Game News Assassin’s Creed: You’ll never look at horses the same way again!
It has now been fifteen years since the Assassin’s Creed franchise was born with its first opus featuring the charismatic Altaïr. And if you thought you knew everything about this cult title that marked the beginning of a success, this may not be the case…
A horse like no other
Did you say weird? This is the least we can say to believe the revelation of a former developer of Ubisoft on the game Assassin’s Creed, first of the name. In charge of the work around the artificial intelligence of the game at the time, it is via a recent publication on Twitter that Charles Randall reveals a secret so far well kept.
In AC1 there was always a new way of getting your character through the level boundaries, allowing you access to places you shouldn’t go.
I got to fix it by deploying my theoretical ultimate fix: Kill the player.
So if you ever died near a boundary wall for no reason? All me.
—Charles Randall (@charlesrandall) June 23, 2022
Similarly, the horse in AC1 was just a twisted, haywire human skeleton, as our toolchain only worked with bipeds in 3DS Max. Kudos to the amazing animators and technicians who managed to make this guy look like a horse!
You now know that Altaïr proudly rides a horse in the lands of the Holy Land which is none other than a model made from a stretched human skeleton.
One secret can hide another
But if we dissect Charles Randall’s Twitter feed a bit, we notice that this rather strange revelation is actually given following this other tweet below.
Gamedev hack: In Assassin’s Creed, we didn’t have budget for a custom skeleton or mesh for Malik, so his “missing arm” is just inside out. I assume if you could get the camera to clip into him you’d see a tiny little scrunched up arm inside the bicep. pic.twitter.com/DJW7RsOOXM
—Charles Randall (@charlesrandall) June 23, 2022
Gamedev hack: In Assassin’s Creed, we didn’t have the budget for a custom skeleton or mesh for Malik, so his “missing arm” is just upside down. I guess if you could get the camera to focus on him, you’d see a tiny little arm tucked inside his bicep.
Altaïr’s henchman in Assassin’s Creed, Malik is a character whose left arm is amputated following a perilous mission against the Templars.
Due to a lack of sufficient budget and suitable means, the developers have therefore developed this trick, the rendering of which goes completely unnoticed by the players. A very curious vision of anatomy to get there.
Remember that on the occasion of the fifteenth anniversary of Assassin’s Creed, a livestream will be broadcast in Septemberwith fans hoping for the return of this cult episode in a remastered version or through a remake.
