Assassin’s Creed Shadows was designed to feel less like a static postcard and more like a world in motion. In a GamesBeat interview published September 12, 2024, and updated June 18, 2025, Ubisoft technical architect Pierre Fortin explained how the Anvil engine, responsive environments, and performance trade-offs support that goal. The interview was edited for clarity.
How did Ubisoft build the world of Assassin’s Creed Shadows?
Fortin describes the central art-and-technology goal as moving from a “beautiful postcard” to a “beautiful movie.” Instead of treating the setting as scenery that simply looks attractive, the team aimed for an environment that responds: vegetation moves, characters react to wind, and changing seasons and weather alter the world’s conditions.
“The dynamism we pushed on Shadows is what stands out compared to our previous titles,” Fortin said. He also names environmental destruction, time of day, weather, and a dynamic seasons system as parts of that more responsive approach.
What does Anvil do for the game?
Anvil is Ubisoft’s game engine, and Fortin says it has been continually changed since the first Assassin’s Creed. “Anvil started way back on the first Assassin’s Creed,” he said, adding that little of the original engine remains—a transformation he likened to the ship of Theseus.
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- PREMIUM EDITION CONTENT — Includes the full Assassin’s Creed Shadows base game plus premium gear, weapons, mount, trinket, and the expansive Claws of Awaji story expansion.
- CLAWS OF AWAJI EXPANSION — Continue your journey with a major expansion featuring a new region, a new weapon type, new skills, and over 10 hours of additional story-driven content.
- DEEPEST STEALTH GAMEPLAY — Master the most advanced stealth systems in the series as Naoe, using light, sound, shadows, parkour, grappling hook traversal, and classic Assassin tools.
- COMPLEMENTARY HEROES — Play as Naoe, a stealth-focused shinobi Assassin, and Yasuke, a powerful legendary samurai, and master their contrasting playstyles.
- FEUDAL JAPAN OPEN WORLD — Explore a vast, reactive open world featuring castle towns, shrines, ports, dynamic weather, and changing seasons in a time of chaos.
Fortin’s account emphasizes that the engine is developed alongside the games, rather than treated as a finished tool that production simply uses. In pre-production, technology teams meet with art and story directors to understand a game’s creative goals and identify the technical work needed to support them. During production, the team follows content creation, optimizes systems, and fixes bugs; much of the technology may be in place, but it continues to evolve through development.
That approach is also shaped by production workflow. Fortin said Ubisoft builds its engine around the company’s production capacity: “We build our engine tailored to Ubisoft’s production capacity.” He presents a suitable pipeline and engine as important to coordinating a large, distributed production, not just to rendering the finished game.
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- Explore the captivating open world of feudal Japan, from spectacular castle towns and bustling ports to peaceful shrines and war-ravaged landscapes. Adventure through unpredictable weather, changing seasons, and reactive environments.
- Become Naoe, a shinobi Assassin, and Yasuke, a legendary samurai, as you experience their riveting stories and master their complementary playstyles.
- Make information your weapon as you explore the world, and build your own network of spies to be your eyes and ears across locations to hunt down your next target. Along the way, recruit new allies with unique abilities to help accomplish your missions.
- Create a fully customizable hideout for your growing shinobi league as you train your crew, craft new gear, interact with key characters, and choose your base’s layout, decorations, and accessories.
How do seasons and weather affect gameplay?
Fortin says weather and time of day can change the conditions players encounter. In particular, lightning and rainstorms can create dark, wet conditions that help mask an approach to enemies or difficult areas. The point is a specific stealth opportunity—not a claim that every weather change alters every part of traversal or combat.
Seasons and wind also contribute to the world’s movement: vegetation shifts, and characters respond to wind. Fortin describes environmental destruction as another element of the game’s dynamism, alongside those weather and seasonal systems.
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Rank #3
- Only at Amazon Limited Edition Content includes the base game and Sekiryu Character Pack
- Explore the captivating open world of feudal Japan, from spectacular castle towns and bustling ports to peaceful shrines and war-ravaged landscapes. Adventure through unpredictable weather, changing seasons, and reactive environments.
- Become Naoe, a shinobi Assassin, and Yasuke, a legendary samurai, as you experience their riveting stories and master their complementary playstyles.
- Make information your weapon as you explore the world, and build your own network of spies to be your eyes and ears across locations to hunt down your next target. Along the way, recruit new allies with unique abilities to help accomplish your missions.
- Create a fully customizable hideout for your growing shinobi league as you train your crew, craft new gear, interact with key characters, and choose your base’s layout, decorations, and accessories.
How does Ubisoft balance visual detail with performance?
Fortin frames performance as a matter of allocating limited computing resources. In his explanation, detailed environments demand a substantial share of GPU resources, while crowds of numerous animated, physically driven characters can put pressure on the CPU. Those demands are different, so a technique that helps one does not necessarily solve the other.
Dynamic resolution can reduce GPU load by scaling the rendered output, but Fortin says it does not help CPU-bound work such as processing crowds. The interview does not provide platform-specific frame rates, hardware requirements, benchmark results, or quantified crowd limits.
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- ENTER FEUDAL JAPAN - Explore the captivating open world of feudal Japan, from spectacular castle towns and bustling ports to peaceful shrines and war-ravaged landscapes. Adventure through unpredictable weather, changing seasons, and reactive environments.
- MASTER COMPLEMENTARY PLAYSTYLES - Become Naoe, a shinobi Assassin, and Yasuke, a legendary samurai, as you experience their riveting stories and master their complementary playstyles. As Naoe, use stealth to avoid detection and agility to confound your enemies. As Yasuke, strike your foes with lethal precision and power. Unlock new skills, gear, and progression independently for each character.
- MAKE INFORMATION YOUR WEAPON - Travel the world and build your own network of spies to be your eyes and ears across locations to hunt down your next target. Along the way, recruit new allies with unique abilities to help accomplish your missions
- BUILD A PLACE TO CALL HOME - Create a fully customizable hideout for your growing shinobi league as you train your crew, craft new gear, interact with key characters, and choose your base’s buildings layout, decorations, and accessories.
Virtual geometry adapts detail to the view
Fortin also discusses virtual geometry as a way to make changes between foreground and background detail less visible. Older approaches used fixed levels of detail, with separate low-, medium-, and high-resolution versions. The newer approach selects detail across a spectrum according to factors such as viewing angle and draw distance, rather than relying only on those fixed steps.
Why model an open world from every angle?
An open world has to hold up when players approach places from different directions. “For an open world we need to build the whole thing, from all angles,” Fortin said. He contrasts that requirement with some corridor-based designs, where partial facades can be sufficient because players do not see every side of an environment.
Fortin describes that full-world approach as a significant production investment, supported by a larger team and carefully crafted pipelines. His comparison explains the demands of Shadows as an open-world project; it is not a universal rule about how every game in either category must be made.
Source and interview context
These explanations come from GamesBeat’s edited interview with Pierre Fortin, identified by the publication as a Ubisoft technical architect. GamesBeat published it on September 12, 2024, and records an update on June 18, 2025. Read the interview at GamesBeat.
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