It’s an icy late winter morning in Canada, but the offices of Ubisoft Quebec are ablaze with excitement.
The Ubisoft team is preparing the release of Assassin’s Creed Shadowsthe 14th main entry in the series and an evolution for the franchise in almost every detail. It is set in 16th century feudal Japan, a rich and elegant period that has long been sought after by fans and Ubisoft team members. It introduces a pair of fierce protagonists: Yasuke, a powerful warrior of African origin, and Naoe, an agile shinobi assassin, both brought to life with attention to historical accuracy. His world feels alive with an ever-changing dynamic that is evident in everything from the changing weather to the rotating seasons to the magical interplay of light and shadow.
And what’s more, it’s set to be released on Mac the same day it arrives on PCs and consoles.
“It’s been a longtime dream to bring the game to Mac,” says Ubisoft executive producer Marc-Alexis Côté, who debuted the game on Mac during the WWDC24 keynote. “It’s incredible that I can now open a MacBook Pro and get this level of immersion.” Shadows will also come later to iPad with M-series chips.
Naoe, one of the game’s two protagonists, is an agile assassin who is at her best when striking from the shadows.
Today marks one of the first times the gaming community will get its hands on it Shadowsand to celebrate the occasion, Ubisoft’s offices – a mix of cozy chalet-worthy reclaimed wood and wide-open windows affording a view of snowy Quebec City rooftops – will feature a assassin’s creed Subject, including a display that emphasizes the heft of Yasuke’s weapons, especially an imposing-looking 13-pound model of the character’s sword. (On this day, the display is hosted by associate game director Simon Lemay-Comtois, who seems quite capable of doing it.)
Download Assassin’s Creed Shadows from the Mac App Store
call page Shadows his team’s “most ambitious” game. In creating the game’s expanded world, Ubisoft’s development team took advantage of a host of advanced Mac technologies: Metal 3 (working in concert with Ubisoft’s next-generation Anvil Engine), Apple Silicon, and a mix of HDR support and real-time ray tracing on Macs with M3 and M4, which Côté says created the transformation.
It’s been a long-time dream to bring the game to Mac.
Marc-Alexis Côté, Ubisoft Executive Producer
“Seeing these millions of lines of code running natively on a Mac was a feeling that’s hard to describe,” says Côté. “When you look at the performance of the game, the curve Apple is on with successive improvements of the M-series chips year after year, and the way the game looks on an HDR screen, you’re like, ‘Is this for real?'”
Assassin’s Creed Shadows is a balance of the technical and creative. For the former, associate technical director Mathieu Belanger says that the capabilities of the Mac laid the foundation for technical success. “The architecture of the hardware is so well done, partly due to the unified memory between the GPU and the CPU. That made us think that the future is bright for games on the platform. So many things about doing this on Mac were great right out of the box.”
Naoe’s colleague, Yasuke, prefers the use of brute force.
On the creative side, Ubisoft’s creative director Jonathan Dumont focused on another opportunity. “The important thing was: Does this feel right? Is it what we want to send to the players? And the answer was yes.”
The creative team’s goal was nothing less than “making this world come alive,” says Martin Bedard, a 20-year Ubisoft veteran who served as the game’s technology director (and is very good at playing as Naoe). “You’re put into a moment that really exists,” he says. “This story is your playground.”
There are also fluffy kittens. We’ll get to that.
The ever-changing seasons lend incredible variety to the game’s environments.
And there is tremendous power behind the beauty, as the game’s biomes, seasons, weather and lighting are all dynamic creations. The sunset bathes the mountains in soft purple light; the sun’s rays float in through foliage and temple roofs. Almost every room has a candle in it, which means the light is always changing. “Look at the clouds here,” says Bedard, pointing to the screen. “That’s not a rendering. These are all fluid-based cloud simulations.”
“Japan feels like it’s 80 percent trees and mountains,” says Dumont. “When you build this world without the rain, and the wind, and the mountains, it doesn’t feel right.”
Wherever you are, wherever you go, everything is beautiful and alive.
Mathieu Belanger, Associate Technical Director
And that wind? “We developed many functions that were hardly possible before, and one of them was a full simulation of the wind, not just an animation,” says Belanger. “We even built a humidity simulation that collects the clouds together.” For the seasons in the game, Ubisoft developed an engine that rendered houses, markets and temples in ever-changing conditions. “This has all been done along the way over the last four years,” he says.
To pursue historical accuracy, Dumont and the creative team visited Japan to study every detail, including large picture details (like city maps) to very specific (like the varnish applied to 16th-century wood). It wasn’t always a slam dunk, says Côté: During a visit, her Japanese guests recommended a revision of the light against the mountains. “We want to get all the little details right,” he says. (A “full-immersion version”, entirely in Japanese with English subtitles, is available.)
To recreate the world of 16th century Japan, Ubisoft visited Creative Japan to study every detail.
Ubisoft’s decision to split the protagonist into two different characters with different identities, abilities, origin stories and class backgrounds came early in the process. (“That was a fun day,” laughs Belanger.) Ubisoft team members emphasize that choosing between Naoe and Yasuke is a matter of personal preference—lethal subtlety vs. brute force. Players can switch between characters at any time, and as you might suspect, the pair get stronger as the story progresses. Much of Naoe’s advantage comes from her ability to stay in the shadows of the game – not just behind large buildings, but wherever the scene creates a space for her to hide. “The masterclass removes a board without seeing a curve,” says Bedard.
(The hideout is) peaceful. You can say, ‘I feel like cutting down some trees, seeing what I’ve collected, rebuilding my buildings and petting the cats.’
Jonathan Dumont, Ubisoft creative director
Which brings us to the Hideout, Naoe and Yasuke’s home base and a bucolic rural village that acts as a Zen-infused escape from the prosperity of battle. “It’s a place that welcomes you back,” says Dumont. It is eminently customizable, both from a game progression point of view, but also in terms of aesthetics. Where the battle scenes are a frenzy of vicious combat or stealth attacks, the Hideout is a refuge for supplies, artwork, found objects, and even a furry menagerie of cats, dogs, deer, and other calming influences. “There’s progress, of course,” says Dumont, “but it’s peaceful. You can say, ‘I feel like cutting down some trees, seeing what I’ve collected, rebuilding my buildings and petting the cats.’
“The cats were a P1 feature,” laughs associate game director Dany St-Laurent.
Yasuke prepares to face an opponent in what will likely be a fruitful battle.
But for all the big numbers, Dumont says the game boils down to something much simpler. “I just think the characters work really well together,” he says. “It’s an open-world game, yes. But at its core, it has two characters that you love. And the game is really about following their journey, connecting with them, discovering their unique secrets, and watching them fly together. And I think the way they join forces is one of the best moments in the franchise.”
And if the Ubisoft team has their way, there will be many moments to come. “I think the game will scale for years on the Mac platform,” says Côté. “Games can be more and more immersive with each new hardware release. We’re trying to create something here where more people come with day-one games on the Mac, because I think it’s a beautiful platform.”
Download Assassin’s Creed Shadows from the Mac App Store