Patrick Plourde just achieved a major milestone by completing Assassin's Creed 2 and he attended the Montreal International Games Summit (MIGS) recently to discuss the design process for that game.
A valuable and senior member at the company, Patrick joined Ubisoft in 2003 as a 3-D Artist and quickly shifted toward design, shipping Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Lockdown as a Level Designer. He then worked on other major productions such as Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Vegas and Assassin’s Creed as a Game Designer.
Patrick's big break came on Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 when he took on his first Lead Game Designer role. Patrick was Lead Game Designer on Assassin’s Creed 2 where he oversaw all aspects of the game design. This is a true blockbuster sequel and Patrick further perfected his role as a lead designer on the title.
Talking to aspiring designers, game developers, artists and his peers, Patrick conducted a seminar discussing the design process. With more than 300 developers on the project, the team had to deal with the numerous challenges of such a production all the while keeping the game development on track.
Patrick broke down the technical approach the design team took during the production of the game:
- Keeping the design focused on the right things
- Building a game around a strong documentation structure validating the results with players In identifying the core experiences of the game
- Influencing risk management and ensuring the game’s success by having a solid design structure
During my coverage of the show I was lucky enough to catch up to Patrick while he was at MIGS and we ended up having an entertaining discussion that covered a lot of topics. It comes through clearly that Patrick is very passionate about the franchise, game design in general and the team at Ubisoft.
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