Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced is out now, and it is a truly global effort, as it was created by various studios across the world, including our country’s own Ubisoft Philippines.
To be exact, the Black Flag remake was developed by Ubisoft studios from across teh world, including Barcelona, Belgrade, Bordeaux, Bucharest, Chengdu, Da Nang, India, Kyiv, Montpellier, Montreal, Quebec, Shanghai, and Sofia. It’s a landmark release for Southeast Asia, though, as its development was led by Ubisoft Singapore, with Ubisoft Philippines also helping with key aspects of the game’s creation.
Given the excitement behind Black Flag, this remake is perhaps the perfect release to mark Ubisoft Philippines’ 10th anniversary. Over the past decade, the PH studio has contributed to eight Assassin’s Creed titles, though this latest one is perhaps the biggest one yet in terms of their contribution.
“This was the first time the studio was entrusted with a project of this scale, with full responsibility and accountability for driving its successful delivery,” said Associate Producer Alfonse Angliongto, who led the project.
For Black Flag Resynced, Ubisoft’s PH outpost crafted key areas of the game, such as Kingston and Port Royale, along with elements like Forts and Harpooning.
When it comes to creating the game’s iconic locations, it helped that the studio featured developers who worked on the original. One of these is JP Tan, Art Director of Ubisoft Philippines, who shared:
“Looking back at the time when we worked on the original Black Flag, the art direction pillars were to introduce the vibrancy of the Caribbean and to showcase the grittier side of the pirate’s life. Fast forward to today, we wanted to be faithful to those original intentions together with the modern advancements of the Anvil engine.”
Thanks to the capabilities of the Anvil engine, coupled with Ubisoft PH’s experience in developing games in the Assassin’s Creed franchise, Black Flag Resynced’s locations have become even more immersive and detailed compared to the original. For instance, players might notice in Kingston that some residents walk beneath verandas to escape the heat, with bottles also being left on balconies across the area. These visual details are complemented by more authentic music, courtesy of Ubisoft Philippines’ new 5.1 Surround Sound studio.
As for the game’s features, Choogs Tan, Lead Game Designer for the Philippines team, explained how the PH studio helped redesign the Forts in Resynced to make them feel more real.
Tan shared:
“In the original, the Fort side activity ended once a fort is captured. In the remake, we enhanced player expression and the narrative aspects to give players a more satisfying conclusion for the gameplay loop. In the original, Edward easily opens the Fort’s war room, and the commander raises his arms in surrender, waiting for Edward to deal the killing blow. In the remake, we fleshed out the narrative with the Fort Commander barricading himself in the war room. Edward’s crew now helps him force the war room door open, after which the Fort Commander would hurl threats and attack Edward and his crew as a final act of defiance. After going through all this, the player will be rewarded by seeing the crew celebrating and looting. This communicates to the player that they did something that affected the world,” Tan explained.
Alongside Forts, Harpooning also got improvements, with Black Flag Resynced’s version featuring more dynamic and realistic actions. Regarding the studio’s role in this, Lead Programmer Dennis Li shared:
“We wanted Harpooning to be more physics-driven. In the original, once the harpoon hits the target, the rope is immediately taut until you capture the animal or the rope breaks. In the remake, it responds dynamically to player input and movement: when you aim the harpoon, when it’s thrown, when it hits the target, when the boat moves closer or farther. It seems very simple, but there’s a lot of things happening to make it just right.”
Finally, the PH studio’s veteran QA team was integral in not only testing the game, but also in ensuring that it was true to the spirit of the original.
Regarding their experience in this project, QA team lead Joven Falcon said:
“The most memorable moments were the bugs that became memes, and the memes that became milestone markers. Because as we laughed at the absurdity of the bugs we hunted, those moments would eventually become reminders of how far we’d come, milestone after milestone.”
Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced is available now on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.