Game development is never an easy task, especially with games looking to push boundaries, whether it be graphically or the player experience. Assassin's Creed has been one such series, especially in the early games of the franchise where the teams at Ubisoft were building many parts of the games from scratch. A developer who was part of the original game's team says one of these is the game's horses, which the developer says came about by twisting the game's human skeleton renders into a horse.
The original Assassin's Creed, released back in 2007, was an open-world action-adventure game set during both modern-day and the Third Crusade in the late-12th century across the Holy Land, which includes modern-day Israel and Syria. In the modern setting, players take on the role of Desmond Miles, a bartender abducted by Abstergo Industries tasked with using a machine known as the Animus to explore the genetic memories of his ancestor. His ancestor in the Third Crusade is Altair, a member of the Assassin Brotherhood tasked with halting the plans of the Templar Order to establish peace through control and manipulation.
Speaking on the development of the game, former Ubisoft developer Charles Randall spoke about some of the challenges the team at Ubisoft Montreal faced while working on the then-new title. One of these challenges was the game's horses, something Randall said the game's tool chain was unable to work with in the 3D environment the team created. Instead, he said the game's "amazing animators and riggers" were tasked with twisting a human skeleton into a horse that could be rendered in-engine.
Other development challenges Randall touched on included creating Altair's fellow Assassin and rival-turned-friend, Malik, who the team also had problems rendering a skeleton due to a lack of funds. He said in Malik's case, the team created his "missing arm" by turning his left arm inside-out, something Randall said players may be able to notice if they can get the camera to clip into the arm.
As horrifying as the creation of Malik's missing arm is, there is something players can find potentially nightmare-inducing about the process of creating Assassin's Creed's horses. It also reflects the need to be able to adapt and improvise that is needed at every level of game development, whether it be a tent-pole release like Assassin's Creed or smaller titles built with a relatively small budget or smaller team. It would not be surprising, in Assassin's Creed's case, that this work served as the foundation of horses for future games, all the way up to Assassin's Creed Valhalla.
Assassin's Creed is available on PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360.