated the team’s needs and gathered their feedback during production. By working in collaboration with production teams, we helped boost productivity and supported the creative ideas of teams working on the game.

Can you tell us more about the process of building tools for Assassin’s Creed Syndicate?

DB: Tools development is a collaborative process. It’s about building on what has worked in previous games, and developing new tools to support innovative gameplay and game design ideas. We worked with teams who had worked on past Assassin’s Creed games to learn about the tools they created, and how we could adapt them to Assassin’s Creed Syndicate.

Development teams also pitched us their new ideas. The creation of new tools is very much a reaction to the development team’s ideas and the fruit of a lot of feedback. Based on our conversations, we identified the parts of the game that would need the most tools support, such as the road network.

When studying the industrial revolution, we learned a lot about the development of personal, quality transportation in Victorian London. It would have made no sense to create the busiest city in the world without organized traffic and driving. This required us to rethink our approach to building cities in Assassin’s Creed. In order to make the streets drivable, we needed strict metrics for elements such as lane size or parking places. So we created a tool that allowed us to start with the streets, then add sidewalks, buildings, crowd life and props. And that is all the road network is about.

GDC is an important moment for developers to discuss the future of gaming. How do you think production tools will evolve in the next 10 years?

DB: In 10 years, game pipelines will be much more cooperative and connected. A little bit like in an MMORPG, where different classes work together to bring down a boss. Building a believable game world requires a lot of people with different talents and skill sets, from level designers that place the buildings, to audio designers that tune the reverb inside a church, to light artists that help create the mood. Everyone works in collaboration in the same world, so it would only make sense that the tools they use reflect this fact. It won’t be an easy task, but challenge is what makes my job so interesting.

This is your first time speaking at GDC. What are you looking forward to?

DB: I’m really excited to discuss my team’s achievements on Assassin’s Creed Syndicate. We created some really nice tools, and even if they can’t be seen by the players, our features helped build the realistic-looking London they experienced in the final game. GDC is one of the few places where we can really talk about toolchains – I’m really looking forward to the questions and comments from my industry peers!

Damien Bastian speaks at GDC on Wednesday, March 17th. GDC attendees can also join him at the Ubisoft Lounge on Friday, March 18th, to discuss the tools used to recreate London in Assassin’s Creed Syndicate.

For more on Assassin’s Creed, check out these stories:

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Assassin’s Creed Syndicate – The Last Maharaja DLC Now Available

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