Assassin’s Creed: Unity

Level Designer – City – Quartier Latin District – Single player and Coop
Released: November 11th 2014
Genre: Stealth and action-adventure
Platforms: PS4, XBOne, PC

City Design – Latin Quarter:

Latin Quarter district planning, layout, overview and footprint
Navigation paths (ground, interior and rooftops)
Landmark blocking for scale and silhouette
Planning of mission layouts: mission, heist and quest areas, including but not limited to:
- St. Germain area and heist
- Underground areas (Sewers and catacombs)
- Observatory area
- Luxembourg gardens
- Rooftops for balloon chase mission
AI setup and balancing, patrols, guard stations and encounters (protectors, allies and enemies)
Collectable placement and setup
NPC/store placement and setup

Layout example images (Luxembourg gardens: Top; Observatory grounds: Bottom)

Additional:

Created mission document pitches for both COOP and Single Player campaigns
- Creation of design documents, blueprints and maps
Created district specific maps, documents and meetings for the Latin Quarter team
Delegated and assigned integrator tasks
Initially part of a two person city team (one Level Designer, one Level Artist):
- Ramped up architecture team and integrator onto on a tight schedule by creating meetings for the Level Artists, Mission Level Designers, City Integrator, Modellers and Texture Artist to look at and discuss the mission and areas
Coordinated with Montreal Technical Directors, Art teams and Level Designers for asset integration, layout or mission support
Planned and communicated with entire district city team and requested appropriate props, houses or interiors for the city, missions, heists, quests and/or created layouts with finished assets based on mission needs/specs
Refactored entire district ground navigation, parkour, ropes and cover
Lead a refactoring team for the Latin Quarter district for ground navigation and parkour to streamline navigation and follow metrics
Assigned Jira bugs appropriately, commenting or delegating to the correct individuals or teams
Created tasks and bugs for actionable items
Constant monitoring and investigating of district specific bugs from the Latin Quarter city team to keep bug count low

▲ E3 support team:
As the City Designer for the Latin Quarter, I had the opportunity to be directly involved in the E3 demo as a part of the support team, as work on the district was also being done in tandem. I worked with the Art Director for house and roof placement and city silhouette. I worked with the Production Coordinator to create a list of houses that needed to be finalized as well as the Props Lead to get specific props created. I worked with the Level Design Director for the start paths of all the players, primarily working on the second, third and fourth player. I worked on the areas surrounding Luxembourg and debugged the area with Quality Control Testers and the Assistant Art Technical Director. When the E3 demo was complete, I also cleaned up all the meshes in the area that were not going to be in the final version.

▲ Sequence 09 – Hoarders/The Escape – Layout/Navigation:
For “Hoarders” I set up the city and surrounding Luxembourg area to accommodate the mission. I also created the layout and dressed the Luxembourg garden on the side. I also did a quick cover placement in the courtyard along with the ropes. For “The Escape” I worked with the Mission Level Designer and Level Design Director to decide the paths for the chase. I created the layouts, depictions and navigation paths for the mission and either requested or re-purposed and constructed elements from existing pieces on my own. I also dressed all the rooftop areas and coordinated with the Level Artists in each area for the interior planning and accessibility as they were unique pieces. I also worked with lighters for player leading and the Art Director for how the city skyline looked.

▲ Coop Heist – Catacomb Raider – St. Germain – Area and catacomb layout:
Before the Coop Heist was integrated into the area and after the main Level Artist blocked in a garden intention I reconstructed the area to provide cover and visually interesting elements. I blocked in and dressed the front of the church as well as thought of and built the depictions for the graveyard and fountain areas. I then passed it to the specific sub-district artist who further refined the area with the texture artist. I also constructed the catacombs areas below with the input from the Mission Heist Level Designer (who was in Montreal) and then implemented layout and cover changes from his Level Design Director reviews. I worked closely with the props team, requesting and following up for specific pieces to make sure they were on time and to specification. I also coordinated with another Level Designer that was using the same unique asset to make sure that both of the missions needs were being met. In addition I worked with the Assistant Graphics Technical Director from the Montreal team to make sure the catacombs were done correctly since it was a unique piece.

▲ Coop Mission – Les Jacobins Raid – Outer area and Courtyard layout:
For the Jacobins Raid Coop Mission, I planned out and placed the exterior layout with cover and depictions for the courtyard and surrounding area, which included the rooftops where the snipers were and the interior in the encompassing house block. I took it upon myself to refactor and debug the courtyard and surrounding area after the art pass and made sure that the cover and navmesh worked, that the correct meshes were being used and that it was all built to metrics. I worked with the Mission Designer, sub-district Level Artist, Level Design Lead, Technical Directors and Props team to ensure the mission was properly supported for these areas. I also coordinated with the other City Level Designer from the Bievre since this area is close to the border of our areas.

Detailed contributions:

Latin Quarter district layout planning and creation:
- City blueprints and landmark planning:
  - Landmark selection and proxies for scale and district silhouette
    - Communicated with the architecture teams to ensure that the landmarks met city/mission/heist/quest needs
    - Reach High Points – Climbing puzzles
  - Main roads and high traffic areas
  - Initial crowd life and crowd flow planning
  - Neighborhood planning with main Level Artist, which included streets, house types, heights, privacy levels and courtyards
  - Navigation paths throughout the district
  - Mission, quest, heist, collectable and AI placements
    - District spawn points, patrol paths, balancing and encounters
    - Navigation paths and layouts
- House block creation and placement
- - Missions, quests, heists, collectables
- Interior planning and placement
  - Missions, quests, heists, collectables
  - Navigation paths, Leap of Faith routes, node placement
- Reference gathering
- Researched historical periods
- Underground placement and planning
  - Catacombs
  - Sewers
- Creation of navigation paths for single player mission and quests
- Creation of navigation and layout for St. Germain heist
- Created initial and some final art depictions with finished meshes provided from Toronto and Montreal teams
- Combat design – balancing the district AI, creating patrols and encounters
- Worked with:
  - Main Level Artist and Level Artists for sub-districts
  - Other district City Designers and City Integrators
  - Architecture team (Landmarks, gatehouses)
  - Props team (unique meshes)
  - Mission, Heist and Quest Designers (TOR/MTL)
  - Coordinators, Managers, Leads and Game Designers (TOR/MTL)
  - Narrative team
  - Level Design Director, Art Director and Technical Directors (TOR/MTL)
  - Montreal team (who worked in the Latin Quarter)
  - Scripted Events team
  - Quality Control Team
- Debug, nav mesh, collision
- Naming of streets
- Jira bugs
- General debugging