Assassin's Creed Shadows: Claws of Awaji

Ubisoft

Senior Quest Designer

- Responsible for crafting and implementing quests for both the expansion main quest and side content. Ensure the correct pacing, gameplay variety and encourage players to try diverse approaches.

- Turn narrative pitches into memorable gameplay and narrative moments. Craft proposals for the writing and realization team to improve the narrative flow of the game.

- Craft proposals and align with the level design and level art teams to create fun and meaningful locations to support the quest.

- Create and update quest design documentation on Miro and Confluence.

- All implementation is done in the proprietary tool Anvil.

I was responsible for:

  • Half of the first act of the game

  • Tomeji’s questline, one of the main boss’ lieutenant

  • All side quests

You will find below descriptions of three quests which best represent my work on the project.

A Shinobi on Awaji

In this quest, the player arrives on Awaji, the main setting of the expansion. Naoe is looking for her mother and must therefore find information in the town. The player has 3 sources of information possible:

  • A guard in a inn who must be eavesdropped and then followed discretely and interrogated (first video)

  • Two carpenters who must be eavesdropped which leads to infiltrating the Samurai residence to find an incriminating letter (second video)

  • Two citizen discussing at the harbor, this is a red herring (seen in the first video as well)

Achievements:

  • Create a tailing path with small events along the way which is interesting for the player while showcasing some of Awaji oppressiveness.

  • Have two manners to find the same information with different gameplay but similar length and difficulty.

  • Have a similar chance that players follow each route through their placement in the town and sighs and feedbacks.

The Reunion

Naoe knows her mother is under Sumoto castle’s tenshu. She must infiltrate it and free her.

Achievements:

  • Create several paths for the player to reach the cell which all have interesting challenges (find a discrete way through the roof to avoid some guards, enter the opposite building to find an underground tunnel which leads straight to the cell, find an access to a floor close to the cell but heavily guarded, …)

  • Create throwback moments to the side-scroller quest which showcased Naoe’s mother infiltrating the castle herself to create a parallel between the mother and the daughter (find guards displayed as shadow puppets with nice assassination opportunities, use light and darkness to stay discrete, fall into a trap when the goal is finally at hand, …)

Not Alone in this World

Yasuke arrives on Awaji to free Naoe who has been imprisoned with her mother. He meets with Konatsu who gives him the opportunity to find a secret entrance to the castle or brute force his way in.

Achievements:

  • Offer players two ways to reach Naoe: one based on strength (first video), the other based on observation and deduction to find the secret passage (second video).

  • Reinforce Awaji’s hidden dangers and introduce the disguised assassins feature by having a citizen propose some help to Yasuke which leads to two different outcomes:

    • If the player accepts her help and follows her, she will lead Yasuke into an ambush (first video).

    • If the player refuses, the citizen will follow Yasuke in the city and all the way to the secret passage. If the player pays attention, they can notice branches cracking and the citizen giggling. The player can confront her and force her to drop her act, which will lead to an attack, or decide to follow her still which lead back to the first option.

    • If the player decide to not take her offer but then fails to notice her and let her keep on following, she will follow Yasuke to the secret passage and backstab him there (second video).

  • Create a functioning behavior loop which updates the behavior of the citizen depending on the player’s previous actions (talked to her, accepted her help, refused, found her once, twice, ignore her).

  • Craft an interesting path for the citizen to follow the player and hide so it is easy enough to find her if the player pays attention, but discrete enough so she does not look completely incompetent.