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INTERVIEW: ASSASSIN'S CREED BLACK FLAG RESYNCED · 987 The Shock Circuit

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: I'm smiling very widely right now. He's like a little
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: boy in a candy shop. I'm gonna throw you back
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: to 2013. I think that was the height of maybe say,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Pirates of the Caribbean. OK, Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: and all that. And then when Assassin's Creed Black Flag
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: came out, everybody raved about it, even me. I enjoyed
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: the naval battles. I felt like Jack Sparrow at some
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: point in time, but of course in the game you
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: play as Kenway.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: And we actually have the re-synced version which is out
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: in Singaporean cyberspace today. So whatever console you're on, or
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: if you're on Steam as well, please go get it.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: And in the studio, we have the two most important
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: people responsible for it. From Ubisoft Singapore, who's had a
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: huge hand in Assassin's Creed, Black Flag resync. Say hello
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: to creative director Paul Fuoo and lead producer, Justina.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. Fantastic. Thank
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: you for making it so early. I'm sure it was
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: a big night for the both of you like leading
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: up to today. Tonight is the big night. Tonight is
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: the big night. OK, but was the night. Any anxiety
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: last night or anything leading up to this big weekend?
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: I think it was a blast shipping the game. Now
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: I think we're just relieved, celebrating and congratulating.
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: the people who are involved with it.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, OK, so let, let, let's get straight to it.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: I say it's a very proud moment for us Singaporeans
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: and maybe even Ubisoft Singapore. What, what was your role
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: individually in the conceptualization of Assassin's Creed, Black Flag, rethink? Paul,
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: I can start with you first.
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: So I'm the creative director. Um, my role is to
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: drive a singular vision for the project.
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: Together with my team of directors, leads, and hands-on people
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: and just together we shape the game.
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And for me, I'm the lead producer, so as
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: a producer, I try to juggle between the creative vision
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: and like budgets and timelines, um, and I like to
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: say it's like the chief cheerleader job, making sure everybody's
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: excited to keep going and making sure the game is good, yeah,
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: and just super proud to be.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: Able to ship this from Singapore? Wow. Yeah, that is
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: such a unique thing right? So was there a reason
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: why or who made the call to go, hey, you
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: know what, in 2013, we released a classic. Let let's
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: have it resynced. Let's have it remade for the newer
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: gens of consoles. So whose call was it and how
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: did Ubisoft Singapore become such an integral part of the game?
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: You want to go first of all?
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: Sure, I think it came from a nebulous group of people. Uh,
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: we all wanted to do a remake. At some point,
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: we did a pitch and we decided that this was
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: the one to do so because first of all, I
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: really love Edward Kenway as a character. He's easily one
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: of my favorite assassins and um for me, he, he's
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: unique in the sense that he's not just a pirate,
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: you know, he's a father, he's a husband, and I've always,
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: always wanted to revisit that role that we created in 13,
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: 2013 together in Montreal.
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: So, uh, at some point, we sat together with Justin,
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: we sat together with a bunch of executives and we decided, OK,
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: we should do it.
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah, no.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: I'm still curious. If I were to play like the
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: original version and this re-synced version like back to back,
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: is there gonna be massive differences or what are the
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: key differences you can highlight for us? Yeah.
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, go ahead. Right. So the, the whole world has
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: been rebuilt completely from scratch. We kept the story intact
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: because that's the best part of the game, the story,
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: and we expanded the game with 6 hours of new content.
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: There's a new endgame chapter, there are new side quest,
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: new characters, new officers, and we completely.
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: Booted the naval and combat systems,
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: which is very excited about. Yes, I'm looking forward to
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: get my pirate hat on and just play again. OK,
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: so I'm gonna ask this question from a console point
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: of view and not, not to bring in another game
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: that people are looking forward to at the end of
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: the year, GTA 6. So in, in part of their marketing,
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: they say, oh, play best on the PlayStation 5 Pro.
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: So for Assassin's Creed Black Flag resync, which console or
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: which platform do you think is the one to go on?
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: In your personal opinion or whichever that it plays best on, right? 00,
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: here we go. So I think it's if you want
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: to have the most flexibility on how you want to
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: tweak the system, I think PC is obviously the best
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: place to be. Ah, but other than that, I think
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: PS5 Pro is probably the place to be. We optimize
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: a lot on the on the game. I think Ian
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: will be I will be happy. OK, before we take
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: a short break, um, when you are recreating something or
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: when you're changing things up, right?
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: How do you prioritize like, let's say nostalgia versus being
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: more cutting edge when it comes to technology? Like how
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: do you find that balance? Because I feel sometimes when
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: you revisit something, people often always still think of the
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: original one and they still want to see something maintained,
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: right? you know.
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: Our brains work a bit like AI, we unrest the
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: game in our heads. We think that it looks really,
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: really great. But, but looking back, we realized that actually, actually,
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: there are a lot of improvements that need to be made.
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: The face doesn't actually look that way. So we did
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: many workshops uh together with fans as well, to figure
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: out what we should and should not change. For example,
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: one of the contentious things was Edward's face. We wanted
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: to get his face right, so people remember him as
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: he was, so that when you, you play it, you
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: feel like you're back in 2013. So we ran a
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: workshop just for with the fans to decide on whether
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: his face was OK or not, and we realized that
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: different people had different perceptions about his face. Yeah.
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: And I think 11 small note also is interesting, a
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: lot of people remembered the game with very turquoise water,
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: and then we had to pump it up way more
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: in the remake, in the resync version, so that people
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: would say, oh, that, that's what I remember.
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: So it's a lot of details. It is important to people,
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: I think nostalgia to some extent. It's healing for our
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: brains for some reason. OK, we're gonna take a short break.
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: We're still live on TikTok. We'll have some like conversations
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: there that you may not catch on air. So we'll
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: see you there and be back in a few minutes.
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: Really exciting and fun chat off-a earlier on TikTok Live.
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: We're still live there. Today, the 9th of July, a
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: very special day for our friends over at Ubisoft, especially
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: Ubisoft Singapore because it's the launch.
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: Of Assassin's Creed, Black Flag resynced, and in the studio,
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: we have two people who have had a huge hand
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: in resyncing the game for us. Creative director of Ubisoft Singapore,
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: Paul Fu, and lead producer Justin Eg. They're in the
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: studio having a chat, all things Assassin's Creed and all
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: things gaming. Yeah, and I think a lot of behind
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: the scenes moments that we're getting from them, a lot
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: of info that may not have been known otherwise, right?
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: Were there any ideas that you
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: You had that eventually had to be cut from this
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: resync version. I'm sure they are, right? Can you say
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: or I don't know if that's it. Well,
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: we
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: always wanted to do more. So at some point I
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: felt that we maybe did a bit too much and
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: we wanted to be a
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: A bit more humble, you know, make sure that we
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: manage the scope and push for quality. So we did
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: remove some pieces of the story that we wanted to do.
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: Um, other than that, here and there, uh, maybe a
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: bit on the, the naval, maybe a bit on the combat,
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: but nothing major, I would say. We, we set off
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: with a pretty good plan from the start and we
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: stuck to it.
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: I think, um, the, the funny thing is, despite not
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: being a gamer, I came from a history of back
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: in school, and writers, they always be like whatever doesn't
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: move the plot forward, just remove it. Is that what
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: you guys stick by when you're planning?
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: I think that's, I think that's exactly the case, right?
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: And a lot of times even though Paul said we
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: had a good plan and there are things that we
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: did have a good plan, even though we didn't really
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: cut stuff, we rewrote a lot of the mechanics of
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: some of the ideas that the team had into another
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: way of doing it, so it's more efficient. So I
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: think that's the fun part of development sometimes is the
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: creators want to do something, you have the back and
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: forth with the production team, the tech team, and you're
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: discussing like, how do you achieve that same emotion, that
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: same game.
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: Play moment with less or more efficiently. Ah, so that's
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: why it's like when you ask whether we cut stuff,
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: I think the answer is yes, but also no. Yeah.
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: I was gonna say, so to run Sonic through this, some,
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: some games, right, to give us a bit of a bonus,
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: they introduced these things called DLC, downloadable content. OK, so
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: it's not a quest. I mean, it could be like
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: a small bonus for the game. So those things that
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: got removed, will it be a DLC? Today we are
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: talking about the launch of Assassin's Creed that we will
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: not talk about future projects.
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: Very corporate you. They're on stricter embargo, I guess we
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: have to invite them back now on the topic of
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: black flag resync.
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: If you can share without spoiling too much, what sort
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: of Easter eggs can we expect to see? Would there
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: be a small nod to Singapore? Anyone that we might
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: know whatsoever? Yeah, a lot of people in TikTok. You
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: tell me, I'll be quite shocked as well. I'm just kidding.
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: I think that's more than a little this time because
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: we are the lead studio, so we put more effort
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: into adding a bit of ourselves into the game. So
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: the Singapore island you talk about, that's back in the game, so.
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: Do try to find it. I think there's a piece
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: of island there, which is pretty cool. Um, on top
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: of that, in the original game in 2013, actually there
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: was a Merlion hidden in an underwater diving wreck, um,
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: that is still back, so do try to find it again,
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: and the Merdayan looks better than ever. And the last
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: one which I think we are all very proud of
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: is we have a durian quest. A durian quest. OK.
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: So you will find a bunch of durians in Havana
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: and it will lead you down a
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: Interesting mission to find some cool little trinkets. OK, OK. Very,
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: very vague. Durians in Havana, now I've heard trinkets. OK, cute.
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: As Paul would say, the writer did a good job. Nice, nice. OK,
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: before we let you go, I think what's interesting is
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: many people may not realize that certain things have been
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: developed here in Singapore, right? And both of you might
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: be huge inspirations to the next student out there or
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: the next person that really wants to go.
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: into your industry. Is there anything that you want to
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: share that, you know, after this experience of putting them,
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: putting Singapore on the map as
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: well? Well,
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: there's there's a lot that's being done in Singapore that
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: the general public may not know. So we created the
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: tech and naval tech. Uh, there was a lot of
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: work that went into it. At some point, we even
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: hired a guy who had a PhD, uh, to, to
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: do calculations for the water to make sure that it
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: looked good.
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: Uh, because you can imagine trying to simulate water, right?
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: It's not just somebody drawing it, it has to be
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: done in math, it's not straightforward. There are also a
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: lot of other things that, uh, that we did as well. Uh,
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: we did the, the, the fight in Singapore together with
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: Quebec and Barcelona, and we were very proud of that
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: and recinct is one of the biggest mandates we have
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: for recinct.
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: Uh, we also worked on a lot of E3 and game,
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: game show demos for the Assassin's Creed brand for Skull
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: and Bones. Uh, there, there's so much that we did,
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: and of course, we shipped Skull and Bones as well.
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: Anything else you want to add on, I would say.
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: Game development is a viable career. I mean, I'm very
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: lucky that my Asian parents didn't expect me to be
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: a doctor or lawyer, so that's very nice. Mine. So
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: thank you, parents, that's one. and then dreams do come true,
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: so you gotta chase them if you want to do this,
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: you can, uh, and hashtag no pressure.
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: I was gonna say that I think it's right to
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: say if you're gonna play Assassin's Creed Black Flag resync,
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: if you're buying it on the console games platform or Steam,
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: in a way you are hashtags supporting local in a way,
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: in a way, yes, but we, we hope that if
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: you're tuning in either on TikTok.
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: Or even on air that this gave you a whole
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: new perspective and um insider story as well to it.
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: So anything else that you want to share before I'm
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: sure you'll be quite
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: busy over the weekend I had a conversation with my
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: with my proponent. I love her very much and
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: I once tried to explain what I did. Like I, I, I,
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: I told her that I made video games in Chinese,
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: and she was like, uh, uh, yeah, the man. So
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: for her, for her, it appeared on the shelf somehow, yeah,
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: but of course she's been very supportive of me. She's
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: like so proud of me and shout out to my ama. Yeah,
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: you
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: must send her a picture of you in this studio
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: right now and say, A, I'm working. I'm working.
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: Just FYI. So, without further ado, here's a very special
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: surprise for anyone who's tuned in and on TikTok Live
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: as well. Oh yeah. In my hand, I got something?
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: It's the collector's edition of Assassin's Creed Black Flag resynced.
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: It will be up for a very, very big giveaway
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: on 987's social media platform. So please be on standby
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: for that. Yeah, it's.
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: up. We're not gonna open it, by the way. This is,
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: you are gonna receive it like this. It's right here, people. Yeah.
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: So a lot of people in the comment section going,
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: oh my God, oh my God, sick. Oh my gosh,
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: we didn't expect that. We already told you there was
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: going to be a surprise. There's a very nice Edward
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: statue in there as well. I saw it on the pictures. Beautiful. Yeah, so,
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: but we can't see it in real life. Only you
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: will if you win it, OK? Make sure you stay
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: very close to 987 Socials for all the details.