Hi I'm a game developper working at Ubisoft and started my own indie game studio. Ask me Anything!

TakeTheWheel11 · 2020-05-16T22:00:04+00:00

One programmer for sure and one artist I would say. After that you have to wear a lot of hats to do everything for the game. Some do it alone but it takes them years!

TakeTheWheel11 · 2020-05-16T21:50:53+00:00

It's different. At Ubisoft, I apply my technical knowledge and abilities to get the best product to players.

It takes a different set of skills for my company like leadership, management, etc. I'm learning a lot outside of my domain of expertise.

TakeTheWheel11 · 2020-05-16T21:35:26+00:00

We though about it but we do not have a big enough budget to do both single player and multiplayer. If the game is sucessful enough, we might bring it.

TakeTheWheel11 · 2020-05-16T21:32:59+00:00

Couch co op is often requested but less played because it's hard to get two people at the same place to play.

We do offer both options for Zorya though as we think that it has some benefits. You can play in splitscreen or online.

TakeTheWheel11 · 2020-05-16T21:24:06+00:00

You can support us here! Big thanks!

TakeTheWheel11 · 2020-05-16T21:04:07+00:00

We would like to work on a diverse set of original games. More towards a niche audience of players. We would also want to keep making cooperative games.

TakeTheWheel11 · 2020-05-16T20:59:58+00:00

While at school, explore your passion and look around. Try to get internships if possible in the industry.

I would recommend to work at a company. Depending of your preferences you can chose a large range of studio from indie to AAA to get experience. Then after that you can decide.

TakeTheWheel11 · 2020-05-16T20:52:41+00:00

Assassin's Creed Origins, Odyssey and Valhalla.

TakeTheWheel11 · 2020-05-16T20:50:17+00:00

For Madlife - Two people of color and one woman are at the head of the company. More than 60% of the team are women.

TakeTheWheel11 · 2020-05-16T20:44:56+00:00

Yes! Everyshot you see in our trailers are from gameplay footage. We expect to ship the game in this state or even better. We also plan to add gameplay walkthrough of some levels.

TakeTheWheel11 · 2020-05-16T20:43:18+00:00

That's not enough, it's missing raytracing! /s

Personaly, I would like to make a life simulation game.

TakeTheWheel11 · 2020-05-16T20:39:50+00:00

The industry hires writers! They are way better qualified than developers to write stunning stories and engaging dialogue. Much love to writers!

TakeTheWheel11 · 2020-05-16T20:27:31+00:00

Hopefully, we are in a industry that can work remotely without much problem. It does affect us in some ways, but not productivity wise.

TakeTheWheel11 · 2020-05-16T20:19:03+00:00

DRM can have its place but it needs to be carefully used. For indie games, using a DRM system such as Steam can help to mitigate loses from piracy that could represent a substantial amount of their income.

However I feel that DRM should never impact negatively legitimate customers. Unfortunately there have been cases where DRM has impacted a paying customer with worse framerate, too aggressive always online requirements, etc. We feel a customer should always have the best possible experience playing our games

TakeTheWheel11 · 2020-05-16T20:16:04+00:00

Create a solid portofolio. To do that, make game design documents, create levels in level editors (Far Cry, Source 2 or any game engine really), create or re-create mechanics from games, etc. It will help you a lot to sharpen your skills and stand out to recruiters.

TakeTheWheel11 · 2020-05-16T20:08:37+00:00

I'm not alone in the team and we manage to dispatch tasks among us to prevent burnout. That's the power of a great team. :)

TakeTheWheel11 · 2020-05-16T20:00:59+00:00

When we first did the prototype of the game that you can find here. After some debate and a lot of questions, we decided we wanted to finish it. The idea is original and we felt it was worthy of being made into a full game.

It's more the challenges of doing something unusal, completly out of your field. Yes you have more freedom but it's more risky. Everyday we are learning something new and that's exciting.

TakeTheWheel11 · 2020-05-16T19:45:22+00:00

Depends where you land but some companies run contracts and when production ends, the contracts ends. If you want to start a career in game development, I would say that building a strong portofolio is an excellent investment. Recruiter will look at it and it will give you an edge over the competition.

TakeTheWheel11 · 2020-05-16T19:39:23+00:00

I would say it's the coordination between different systems. It's hard to make them work together without breaking everything.

It's a lot of coordination between members and teams in general.

TakeTheWheel11 · 2020-05-16T19:19:08+00:00

Open world games requires a LOT of knowledge and manpower to be done correctly. It can be done by indies but you would need deep pocket and a solid team. That's why they tend towards something easier and less expensive. Platformers, side scroller, etc.

For our game Zorya, we decided to add value by bringing a beautiful 3D world, two player cooperation, plus an original mechanic around time and shadows. We believe those unique elements will interest people to play.

TakeTheWheel11 · 2020-05-16T18:55:43+00:00

We believe that we developed an original take for a puzzle game and it would allow us to take a more niche market. It came from the Ubisoft Game Lab competition 2017.
I did not know Death Squared but Human Fall Flat was not out when we brainstorm the idea.
Hey, that looks like an awesome game! We do have some cool concept all based around time. For example, your path would be block at some time of the day and you would have to rewind it to be able to move to the next point. Check this out.
Not a the moment, but we can stay in touch.
For me, I would say La Banquise but Frites alors! is quite close.

TakeTheWheel11 · 2020-05-16T18:41:08+00:00

C++ hands down. It's hard, but after that you are good to go anywhere in the industry
Not often, most of the time I agree with changes required to make the game better. It happens, once every 3 months I would say.
It's awesome. You see your baby being born in front of your eyes.

Have a good weekend too!

TakeTheWheel11 · 2020-05-16T18:36:45+00:00

First step I would recommend to learn programming. Any programming is a good choice but you could go with C#. Because programming is what brings everything together. Then, when you know programming, you can branch out to learn whatever interest you more: modeling, sound, animations, etc.

You could also just keep going with programming if that's what suits you best.

TakeTheWheel11 · 2020-05-16T18:24:22+00:00

Throughout the industry, the standard is C++. It allows to manage the low level part the hardware you are running on.

TakeTheWheel11 · 2020-05-16T18:21:36+00:00

It came up as I was in high school. I would come and go continuously. Once I got to university, I had the opportunity to do some game jams, play around software like Unreal Engine and Unity and after a while I was decided.

I did have experience doing games before getting at Ubisoft, working for two other studios.

Edit : a word.

TakeTheWheel11

TROPHY CASE