Ask an Ubisoft dev anything

Hey guys, I'm a Junior Programmer for Ubisoft Reflections, a studio in England. I'm working on the driving engine/vehicle physics for Watch Dogs 2.

Ask me whatever you want about working for ubi, my treatment as an employee or WD2 itself. (Obviously I'm best equipped to answer questions about the driving. I'm not directly involved in any story shit, but we've been drip-fed enough shit from our senior that I can probably give a pretty good idea.)

Bear in mind we're all under NDA, so I can't reveal too much personal info that would point to myself specifically.

N.B. I wasn't involved in WD1, so I can't really say anything about that.

Other urls found in this thread:

youtu.be/jeiBXbl9FVA?t=998
youtube.com/watch?v=jeiBXbl9FVA&feature=youtu.be&t=16m30s
twitter.com/SFWRedditVideos

Why do you guys suck so much?

What's your salary ? Or how much money per hour you make?

Lots of reasons, honestly. I think the main ones are that higher-ups care more about profits than quality, and employees have had any real passion for their work squeezed out of them.

Is WD2 coming out for the NX?
And do you have any info on the NX?

We're not all on same salaries (based largely on position- which is in turn based on how long you've worked there) so I can't say exactly, as that would be linked to me. I can say it's enough to get by as the sole worker in my family, but it really wasn't worth getting a degree.

So did you ever look at the game's aesthetic and plot and think 'Who the fuck thought this was cool'?

Why'd you get a job there and not at a studio that isn't full of depressed wagecucks?

Funnily enough, one of the girls (who does admin work, not actual game development) asked this a couple of weeks ago. Something about wanting it for her son. It was a pretty flat "no, it's not worth it".
Sorry to dissapoint.

Is porting from the Xbox One to the PS4 or vice versa difficult?
Are you guys making adjustments to make the most of PS4 Pro/Scorpio or that's just a meme?

It was local. That's really the only reason. I hate working here. A month ago, I was kept in the office for 3 days (this is not an exaggeration. This was literally 3 days, non-stop work) straight, as we're still running behind. No apology, no compensation, just food brought to me so I wouldn't storm out.

Have you thought of applying for a different company? Or would you get some more work experience first?

Every day. My job's just doing the driving (I enjoy driving games, so I guess that's alright) so I don't need to worry about it.
It feels so cringy- so "fellow kidz"- and I seem to be the only one happy to admit it.

I'm in my 30s; work experience isn't the issue. This isn't the first company I've worked for. I have a wife and two kids at home (including one baby) and I really don't want to put them at risk, even if I have to work a job I hate to support them.

not the OP but you usually don't write a game for one console and then port it over, you separate out all the console specific stuff then swap it over

I definitely recommend you leave as soon as possible, that's an absolutely abusive working environment. I work at codemasters on the F1 games, and while I have no interest in the games themselves, the work environment is great.

What's your favourite driving game?

1)It's fine. No real problem.

2) Not yet, anyway. Information's still a bit hazy though.

Do you play many video games any more?

How do you feel about aggressive advertising?

It's such a broad genre that it's difficult to choose one. I just love the concept as a whole. No progressive story bullshit, no stupidly complex characters. Just cars and gameplay.

Hey. Good job, I know who you are now.
Expect a mail on monday

I try, but no. I work till dark, I come home- maybe get to see my wife/older kid if they're still up- sleep and repeat. I honestly think working in this industry has killed my passion for vidya, rather than strengthened it,

Is driving important in Watch Dogs 2 or it's just meant as a generic mean for transportation?
Also, aren't you worried you could be tracked down by saying what's your function?

Funny joke. None of the higher-ups know what a forechan is, and the only colleague I know who comes here goes exclusively on /lgbt/.

why do you think higher-ups don't talk about Cred Forums? unprofessionnal, even if you go there

1) It's a way of moving faster, basically. It's meant to be easy enough that you can do all the hacking shit at the same time.

2) We're almost all working on this. It's fine. Besides, I could hypothetically be a troll. There's no real proof here that I'm an Ubi worker.

Inb4 you get all the fucking junior programmers in your studio axed.

Could they legally do that?

I've always had the impression that Ubisoft is the closest thing to Acme in video games, as a lot of their products seem similar and bland, perhaps due to how large the teams working on these games are that any sense of identity is worn away by sheer numbers. Is that an accurate description on the dev end?

not in the UK, no, unless they had specific evidence that it had damaged the company

No, but they can have people behind them every time and have some traps laid in some mails to see who is the actual fuck-up.
Happened in a company I worked for before, that's pretty well done but also really stressful.

They can certainly find an excuse.

>legally
As legal counsel for a multinational juggernaut, I can tell you that's hardly relevant. If you really want to axe someone, there's always a way to do it "legally".

We're workers, We're given work; we do it. There is no identity, despite what the recent ads try to make you think.

Is Prince of Persia dead forever? This is probably top secret though.

>traps laid in some mails
Like what? I'm not sure what they'd do to call someone out for making a thread on Cred Forums.

just seeing who leaks stuff by feeding false information.

so you're saying your salary can be traced back to you, but saying you're a junior programming working on the driving physics can't?

I'm surprised by the lack of WD2 questions. Are you all really that uninterested in the game?

why wont you fucking worthless frogs fix rainbow 6 sieges hit registration and fucking hitboxes, every single patch you fuck this game up more and more, when will it fucking stop?

See 2)

there has been enough marketers those past years to be uninterested in another open world ubisoft game viral thread.
Or start saying good anecdotes to get people interested in it.

The first one was fucking terrible. Why would anyone be interested in a second one?

Is Watch Dogs 2 an SJW tranny fest

As a longtime fan, I sure hope so

Are ubisoft done with downgrades ?

Honestly, if you weren't working on it, would you be?

Why aren't you working on For Honor instead you cuck?

Oh yeah. "Diversity" is the key word. They keep trying to push this whole "SF is diverse, so are our characters" meme. It's cringy.

Any personal recommendations, though? I usually only play arcade racer type games, if I play driving games, and even then not a whole lot.

Anyone working at ubisoft think of Uplay as anything but a pile of shit that makes peoples avoid their games ?

please find a better job user, your family would appreciate a happier dad

>making a sequel to shit dogs
>the main character is also black to emphasise how shitty the new games is.
Really makes you think...

I am, and I'm not interested.

That's a shame. Diversity can work if characters are written beyond "I am defined by what I like to stick my dick in".

You might be RPing and you might not be. In either case I hope you and your family are fine man.

When's the next Assassin's Creed coming?

How dead is Prince of Persia?
How dead is Rayman?

fat chance, but...
can you give super vague descriptions on Ubisoft's future products

>Watch Dogs
>For Honour
>AC

It's like pigshit, horseshit and dogshit.

My family's fine. I appreciate the concern, though. :)

can you blame us, the first one sucked, and the second one seems to be the same but this time aimed at political and social bullshit

No. It's not that I won't; I just can't. I don't know.

>ignoring actual questions to jerk yourself off
this is a blatant tripfag attention whoring thread, actually answer shit or fuck off you low level monkey

I answered the question. I then thanked user for being considerate about my own and my family's wellbeing. Don't be a dick.

Is the driving any similar to WD1s? If yes I'll know who to blame if it's shit again.

In terms of actual storyline, it's not too bullshitty- if VERY anti-Google. Which is probably justified considering the weird shit Google's been trying to pull lately. The thing is, the race/abstract nature of the characters is never even pointed out. There's no self awareness; it's just casually shoe-horned in. They're like normal characters who happen to look like tumblrtards.

It's a collaborative effort, don't shove all your blame on me!
It's pretty similar to WD1, just easier and with less variety in vehicle types' performance. Moving toward the GTAV style of "hold R2, fastest-looking car wins!"

Can you tell anything about story of WD2?
Did you ever work in industry before Ubisoft?

Whats the best game in terms of physic right now ?

Yeah. It's basically a few strings of story arcs with different antagonists, leading up to one main finale act, with an (apparently) impressive amount of side content.
Josh, the dull (WHITE MALE) of the group with a lot of skills but no real personality. The one who's never included in any promo art. He betrays you for that last bit.

Why are you bullshitting everyone with answers that everyone could think of? There's only a few programmers working at a single mechanic at a time and revealing that you're a junior one would pretty much reveal your cover.
Piss off reddit prankster.

Did you graduate from Teesside or Northumbria?

You underestimate the shittiness of resource allocation here. If it were good, we might actually release on time.
Or maybe you found me out. Who can say?

The driving in the WD2 trailers looks like absolutely garbage, no offence.

Neither. Nowhere near here.

In what regard? Serious question.

Is that the same studio that made shadow of the beast?

I live in Newcastle and graduated from a Games Prog degree

The first one wasn't that good. I'd give the second one a chance if it wasn't so obviously going to be politically driven with BLM shit and muh oppression.

Do you have any insight about For Honor? That's a game I actually care about

Didn't play the first one and I'm not really interested in the second one. The only thing Ubisoft that would interest me is another Rayman or another Might & Magic.

Ok. Well done, I suppose.

Give me another splinter cell

It just looks very floaty and weightless. The subpar damage modeling doesn't help either. A jump with a motorcycle/ATV looked very jarring.

youtu.be/jeiBXbl9FVA?t=998

Have you ever seen a car reacting to a wall like that IRL ?

sorry
youtube.com/watch?v=jeiBXbl9FVA&feature=youtu.be&t=16m30s

Look at 16:40

This has been on my mind for so long and it's just been tormenting me for years. Will we ever see Beyond Good & Evil 2? Pls tell me all about it OP

What/when will the tachanka buff be?

>floaty and weightless
Like I say, it's meant to be easy.

I'd love to be able to answer this, but I simply don't know. I have no way of knowing this.

I'm talking about the car which leaps over the fucking wall 16:40
this has nothing to do with arcade gameplay but shit physic

But easy is boring.

send a picture of your kid or wife with a timestamp on their forehead so i know youre a real ubisoft employee

is city fun to traverse? is it full of small detail? wd1 lacked that.

Why were so many games downgraded, was it you all overestimating the power of the 8th gen consoles or was it intentional?

It's fine, OP. You tried your best. Just promise me that if you ever decide to snap, you'll kill that son of a bitch Michel Ancel

I know exactly what you mean. It's intended. It means you can just hold the accelarator and forget about driving. You can just focus 100% on hacking.
It's not meant to be fun. There's no point in an engaging, challenging driving experience when you can just fast travel anywhere on the fucking map.

No matter how true OP, refl guys did great job with driver sf, even I prefer sim games I had a lot of fun in driver.
So similar physic could really help WD2.

See Mainly part 2.
There are lots of cool (if mostly scripted) details in the world. But mostly on foot. The driving mostly exists for driving missions and for chases.

>It means you can just hold the accelarator and forget about driving
What a poor excuse. Your car is blocked at 16:40. Its trying somehow to leap over the wall. This is shitty physic admit it

Thanks. I know that shit sounds small, but I really miss praise. It's just not something I get anymore.

Have you met Yves Guillemot and if so, is he truly as faggy as he comes across on video?

Is Yannis Mallat a fucking cunt?

I'm not denying that. I say again: realism was sacrifised for the sake of ease.

heard any radio stations? last game was fucking awful when it came to music. is it any better(or at least they put some effort into them)?

Is Ubisoft your first games job? Do you still want to work in games after this?

Never met either of them. I've heard Guillemot is a nasty man in person, though I try not to make judgements based on word of mouth.

why is it ubisoft games cant get driving done correctly? the only thing close to real is the crew and that game had terrible physics but at least it didnt feel like driving a brick.

can't you guys just make a fucking M&M game in which I can lead millions of skeleton warriors, destroying everything on my path?

Also fuck paladins

Couple of things:
A) I thought WD1's music selection was cool. This is going to sound VERY shilly, but I liked how each song/artist pertained in some way to Chicago. But my taste in the actual music is probably not that great.
B) Lots of black/anti-authouritarian shit in WD2. Shit like Run The Jewels's "fight tha power!" kinda message.

Are you guys ever going to release Ubiart as an open source program?

How does it feel knowing that the higher ups killed Rayman?

I'll fuck you up skele,back the fuck up

Well, now I see how it could be even worse if they were aware of it.

IT AIN'T ME

>How does it feel knowing that the higher ups killed Rayman?
How do you think seeing your happiness and memories crushed by the people who control your payments feels?

What do you think about Forza Horizon 3? Thinking about picking it up on PC.

Damn man. If you were to set fire to the whole building, how would you do it? Asking for a friend.

any cool features that were cut out/left unfinished?

Favourite place to eat in Newcastle?
other than your desk

Damn, that sucks...

What's Michel Ancel doing now? I read that he has his own game company now

Heroes of Might and Magic.

What is wrong with you? Are you ashamed?

I think get what games you think you'll enjoy. The fact that I work in the industry doesn't make my opinion on what you should like or dislike any more valid.
Although if you do want it, I've heard the PC port is pretty good.

Does Wrench stay a cool guy the entire game? Also is it true that you'll be able to go through the game without killing anyone? Like are there forced shootout segments where you have to rely on the bolo?

>It's not meant to be fun.

Well I guess this about sums up almost every modern Ubisoft title

NEW DRIVER WHEN
CASUAL FILTER TUTORIAL WHEN

Wherever's least busy. Like, a coffee shop or greggs or whatever. I don't trust ubi not to pull some KONAMI-level hijinks and monitor where we all go to eat to identify me.
You live in Newcastle? I wouldn't have expected that many anons around here.

But that makes them sound competent at doing something.

Is Aiden in the game? What happened to him?

>Does Wrench stay a cool guy the entire game?
If he's your idea of chill, then sure.
>is it true that you'll be able to go through the game without killing anyone?
Oh yeah. There's no real change in terms of gameplay (a la MGSV) for going non-lethal or lethal. Just different methods of eliminations and a nice challenge if you're interested.

Not in the main story. I don't know anything about the minor campaigns outside of rumours, and that's one of the rumours.

First time seeing it and I hate it already.
It's not just cause 2 bad (which I think it got worst driving physic ever) but it close, for other reasons though.
How most people said, it feel weightless.
Ways to make it little better doesn't have to invlove physic itself, just the presentation.
First thing sensitivity, it's way too much. Second, body roll on corners, there is like none of it. Third camera, make its movement little smoother.
This alone, without changing physic itself could make it more eye pleasing.
Also, there has to be someone who worked on driver sf in studio who could fix it, that game was as arcade as possible, but damn it was fun to drive around.

What's the most enjoyable part of the job?

I saw him in a cutscene in a video that Giantbomb put out that involved him fucking with a toaster and I liked his dialogue and helmet

A lot of this stuff (e.g. camera) is still up for tweaking. I'll see if I can subtly suggest this.
>there has to be someone who worked on driver sf in studio
There are multiple. We're working toward a less shitty version of what we have right now, basically.

So why does Ubisoft think UPlay is an even remotely good idea? On top of Steam, no less. Does this fuck with your ability to code at all, having to account for an extra launcher on top of a launcher?

Still me, but yes. Honestly, I've been pretty close to properly applying to Reflections too. But your concerns relate to my fears of it. Low pay and poor working conditions - which may more sadly lead to a lower motivation to make games.

wd2 uses denuvo?

More oversteer!

I'd love to be able to say "working with my passioun: video games", but that's not it anymore. My favourite part of the job is payday.

Why do your devs harass and try to blackmail women into dating them on the internet?

Also Ubisoft have gone to absolute shit.

Don't fuck it all up again

Fucking ubisoft

Not really. It was meant to be a big, central hub for Ubisoft gamers. Thing is, anybody who's enough of a fanboy to get excited about that, doesn't need anymore convincing to stick with us.

Godspeed, dadfag. I feel for you.

>Ubisoft have gone to absolute shit.
Why do you think I need to be told this.
>Don't fuck it all up again
There are far too many people working on this game for no fuck ups to occur.

Sell the rights to HoMM and M&M!

It is evidently that you have no love for this series! Let it go!

Honestly, I'm fine with the way I'm treated. Pay's alright, and I can deal with long hours.
I really wouldn't recommend coming here, though. If nothing else, you might accidentally rat me out about this thread.
It's nice to meet another Geordie around here though.

>Why do you think I need to be told this.
I'm British, I can't help but tell you frogs how much I hate you.

>frogs
Read the location of this studio again, bong.

How much do you earn=

Have a peek at

Where would you rather work instead if you could?

Obviously not your department but in general how shady are some business practices?
Do you "favour" certain sites more than others?
What are your working conditions like? I think I remember reading somewhere that people would leave and received glares from co-workers for leaving so "early".

Somewhere with better pay/better conditions. I have no real sentimental ties to any company in particular.

Has WD2 all you've worked on or is that it? Do you already know your next project (and what it is, but I doubt you can say that)? I know you said you worked three straight days, is development still on time? Or is it a day to day monitoring of where things stand.

I might just come for an interview anyway
Sick of working at Accenture

>Obviously not your department but in general how shady are some business practices?
>Do you "favour" certain sites more than others?
I don't know, and I can't really say I care.
>What are your working conditions like?
I touched upon this earlier. Basically, I've found myself in the office for days in a row without compensation. We're not really treated as individuals, so much as we are as a "team" [read: "hive"]. Particularly at Reflections, they try to push this whole eclecticism bollocks, where we're a diverse and varied group coming together under one banner. In reality, we're a group of drones coming together to put whatever features they want in their games.

I'm being sincere when I say don't bother. You won't enjoy the work. It's effectively office work with worse deadlines and worse treatment.

I've done other stuff before WD2. The gane will release on time; they're adament of that. Its quality on release, on the other hand, remains to be seen.

Have you seen the NX controller?

It's okay. I won't really.
God speed though you lovely bastard.
May your metro run on time.

What are your thoughts about one of ubisoft dev at blue bytes harassing women online ?

He's asking for your informed opinion. The fact that you enjoy driving games and work on driving in games makes your opinion on driving games credible.

Another downgrade?

Is Dusan actually a good guy, and Marcus and Deadsec in the wrong?

Well OP
1) Do you think you'll have to help with a massive day one patch before release?
2) What is the team's morale at this point? WD1 was overhyped and had a lukewarm reception, and from what I'm guessing working on a sequel to a game a lot of people had issues with sounds terrifying.

Can you guys do anything right?

Your games are worse than cancer. Why the fuck would you make WD2 after the flop of WD1?

This is genuinely strange to me. I never expected to meet someone from Newcastle online at all, least of all on Cred Forums.
May the "modernisation work" never be happening on your line.

>reflections
WHERE THE FUCK IS MY NEW DRIVER GAME

Also I noticed you guys co-developed The Crew. I assume you were the ones that unfucked everything.

Why Ubisoft wasting talent of all those programmers and graphic designers?

It's wrong. It's shitty. It's no more my issue than any other case of harrassment.
Quite likely. Very dangerous, though. Lots of people seem to be holding WD2 as Ubisoft's last-chance saloon.
In regards to morale, some of us are just treating this as another job. No real passion left in us at this point. There are a few fairly peppy ones, still. Mostly women.
I think so. Marcus and his merry men are massive fucking hypocrites. I'm not sure if it's bad writing, or an honest representation of a lot of hacktivists.
"We wanted to build on the awesome potential of WD1" is the PR answer.
"SJW bux" is the real answer.

"Unfucking" is effectively part of the job description, especially for the Driver SF veterans,

Why does Ubisoft kiss Nintendo's ass and then shit talk them when Sony is in the room?

Because Nintendo's a cute concept.
Sony is a profitable one.

Hey OP, just dropping by to say I graduated from Newcastle in comp sci in 2013 and work in web dev, think a couple of people I spoke to ended up at reflections but I don't have any contact
Lovely city, shame your job sounds so awful

That's neat. I probably know a few. Small world, I suppose.

kinda unrelated: which do you think will fare better in the next ten years: small indie teams like Unknown Worlds and Re-Logic, or one-man sensations like Tobyfox and ConcernedApe?

My personal opinion? One-man teams will succeed more. People like the whole indie vibe that comes from one man making an entire game, regardless of quality. I think it's a shame, as small indie teams can make much better games than just one person on their own, but lack exposure for not being "indie enough".

It was nice answering questions for you guys. I'll probably be around again in the later Ubi/WD threads, so you can try summoning me again if you like. I'm always happy to talk about my job with you guys. :)

I've been playing the crew since I got it for free, how is calling all units looking? Does ubi see a future in the game?

Are you making anything yourself? Or wanted to/have done before?

I made a couple of really small games as proof when I was applying for jobs. I've never really been all that interested in being an indie developer. It's too much responsibility, particularly in the creative department.

Right, I'm going to bed now; I need to catch up on sleep. As i said, I'll probably be lurking in future Ubisoft or Watch Dogs threads, so call if you need me.

Are you going to make another shit Splinter Cell?

Think he's gone, user.

>SJW bux
That's dumb. SJWs dont spend money on games.

>We wanted to build on the awesome potential of WD1
They actually thought the first had any potential?

If it isn't meant to be fun, why is it in the game?
You aren't making games for teh sake of it, you aren't making games because you feel that they are art, then why don't you try to make good and fun games?

I know the reason: market research and target demographic trends, but come on, you are pissing us all.

How many are assigned to regression?

You should be able to answer

Do you think that mankind will ever develop technology which allows us to intercept an 'Escape' key press during video playback, thus enabling is to not sit through hours and hours of shitty, over-long cut scenes?

no; they control the media so cuck gamers spend for them.

Why did you make the main character in watch dogs 2 look like a huge faggot?

I'm going to be completely honest if you are in fact a dev, I work for 2k won't get too much into detail but a friend got me to test out WD2 a week ago


I enjoyed the driving in it much more than the first but god damn the voice acting is seriously try hard hip

Who write the lines?

Why don't you get a "normal" software job that pays more then?

How come ubisoft hasn't made a single good game in years

How come ubisoft is the only companyi n the planet who seems to make their games shittier each year

Like you cannot think a game could be more dull and terrible and yet they always surprise you.

Other companies at least make one good-ok game and then they ruin it on purpose

Ubisoft gives the vibe that they are actually "happy" with their shit games like it wasn't on purpose

>and the only colleague I know who comes here goes exclusively on /lgbt/.

You're kidding right?

its like i'm really on /x/!