How Watch Dogs: Legion Generates Infinite Londoners

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Every year I break down the design and development of the year's most innovative game system. This time: it's Watch Dogs Legion's "Play as Anyone" concept. How does it work - and is it any good?
Watch Dogs: Legion game code provided by Ubisoft.
=== Sources ===
[1] Ludonarrative Dissonance in Bioshock | Click Nothing
clicknothing.typepad.com/clic...
[2] Pulling back the curtain on the tech and politics behind Watch Dogs: Legion | The Washington Post
www.washingtonpost.com/video-...
[3] Why Clint Hocking wanted every NPC in Watch Dogs: Legion to be playable | Gamasutra
gamasutra.com/view/news/34552...
[Card] Watch Dogs Legion: The Problem With Playing Anyone | Writing on Games
• Watch Dogs Legion: The...
Games shown in this episode (in order of appearance)
Baba is You (Hempuli, 2019)
Snake Pass (Sumo Digital, 2017)
Her Story (Sam Barlow, 2015)
Event[0] (Ocelot Society, 2016)
Return of the Obra Dinn (Lucas Pope, 2018)
Watch Dogs: Legion (Ubisoft Toronto, 2020)
Immortals Fenyx Rising (Ubisoft Quebec, 2020)
Watch Dogs (Ubisoft Montreal, 2014)
Watch Dogs 2 (Ubisoft Montreal, 2016)
Pokémon: Sword and Shield (Game Freak, 2019)
XCOM 2 (Firaxis, 2016)
Far Cry 2 (Ubisoft Montreal, 2008)
Cyberpunk 2077 (CD Projekt Red, 2020)
Minecraft (Mojang, 2011)
Darkest Dungeon (Red Hook Studios, 2016)
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor (Monolith Productions, 2014)
Noita (Nolla Games, 2020)
Carto (Sunhead Games, 2020)
Carrion (Phobia Game Studio, 2020)
Other credits
Music provided by Music Vine - musicvine.com/, Lee Rosevere on Bandcamp - leerosevere.bandcamp.com/
Hacked font by David Libeau
Contribute translated subtitles - amara.org/en-gb/videos/NRPYNx...

[@GMTK]

Thanks for watching in 2020! Taking a break to recharge, but back with some big vids in 2021!

[@gabrote42]

o7. Question: Which studio and which paper? I want to reaf

[@GMTK]

I don't want to name the studio (but I will disclose my consultancy if I need to talk about the game). The paper is here - journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1555412020971500

[@gabrote42]

@@GMTK Understandable. Have a nice day. EDIT: Well, if I ever get access to it I shall read it.

[@WhiteManBehindADesk]

Thanks for all your great work! One of my absolute favourite KZbin channels, and one of the main reasons I started gaming this year for the first time at the age of 27.

[@sosasees]

Thanks, but what about the people who watch After 2020? -Dec 18 2020

[@MarkConforti]

Winning a game of Fall Guys is a pretty big achievement not gonna lie

[@loafingloaf8633]

how is this comment a day old when the video is 5 minutes old

[@averagechapstick]

@@loafingloaf8633 yeah wtf

[@pokemonmaster0079]

@@loafingloaf8633 He's probably a member or Patron, so he gets to watch the video earlier.

[@GMTK]

($5) Patrons get GMTK vids a day early as a thanks for their crazy generous support :D www.patreon.com/GameMakersToolkit

[@thegreenredeye]

@@loafingloaf8633 Magic Or just the Patreon early Access

[@VideoGameAnimationStudy]

As you covered, the animation design is...just...a little mind blowing.

[@NeverduskX]

It's strange to think that Ubisoft has been one of the most innovative open world devs as of late, but they've been doing some very impressive stuff. Any chance you'll be doing a video on the animation side of things?

[@craggolly]

what a great channel this is. sorta like new frame plus

[@everettschroeder536]

check out ubisofts GDC talk on procedural animation :kzbin.info/www/bejne/gX3NhYhmrrCGZpI Also check out this guys recreation of it(he does tutorials I believe) kzbin.info/www/bejne/iYLSaqOKhpZngM0 hope this helps anybody else who thinks its cool

[@Brawph]

Love you, bye!

[@VideoGameAnimationStudy]

I'd like to look at Watchdogs Legion's animation, yeah! Just a matter of time...and money...and resource...haha!

[@williamp7861]

Completely agree with "ivovation requires implementation" However I do believe innovation can lead to inspiration. Often we see a big budget studio lay the groundwork for another studio to come along and do it better.

[@StormicusIII]

I'm really hoping for this because this tech is cool as hell. I think there's some exciting potential here

[@thelastgogeta]

That's still "Implementation" but by another party, but I get the idea. I'm sure Legion has inspired some devs to squeeze the scope into something where it would matter... i.e. Not a vanilla Ubisandbox which has to compare with other games done by Ubisoft. Perhaps one of the first bigger ones will come from some alumini of Ubisoft, but the smaller ones have the potential to go beyond.

[@williamp7861]

@@thelastgogeta yes if one studio misses on the execution another could refine the idea and get it right in the future.

[@OnyDeus]

I bet critique videos like this are important to the cycle too. Outlining what players expect and want with the new systems debuted.

[@1mag1nat1vename]

Sometimes, a big studio like this has to do a "proof of concept" before it can do anything more artistic. It's all about getting the board to approve the investment, and there is a lot of investment for that kind of creative labor.

[@IsaSaien]

gotta admit, even with your negative conclusion at the end, I can't help but absolutely love ubisoft for doing this. They thought "what if" and went and fucking did it. Of course it would be a better game if it had more impact on gameplay, but the fact that this system is possible at all is already pretty fucking impressive.

[@musiciohann]

I absolutely agree!!

[@MrDiana1706]

That's whaa keeps a bit chunk of Ubisoft games in the market. People loves the ideas of their teams but wether or not their execution will live up it's hit or miss. And in this gen kinda medium for most people

[@largebig79]

I love when big budget games experiment with unique ideas like this, this and and death stranding we’re both really unique and fun, unfortunately games like this get a lot of hate because of their experimentation for some reason. That’s the type of stuff that make companies not want to try out different ideas, yet the same people complain about games not changing enough

[@gabriel897100]

i hope that other studios or maybe even ubisoft themself see this system and improve it greatly

[@lilyofluck371]

I hope they evolve and implement this system better in the next game they make. Maybe doing something similar to the sims to give each character their own unique cans and can'ts for any situation, making it actually important to pick certain characters.

[@spliter88]

5:03 I always forget to add "Commit a bit of vandalism" to my schedule.

[@Gyrbae]

Sounds like a Antifa members diary entry.

[@katie-ampersand]

@@Gyrbae As an anti fascist myself, this is correct, it's always sad when i forget my daily vandalism 😔

[@stm7810]

@@Gyrbae Well if wheatpasting or other radical action is vandalism then yes.

[@RebornLegacy]

@@Gyrbae Sounds more like Proud Boys than Antifa.

[@markm5927]

Just a bit of course, don't want to over do it

[@GoogleAccount-tg9lp]

Like imagine if really old or young characters couldn’t drive, or most couldn’t hack, or their shooting abilities vary greatly. The game could have been so much more interesting if they designed the game around that.

[@Mathignihilcehk]

More likely, what if some characters refused to do certain things. Some had a moral qualm with murder, so they could handle a gun, but not shoot it. Others with committing any kinds of crimes. Others might have a short attention span and only be available for short missions. Or others might be clumsy and loud, or busy with work during some time frame. See now getting that one elderly person with no work becomes super useful for being able to flexibly shift between various shifts and someone who works might be more agile or capable of doing more intense missions, but maybe you need to help them get out of work first, which means paying rent, which means you might want a more wealthy donor or something. There's a lot of differences in humans that makes an actual difference when it comes to organizational structure. Lots of possibilities.

[@Noperare]

They could also mess with the stealth system. Like, a character that is a tanker and very good heavy guns, problem is: he is a wanted criminal, so police will open fire the moment they see you. Or a weird perfomance artist, you arest someone for realz and the people around think it is just part of your presentation

[@HanabiraKage]

What I'm getting is that they played it too safe. They were worried about random generation possibly screwing people out of being able to progress, when that in itself could have been made into a gameplay challenge to overcome by interacting with their core feature.

[@johnbrown9181]

Another idea is to let you bring multiple characters on a mission, and switch between them as required - if there's hacking preceeded by a gunfight, bring someone for each part. But yeah, it's so unfortunate to think of what could have been done with this.

[@ChristianWS.]

Legion should have like, 5 different "playstyles", and have the game interpolate between them. Separate Stealth, Hacking, Shooting, Melee, whatever-else, make the characters being a master of some gameplay aspect, but suck at others, and maybe a few jack of all trades, master of none, with really rare characters being good in various areas. And add some individual differences inside those playstyles. This looks complicated, but really, this is just a randomly generated skill tree you can't change

[@residual]

it really does suck that they didn’t really use this mechanic for everything because i could see it really working well

[@rage_2000]

It’s like they said “this is a cool mechanic that can make our game unique, I think it can complement the usual gameplay very well”

[@trs4184]

One of the things that Ubisoft consistently does wrong is removing all challenge from their games. They put in thousands of hours and millions of dollars into creating these amazing worlds with complex and interesting mechanics, and then they back track on every part of their game so they never frustrate their players. I had a lot of fun for the first four hours or so of Assassin's Creed Origins, and then it just got so easy that I was no longer paying attention to the game. Far Crys 2 and 3 force you to plan your approach to a situation because you *will die* if you go in guns blazing (at least in the early game). Recent Ubisoft games feel a series of task lists more than anything else, and I really think that's an intentional choice on their part. I don't think it's as simple as "harder games are more fun". Difficulty in a game forces you to be creative with your approach to a situation and develop a relationship with the in-game world. I still vividly remember the layout of the Palisade Bank or the prison in Deus Ex: MD; they feel like places I really visited. I couldn't for the life of my describe the layout of any part of the first Watchdogs game because I never had to problem solve my approach to a situation beyond shoot or don't shoot. Partially, I think the worlds in Ubisoft games have this mistaken idea that technically complex NPC interactions make a world feel lived-in, but the games that really feel like that do so because the player isn't treated as though they are some sort of god hovering above and their victory is an inevitability. Legion would have been an incredible game if the playable characters had genuine disadvantages. A young software developer can't take out a security guard. More to the point, a young software developer isn't going to try to take out a security guard if they just joined a revolution. I think the elements of game design that would have made Legion a really good game are 1) giving recruits a lot of limitations so each have to approach the situation in vastly different ways, 2) giving recruits a "risk threshold" for action based on their personality and devotion to the cause, 3) making a few specialized skills that would come in handy a lot (e.g. climbing, archery, acting), and 4) having far broader range in difficulty settings (because low-frustration threshold gamers are valid too).

[@huntzkush]

@@trs4184 Yeah really, I play on the hardest difficulty and I can take over 20 bullets before my whole screen is red. I also miss the feel of the previous Watch Dogs, this game really misses the mark.

[@DOSRetroGamer]

But that doesn't stop it from sounding incredible at presentations..

[@dafeels3085]

@@trs4184 Origins becomes omega difficult when you are underleveled but it is usually frustrating so to be fair as you do barely any damage and the enemies hit like a truck.

[@watchog0175]

"And I even won a game of Fall Guys" What a champ

[@cashwarior]

I gotta say, I do hope that someone else takes this idea and explores it further because it's really innovative

[@razvanefros411]

I wanted to do an indie project where you are an amulet sent by a goddess to do some task. Anyone who wears you gets possessed and you inherit some of their traits. The reason i thought about this is because i dislike failstates in games. Id prefer it if after a failure you could just move on and cope with your mistakes

[@tetraedri_1834]

I've actually been thinking of a "social manipulation" game, for which the core mechanic is quite similar to what have been described here. However, I want to put more emphasis on relationships between different people, so that there is a social network you as a player need to manage to get towards your goal. I have the mechanics more or less thought out, but everything else is still lacking; let's see if I ever get inspiration to actually implement it into a fleshed out game :D

[@quangthuyoan9576]

Try driver san francisco.The idea of this "become anyone" system come from that extremely underrated ubisoft game.

[@sungvin]

@@razvanefros411 that's a cute idea, love it

[@Jay_Sullivan]

@@quangthuyoan9576 , I was just about to say that, and I was wondering if it was an Ubisoft game.

[@Baby.Jack.]

Imagine spending 8+ hours a day working on a well designed system that didn't matter :(

[@Soumein]

Well. is it really a well designed system if it didn't matter? Or only part of a well designed system?

[@mjc0961]

Imagine spending 8+ hours a day working on a well designed system that didn't matter while also being sexually harassed by all your bosses :(

[@KuroeNezumi]

@@Soumein a well designed system can have trash implementation. Or they can be part of a bigger whole where it doesn't matter how well designed it is if the other systems don't meaningfully interact with it. A very rushed and probably badly-made decomposition could go like this: - The gameplay system (how you can interact with the game) interacts with the play-as-anyone system only as a result of the actions done to characters, which affect whether you can use that character. Outside of that, they don't feed into each other (there's no options you can't take as a result of actions influencing characters' information or opinion). - The play-as-anyone system interacts with the simulation system (how NPCs act in the world, what occurs in it) insofar as it assigns information, routines and "needs or desires" that guide how they'll act in game, but only as long as they continue being an NPC. Once you're in control, you don't need to follow that schedule or anything to mantain normalcy and evade being discovered by the police force because of suspicious activities. Once the character isn't simulated, the play-as-anyone stops doing anything interesting with them, and the interaction becomes between gameplay to play-as-anyone. They don't do anything meaningful. Only while the character isn't an actual character you can play as does the system do something of worth, beyond that is just an "affection meter" that let's you know if you can play or not as that character and if they are currently doing anything against you (like kidnapping another member or family or did somethign to hurt a loved one or something along those lines.

[@gbdeck200]

True...

[@unknown_lazer]

@@mjc0961 imagine getting molested in your workplace but the company/studio refuses to publicize the information because of expected backlash.

[@randomhuman731]

This really isn’t the type of game I thought you would be covering but I really liked this video and you’ve made me see how innovative it really is.

[@michaelwesten4624]

but in reality the gameplay is the same

[@carteljameson8395]

I knew he was gonna cover it the moment I found out the game director was Clint Hocking.

[@Brettlaken]

@@michaelwesten4624 Yea thats the sad part about it. The system itself is really cool tho so I hope a few more developers will look into this idea and try to implement it with a little more importance.

[@laseede17]

There's a great video about the innovative part of the AI in the channel "AI on games"

[@HenryAshman]

"Everyone can drive" is probably the most unrealistic part of all this going off the people from London that I know, likewise most wouldn't know how to hack anything. Correcting that & increasing specialization would make selection a lot better. I guess you could make up an excuse for basic hacks via the phone app, but advanced stuff or accessing highly protected servers would require some talent. I wonder if another way to improve on the character swapping would be to have the effectiveness of characters reduce over time if used in certain ways. Particularly the ones generated to be timid, but played in a more "up close and personal" style could become disenfranchised with Dedsec if they kill too many people, or just have them be at greater risk of being spotted due to over exposure etc.

[@ramp8536]

It could even tie in to game balance. Characters with the strongest perks could have debilitating weaknesses. Maybe you have a super operative with a suite of non-lethal tools at his disposal exclusive to him, but leaves if you kill someone while driving or something. Maybe they could tie the system to gangs like in Watch Dogs 2, where someone might not join DedSec because someone from a rival gang is already in your team, or maybe you get them, but they leave if you do an operation where they have to hit their own gang.

[@Tustin2121]

There’s some fucked up things the characters can witness in the course of the game, like those missions which are the last step of finally freeing a given borough from Albion. The ordinary citizens of London stumbling onto these shouldn’t just be able to shrug that off within a few minutes of completing the mission, but should be taken out of commission for a long while while they recover mentally and get some therapy or something. Maybe mark them with PTSD of some sort. This would also force more churn of operatives, having them require a recovery period after doing some of the things they do.

[@HenryAshman]

@@Tustin2121 agreed on that, the little clip of darkest dungeon got me thinking about it. I wonder if there's some mechanically derived storytelling in there around how Dedsec & Albion just doesn't care about the individual people as long as they continue as an entity.

[@glenmoody-elias1040]

Difficulty can be a major driving force. If any character can do any mission, maybe create missions where special traits are required. Maybe you need to recruit a janitor, or a security guard to deal with a high security place. Also, if the game is too easy, who's to stop you from having a small crew, and nothing else? More limitations may help drive the player to engage with mechanics otherwise sidestepped. Specific key skills for specific tasks, or other traits that interact with the Metadata of each character. That being said though, it's easy to suggest it, it's something else if it was tried and was deemed too finnicky for a wide audience, rather than a specific crowd.

[@ExeErdna]

@@ramp8536 That's already in the legion people will leave. Like most of the time "Hitman" characters are really good yet they always seem to kill a character somebody you recruited cares about. So you either kill this really good character or save character that is attached to another one.

[@heronfountain6215]

At the moment I'm trying to make my own miniRPG. This video is something that I have definitely learned from this channel: everything needs a reason to get in the game. If it's cool yet doesn't fit, come back later and build a new game around it. There's a time for "more is better" and a time for elegant focus, etc.

[@revimfadli4666]

Avoiding feature/scope creep while keeping interesting ideas for future projects that'll likely utilize them better? That's two birds with one stone

[@Amaterasu-wh6xj]

i feel like legion is at its best when you get attached to the characters. i had a small team of 5-10 people at any given time, and spent a lot of time with each character. any more and they started feeling more like disposable goons than members of my team, and i really struggled to care about them.

[@franciscofarias6385]

"I'm surprised an Ubisoft open world game could be considered innovative" shows video of Immortals Fenyx Rising lol

[@GMTK]

I feel kinda bad because I'm actually really enjoying Immortals but... yeah, innovative is the last thing I'd call that one :P

[@ZWolF69]

@@GMTK It should have been called "Assassin's Cry: God of the Wild". Don't get me wrong, I'm enjoying it. But I'm having serious Deja Vu while playing it.

[@chrisnguyen2316]

@@GMTK BOTW vibes much? 😆

[@dashalpha]

I don't even look forward to any of the "yearly" game series. I've enjoyed a few from each series in the past, but nothing that makes me want to jump into the new entries. Maybe I'm just spoiled because many of these series I jumped into late in the game, e.g. my first Assassins Creed was Black Flag (pirates are cool) and my first Far Cry was Primal! (again, loved Primal and really enjoyed playing 4 after; 5 was ok after that and played through half of 3 - good story but hard to keep my interest playing; New Dawn was too much of the same and getting really, really stale and boring).

[@Barmem]

@@GMTK games don't need to be innovative for you to enjoy it.

[@fireaza]

Sometimes, innovation just for the sake of innovation can be it's own reward. I've never played a Watch Underscore Dogs game, but I'm very interested in Legion purely for the "play as anyone" feature. It sounds like it would be really intriguing and fun to mess around with, even if the core game is still a standard Ubisoft open world game.

[@musiciohann]

Try it! It is, actually, really innovative!

[@jacobshirley3457]

It reminds me of "Driver: San Francisco", albeit less surreal. For racing mission, sure, you can play it like a normal driving game. Or, you can temporarily hijack a nearby car and smash into one of your leading competitors. Unfortunately, the game is only available through less-than-legit means.

[@CatCheshireThe]

It kind of seems like the biggest weakness of Watchdogs: Legion is that it's ultimately a Ubisoft sandbox game. AAA has a lot of money to throw around to try new ideas, but at the same time they are more constrained in how far they can go with those ideas. Maybe something interesting will come of the Legion tech a few games down the line.

[@Stephen-Fox]

Yeah, from the way Mark (and others I've seen) describe it, it sounds like the Play As Anyone system is the world's most convoluted character creation screen. Albeit with less control, but a few more options that probably wouldn't be present in an actual character creator. And all the negative side effects of character creators rather than a narrative tailored to a specific character. It's rare that NPCs meaningfully interact with you differently depending on how you build your character, or in this case what randomly generated character you selected, outside of some very surface level details (minor dialogue changes depending on if you're playing as a Khajiit vs a Nord in Skyrim, able to access areas if the character comes with the right kind of uniform for that area here, etc)

[@fakedungeonmaster5740]

true, just from the video i feel like most of the problems with watchdog legion can be solved by just making the game harder.

[@joew1237]

As Zero Punctuation pointed out, you can do just about everything with just the spider droid.

[@DIGITALGH05T]

i hate that the way the game counters this is by making it so that sometimes all the enemies know your exact location. they dont have to search for u like in wd2, and its not the spiderbot they're onto, its u. which is super unfair when im outside the restricted area with no cover, i stealth my bot all the way in, but then the game says "fuck you" and suddenly theres 4 albion guards with mgs and shotguns and i cant escape cuz im just on the sidewalk

[@RonnieBarzel]

Breaking down Heidi’s data “tree,” it’s impressive what Ubi did.

[@rory8182]

Imagine if this system was combined with the nemesis system, so you would work up the ranks as an orc, say, gathering close followers, getting a gang of body guards, and eventually becoming powerful enough to overthrow your region's overlord

[@Haos51]

I love that as a concept, here's hoping it happens.

[@toofpastetool]

whilst everything said here is true (the game really is not that great) it did give me a feeling ive not really felt much before in games - the sense of roleplaying a huge list of characters. I kinda of created my owns stories in my head about each character and where they were from and how they knew each other. When i sent a character into a building to do some hacking, i got tense as i considered the consequences of them dying and losing this whole idea i had about them. Not everyone thinks this way or at least not while playing games but if you're someone who fantasises about scenarios/characters/relationships/world lore in your head a lot and creates stories about things they see around them then this game can really actually get you going.

[@devildham]

I would love to see this, the Nemesis system and artifically generated storytelling a la AI Dungeon used in more games. Imagine if GTA used these systems combined with their generally higher level of storytelling. Most RPGs have quasi-medieval settings and would require far FAR less characters. It would really take immersion to the next level.

[@slyaspie4934]

This so much this lol all what you said coupled with immersive sim type level/mission structure and they'd be on to a winning formula love to see something like that.

[@Dicefinity]

The cascading of data points is a nice way to generate personalities. Maybe a dialogue tree associated with a similar effect can be put into future games (with Machine learning like AI Dungeon). Creating an excellent NPC AI for RPG/open-world games. There are already examples of simple chatbots being made from latest GPT-2 using simple personality points. Now with GPT-3 released, with some computation and work on dialogues and chatbots from the AI research community. It is entirely possible, can't wait for the future lol.

[@Dicefinity]

If anyone is intrested in what the current Ai can do (more examples like AI dungeon but not in games). check out how ppl are applying GPT-3 in their programs. Sadly the data cannot be made public right now due to ethical reasons.

[@AngelicDirt]

So Mount and Blade, but less DOS-age?

[@Dicefinity]

@@AngelicDirt sort of, yes. I remember reading a bit about previous attempts and many DOS-age games have done amazing work in innovation in dynamic NPCs and NPC interactions But about a decade later they are extremely outdated and could use a lot of work from recent developments in AI for dynamic NPC creation.

[@akshaybodla163]

This is the first good thing I’ve heard about the game and I’m pleasantly kind blown. As a software developer I only have utmost respect to the developers and architects of this game.

[@m.a.k.dynasty4504]

Plenty of people have said many good things about this game and just because someone criticizes something doesn't mean that they are calling the game bad rather they are just stating that things can always be better.

[@lovasip]

At this moment in gaming history "Not getting pulled from an online store due to a flurry of bugs" is a big enough innovation for a cyberpunk AAA game.

[@SafirAksel]

Ubisoft is a master at creating detailed open world with a shallow gameplay.

[@ShynyMagikarp]

Hmmm strange because I’d called the original Watch Dogs both a lackluster open world and a also shallow gameplay.

[@Brettlaken]

@@ShynyMagikarp Nah the world itself was still pretty good. We are just spoiled with even better worlds to compare them too.

[@mrhoapro1]

Ac Unity might be the peak of this. Paris in that game is the best city in all of gaming i've seen

[@SuperBallani]

Have to hard disagree here, the gameplay is one of the strongest point of Ubisoft games post 2016, AC Odyssey or Far Cry 5 are a shit ton more fun to PLAY than Witcher 3 or Red Dead Redemption 2 for exemple.

[@iskamag]

@@ShynyMagikarp watch dogs is great though it has its flaws, the world is great and the gameplay is really good too

[@frogrammer7954]

And exactly this happened to me in last GMTK jam. I made a game about robot out of control, and I spend a lot of time making the main mechanic of choosing what robot can do, jump, or only walk, or only shoot and etc which were brining player to always unique gameplay. And so the game was enough innovative compared to most of the others in case of weird mechanics but, it definitely didn’t worth chasing as you say. Because in fact, giving player ability to play as he wants and not giving real levels to try this, is like giving one million dollars without any shop to spend them in.

[@m.a.k.dynasty4504]

Watch_Dogs: Legion is not a good example for this. Cyberpunk 2077 relates far more to the situation that you described.

[@keremmadran]

0:35 "Watch -- Dogs -- Legion" - So Matt, what's your plan this afternoon. - I'm just gonna watch dogs legion.

[@Thoran666]

I wasn't interested in Watchdogs up to now but I might give Legion a try after this. Just to create my twisted version of Groundhog day with the NPC schedule system.

[@addex1236]

It's fun I like it

[@tomveloso6231]

I think it’s good but can be tiring after a while

[@mikajacobsen860]

"Characters in Watchdogs Legion are essentially quantum in nature. Their full personality is only determined when you specifically observe them." That's a neat analogy. There's even sorta quantum entaglement going on in how everyone is connected to relatives and friends.

[@doctorsam5771]

I hope they stick with this idea and delivers on the premise on a future title. Legion might've sold mediocre but Valhalla sold monstrously so I hope that should cover the expenses

[@rodo1252]

I dont think watchdogs was the best series to lay into this idea. Maybe a new game that can fully lend its focus into developing this idea would be best.

[@e2rqey]

@@rodo1252 agreed. The entire series seems to be defined by ideas that sound good in concept but in practice are underwhelming.

[@ilan5821]

Don't worry, Ubisoft won't be going out of business

[@Dharengo]

I don’t think a business that can afford to cover up for rapists is going to go out of business soon.

[@m.a.k.dynasty4504]

@@rodo1252 No. Watch_Dogs was the perfect series for this system. Ever since the beginning, the franchise has always been about everything being connected, and that naturally progressed into an idea of everyone unifying together to fight a common cause. The thing that needs to be improved in the future is fleshing out everyone's different reasons for fighting said cause.

[@josephknezekdesigner]

Ubisoft just won Mark's "Most Innovative Game of the Year" award... 2020 really is the end of the world.

[@OK-cp8qw]

Anything is possible in 2020

[@Largentina.]

The whole video is basically him saying that it's a great concept, but unfortunately it was made by Ubisoft and it was implemented terribly.

[@m.a.k.dynasty4504]

@@Largentina. The implementation was not terrible. The "Play As Anyone" mechanic works and it works darn well as stated in the video itself. The point that he was trying to get across was that it's implementation has some imperfections that he feels makes it overall pointless.

[@Largentina.]

@@m.a.k.dynasty4504 Agreed. You're right.

[@ThevenimX]

“With everyone super, no one will be” - Syndrone

[@Brettlaken]

*When everyone is super, no one will be ^^

[@Jay_Sullivan]

@@Brettlaken , that makes a lot more sense.

[@giorgialadashvili4771]

The system they designed is definitely rough around the edges and too basic, but it is still impressive in terms of developing the idea of actual, breathing and living NPCs.

[@deathtoll2001]

Great analysis as always, especially the "this is really cool! But why should I care?" bit. As others have mentioned, though, I also strongly feel that this is now a proven thing that another dev can take and incorporate in a much more meaningful way. Iteration is often key to true advancement. Also, it was super awesome to see Noita get a mention! I backed that game on KS and rooted for the dev for years to be able to finish off his grand idea. Glad to see that idea getting some acknowledgement :)

[@irishvideogames4428]

I loved your in-depth explanation of the mechanics behind Legion's NPC system, one of the best I've seen. I can't help but feel over the next few years Ubisoft will inevitably work this system into their other titles with a few tweaks made. Perhaps the full potential of the "Play as Anyone" concept is yet to come.

[@vedaryan334]

Ubisoft should make an rpg, using this mechanic for creating organic characters, which are more fleshed out, where people have a better variety of traits and instead of playing as every character, we can recruit them for our party. And using more data points, you can determine how they interact with you and others in your party. Plus, using different systems, you can make the world feel so alive. This video just makes me realise that this mechanic can be used in so many ways to make a world feel organic.

[@eloujtimereaver4504]

Congrats that was the original pitch for Pokemon. It did not happen. Also, Chrono Cross was not able to generate characters, but it did make over 100 recruitable and did have a dynamic dialogue system to adapt information to that character's style of speaking and values.

[@vedaryan334]

@@eloujtimereaver4504 hmm interesting. But yeah with new or future technologies we can definitely adapt this for open world rpg NPCs too in a minimal way

[@bagorolin]

Super interesting! Thanks for the video and enjoy your holidays :)

[@erictko85]

"Characters in Watch Dogs are essentially Quantum in nature" That was AWESOME!!! Brings up so much to think about...superpositions of Character traits, cats in boxes and whatnot. Thanks for another great video

[@Lugmillord]

Not gonna lie, from the perspective of a software developer this is really impressive! Also congratulations for all of those achievements you got this year! I mean, c'mon, winning a game of Fall Guys? *I-n-s-a-n-e!*

[@greatness9428]

So, full transparency, I actually love the way it's implemented, solely because it's fun and a technical wonder. That being said, I do appreciate this video and the effort taken to do research on the inner workings, have an informed opinion, and demonstrate ways it could be improved. Coming from certain fandoms, that's better critique than I see a lot of the time. Good video, even if I do disagree with the overall opinion (I just really like Watch Dogs: Legion) And also, this video introduced me to Noita and that looks cool.

[@acepedro12]

I think this is the first time this year you mentioned Far Cry 2. You're getting better at it, Mark.

[@Infiny92]

Why, does he mention it a lot ?

[@acepedro12]

@@Infiny92 he used to do it all the time, just watch his videos from two or three years ago to see what I'm talking about.

[@shizukousapostle1stapostle710]

@@Infiny92 lmao yh...

[@HelperWesley]

It's heart breaking to see so much work put in to a mechanic that in the end.... doesn't matter. As an indie dev, I can relate. I've worked on things that have actively made my games worse. It sucks, but at least in their case it's something that enhances immersion, even if it doesn't mechanically improve the game.

[@burnsyburger]

I do believe there was going to be more implementation in the characters, up to there being actual classes each person you recruit falls under. When it was discussed in a previous E3 the developers mentioned an "infiltrator" that uses stealth and silenced weapons to get into restricted areas, a "hacker" that uses gadgets like spiderbots and drones to get the job done, and "enforcers" who are the big guns. It also implies in game that recruits should have been trainable, and the fact that the ring in the base is used ONCE during the tutorial and that's it. Overall fun game but seems like it is missing bits

[@robertcarp2995]

This is similar to how Driver: San Francisco worked, notably also a Ubisoft title. You play as a main “driver”, but can switch to different cars on the road on the fly.

[@chrisp9824]

Wow, I didn't know that. Maybe because 95% of the players didn't get past the "tutorial" myself included lol :D Edit, just realized you're talking about different driver, didn't play that one at all.

[@slyaspie4934]

Didn't watchdogs spawn from driver San Francisco, like watchdogs was supposed to be the next Driver game or it was the same dev team maybe. I'm certain something like that happened, it's also why watchdogs 2 had the driver SF missions as well to pay homage to the driver series

[@ramp8536]

@@slyaspie4934 Yeah, Ubisoft Reflections worked on the Watch Dogs games I believe, and they were responsible for the driver series.

[@slyaspie4934]

@@ramp8536 I knew I'd heard/read that somewhere to bad in some ways as Driver San Francisco was pretty good to be honest, especially compared to the older Driver games. Still I quite like the Watchdogs series as well, they may not be very deep but they're an enjoyable experience, just wish Ubisoft would stop being so Broad and shallow so the devs could really focus in on something to perfect it. I think that's why we haven't and probably won't see another Splinter cell which is a travesty in itself.

[@lolglolblol]

This kind of system seems like it would fit really well into RPGs, especially ones with a heavy focus on actually roleplaying. It would make the worlds feel much more natural and lived-in.

[@Abandon-art]

Excellent video ! The turn back is perfectly done and its message pertinent. Have a nice end of the year and thanks for this !

[@JoseAjajajajaja54321]

It’s still pretty cool that their innovative design allowed for a lot more diversity in their game! Although it may not work, it’s great to see gamers be able to see people that look like them and play as them!

[@TheNobleFive]

Lol

[@danielsilva9502]

@@TheNobleFive Lol indeed. Who cares, if the game is trash?

[@thelastgogeta]

Okay.

[@mr.cup6yearsago211]

You’re not wrong, but particularly robust character creation menus can accomplish the same thing with a fraction of the time and money invested.

[@ElkiLG]

This is a very good point. My crew had a lot of really different characters I would have never created on my own and I loved them. This made for a more interesting experience than creating any sort of good looking character like I usually do.

[@0xEmmy]

13:00 You had me at Metroidvania. Speaking of, I wonder if a Tomb Raider like setting and conventions could be integrated with a Metroidvanian (rather than linear or open-world) map and progression system. Like, it has to be possible to design a story around a series of locations and interlocking conditions rather than a strict sequence, right?

[@debishvebishwish4839]

For something that is "first of its kind" for Ubisoft, its actually very clever of them and the implementation is very well thought. I can see that this can be a new genre, if not by Ubisoft, other developer will take this idea and polish it even further. I like it, I even roleplayed quite a bit in the game, treating my first ever recruit as the leader of the team and such

[@thegameneededme5]

Hope you enjoy your holiday break, Mark. Thank you for another year of fantastic videos.

[@grahamwalker2168]

Firstly, writing on games video on this is great and is my favourite channel along with this one. Second, this was a brilliant video. The idea of innovation for sale of it and without implementation is worthless was really thoughtful and we'll delivered here. Congrats on such a great year and thank you for the amazing content.

[@JacobSauers]

I always thought they should’ve added a small skill tree to further grow your characters and actually build an attachment to them

[@sietsedegrande213]

So... this game wins the award for most innovative 2020, but the innovative thing isn't implemented well. There you have it.

[@UpstreamNL]

The innovation is there, it’s just that the game does nothing with. The idea is there and implemented, the next step is to actually do something with it, this is missing in Legion.

[@m.a.k.dynasty4504]

@@UpstreamNL But that's the thing, the game DOES do something with it. The whole mechanic is tethered to the narrative of the game itself. The reason why you are recruiting people to help fight for your cause is because people believe that their something is worth fighting for and that something is DedSec. That's why you aim to sway people your way and get them to join their cause a make a change.

[@stm7810]

they do inovate in sexual assault of workers.

[@hilosky]

@@m.a.k.dynasty4504 that's a story aspect. It doesn't affect gameplay most of the time. Game is most important

[@revimfadli4666]

That's 2020 for ya Even the GMTK Most Innovative was about disappointment

[@rollymercado9232]

For someone this great to share this much game (hehe), nothing but respect and appreciation! Merry Christmas or whatever, Mark!

[@guillermoarlotto5396]

Your videos are always absolutely fantastic, I think I've watched literally all of your content. The quality of your videos is unmatched.

[@Nazareadain]

It genuinely fascinates me how often this sort of mistake gets made. It's honestly, old, well-trodden ground, and most designers agree, that all systems need to be designed from the top down, with the player interaction and experience with it in mind, instead of ground up where you just make sure all the pieces are optimized to interact with each other instead of the player. Because the system doesn't matter, when it doesn't affect the player experience. I blame GTA for this. People bought their sales pitch, so now it's a bullet point to achieve.

[@OfficialPirateFraser]

I love legions, it's flawed but it's one of the most fun games I've played in a while, I'm hoping that they bring the feature into any new entries in the series but just build the game play to support it better. However one point both you and writing on games bring up is that there's no difference between the protagoinst, but the way i see it is actually bagley is the protagonist, he's with you every part of the game, the story goes around him, and especially with the missions after the main story line i feel he's just fits that role.

[@rrni2343]

Keep in mind that this is basically a technology demonstration at this point. Those who invent a system don't necessarily implement it well. This could be the beginning of a new norm for open-world NPC systems. Quantum depth NPCs may someday create a truly unique gameplay experience or even change how we think of NPCs. It could change NPCs from being basically set pieces to a simulated character. Whos to say that at some point you as the player cant actually talk to the simulated characters through your playable character at some point in the future.

[@kimioney]

I always enjoy your content. They're interesting, thought provoking and very informative. Have a great year ahead!

[@UmbrellaGent]

It's a shame Noita didn't get its own video. It's a fantastic game.

[@seangagnon8458]

So what's you're saying is true main character of watch dogs is deadsec, the organization itself. That's cool. They could have done amazing multiplayer matches. Example: A police precinct versus Deadsec. Or multiple precincts and multiple deadSEC like organizations.

[@Viewsk8]

Great job this year Mark. Loved all the videos and loved being part of the Game Jam this year. Enjoy your holidays, and here's to a great 2021.

[@grantmanor6642]

The game Jam was a ton of fun this year and your videos were terrific as usual. Can't wait to see what you have in store next year!

[@acetrigger1337]

Ubisoft game design in a nutshell: "take a great idea, and butcher it by not going all in". now we wait for another studio to do this idea better...

[@m.a.k.dynasty4504]

They're the ones who crafted this system and idea so they are going to be the ones to make it better.

[@cooperjazz77]

They always play it safe and try to please a casual audience.

[@akbas58]

@@m.a.k.dynasty4504 you are defending ubisoft in every comment

[@m.a.k.dynasty4504]

@@akbas58 How is me saying that they will possibly improve upon their system in the future "defending" them? What exactly am I defending them from? The game speaks for itself.

[@Ten_Thousand_Locusts]

@@m.a.k.dynasty4504 They didn't do anything with it. Ubi has the creative team to think of innovative ideas like this but lacks the balls to actually go all in on them because sticking what's been proven to work time and time again is the safer option. They might further implement this system or they might not, but they sure as hell won't make the best use out of it, cause it's too risky. Name one idea innovative idea Ubi actually went to town on in any of their recent games.

[@ggali09]

“Complexity is impressive, simplicity is genius” Ubisoft can spend all day on the cutting edge, but they never seem to figure out simple “fun”.

[@rareroe305]

There was once a time that they got it. It was called Rayman Legends.

[@davidsaminyang818]

I disagree one that one the simplicity of some of their games make them so fun for example ac odyssey

[@m.a.k.dynasty4504]

That's your opinion pal. A lot of people that I have seen have had great fun with this game.

[@stm7810]

they also cover up sexual assault, why is this ignored?

[@legrandliseurtri7495]

@@rareroe305 Rayman legends was beautiful, besides the recycle levels from origins.

[@askplays]

That cascading system is very cool! good vid as always GMTK

[@Kaledarkwind6151]

Nice man! Congratulations on all the accolades! Please keep up the good work. Love your content!

[@PantaroParatroopa]

If there's one thing I learned from the Watch Dogs: Legion pre-release hype, it's that gamers want more old lady protagonists.

[@danwarner7816]

Yeah one thing rockstar hasnt done yet

[@oscarwang7227]

@@danwarner7816 gta 6: you play as Irene, a 72 year old that just moved from the U.K. to Los Santos. She hurts her back in the first mission and is shot by a police officer.

[@user-ir8fx6uv1j]

"...and I even won a game of fall guys." - now that's a real achievement.

[@FallenOne3]

Excellent deconstruction of the game. Happy holidays and thank you for sharing your work

[@stevemac6707]

Good, interesting & informative video as always. Thanks for all the hard work you put into your content, enjoy your rest & I hope you have a good holiday season.

[@ВзрывоопасныйПоцык]

The Sims series could use this to generate truly populated cities!

[@redpup6931]

You're right! That would much more interesting than "random man walks here, man in neighborhood walks here"

[@occono3543]

The Sims 3 actually kinda has some basic implementation of this idea. There's "townies" which are simplified Sims who get more complex if you add them to your family unit.

[@ВзрывоопасныйПоцык]

@@occono3543 sadly when you turn "plot development" mode or whatever it named on, new sims who was generated procedurally would be dressed randomly and without particular style (christmas hat + tuxedo + snickers), while original citizens even has common motif in all they clothes (orange swimsuit with petals ; orange dress with flowers etc.)

[@occono3543]

@@ВзрывоопасныйПоцык Yeah, it's not quite as in-depth as the Legion system. However, there is a NRAAS mod which improves the NPC clothing system I think. I have so many mods for The Sims 3 I can't remember what's a mod feature and what's in the game by default.

[@secretscarlet8249]

Interesting system. But it seems that the grander they shoot for, they bigger the corners they have to cut.

[@1Tako1]

I think this is my favorite series on your channel. I just love hearing all these new creative ideas and their execution that can make such interesting games or in this case, interesting features.

[@TheOwlslayer]

Thanks for making all these fascinating and educational videos. Looking forward to whatever you create in the next year!

[@dheatlyblaze2846]

"The game wont run out of memory" Now, someone would test that and add an unreasonable amount of operatives, right?

[@DreadKyller]

Or just injure a lot of people to get their profiles to be more persistent due to the "Opinion of DedSec" functionality, just go around and hit everyone in the leg and see how long it takes to slow the game down.

[@Ginrikuzuma]

the game caps how many people you track. The cap is your agents + potential recruits. I want to say the number is 50 but I don't remember the exact count.

[@SarahAndreaRoycesChannel]

Its hardly more than a view data points per character, let's say it is 1kb (which already seems a bit much). So even if you track thousands of elevated NPCs it is still just scratching 1mb. You don't need to track them all in ram, only those that are there in relation to your current character.

[@mopozuJIko]

The worst thing is that ALL-Awaited CP2077 hasn't got a system even half-complex as this one and they have had much more time to develop their game:(

[@KenTWOu]

That system isn't the only thing Legion did better than Cyberpunk.

[@COHOFSohamSengupta]

F you. CD project red ish da best developer on this planet, their games are revolutionary even if there's not a single feature in any of their games that I would call ambitious or something no one has done before. CD project D riding has damaged the gaming community as a whole

[@cooperjazz77]

@@COHOFSohamSengupta Someone on youtube told me yesterday that CP77 is one of the best games of all time!

[@COHOFSohamSengupta]

@@cooperjazz77 what can I say if he/she has an awful taste. CD project red fanboys will even love SHIT if it has CD project label on it

[@redpup6931]

My only issues with Cyberpunk 2077 were: 1. Crunch 2. Lack of support for older systems The glitches were mostly just visual things, so you could think of it as the technology being a bit buggy. Also, I want people to remember the vocal minority. But crunch is an issue that needs to be solved.

[@abhishekjm8611]

Congrats on the achievements and hoping to see more great videos next year.

[@Rafamrkz]

I'm so happy you're doing well and keep making content like this, you (alongside pshyc of play) made this year really tolerable while I was working from home and even inspired me to make a gaming analysis podcast in my language (Spanish) thanks for that

[@williamhills6927]

The human-shaped blob has progressed beyond simple shooter enemies and has entered the realm of protagonists.

[@polopo212]

Im really surprised no one mentions MGSV, it had a preety similar system where you recruit enemy soldiers for your own mother base and then can play as them, and it did actually matter, as different characters had different ststs

[@shizukousapostle1stapostle710]

But it was always better to play as snake

[@magaghost]

I love everything you do, Mark. Thank you for your content and wish you happy holidays. :)

[@MagicSwordFilms]

Congrats on all that stuff you mentioned in the conclusion! I've been following your work nearly since the beginning so its great to see you getting all this recognition, enjoy your break!

[@bogdanmuzyka1667]

"Yeah, I'm as surpised as you are that an open world Ubisoft game could be considered innovative." I don't why, but it had me laughing :D

[@hmans9363]

Imagine a venom game with this mechanic

[@teasysneeze]

Excellent video. Great to hear the your channel and career are growing; GMTK is doing a commendable service for game developers.

[@jarse1991]

Have a good rest my man! Your great videos are always a blast to watch, so I'm happy to hear you're getting a professional level up from it ;)

[@kylerivera3470]

Even innovation without proper implementation can mean something if it inspires others to make something similar with better design. Innovation is simply the first step into making a great game, and it doesn't have to be the innovator who takes that second step.

[@HYDRAdude]

"Ubisoft open world games are mechanically shallow." There, the video summarized in a single sentence.

[@m.a.k.dynasty4504]

That's a lie considering that he uses them as a basis for plenty of his videos in a positive light like Splinter Cell: Blacklist for example.

[@itcouldbelupus2842]

You make fantastic content. May your channel continue to grow.

[@mikahhosang2606]

Congratulations Mark!!! Super happy for you! Cant wait to keep following and seeing what amazing research and insights you have for us in 2021 ✨

[@DarshanBhambhani]

Ubisoft developers are so god damn talented, what a waste that the publisher itself is pure shit. I’m certain they will one day make the best game in history when the bs corpo stuff goes away

[@armstrongcanon7833]

@@beegyoshi6525 wait what? Tencent is gonna buy it?

[@connorp3764]

@@beegyoshi6525 what? Where did that come from? Ubisoft s fine on their own, they don't need to buy out.

[@Largentina.]

One of these days we should blame developers for developing a bad game.

[@connorp3764]

@@Largentina. Ok, let me explain with an example. So you're in school, and your teacher assigns you a group project. The directions are clear, that you all have different sections you need to do by yourself to combine into one project. You will be graded by the class itself, based off of each of theirs subjective opinions to create an official grade. This grade also makes up around 90% of your overall grade for the semester, and is an important project that different jobs and such in the career path you want to go in will judge you on based off of this grade. So you work really hard, as do most of the group. But all the while your teacher keeps on adding new things to do, objectives, rubrics and tasks you all have to finish by certain dates. Then just a bit before the due date, one of the members in your group announces that he barely started his portion of the project, and all hell breaks loose. That is then an entire letter off of your grade from most student's reviews of the project, and more points taken off for objectives given to you only a few days before the due date that didn't have enough time to develop. A failed assignment that was completely out of your control. If the dialogue is bad, blame the writers. If the game is unplayable, blame the programmers. If the Game design is flawed, blame the designers. If the game came out before these issues could be resolved, blame the executives and shareholders. Or, better yet, lets not find a name to shove all the blame at and give constructive feedback instead. Blaming the "developers" is a shortcut we can take to shove blame on someone, but that doesn't make it any less false.

[@Largentina.]

@@connorp3764 You didn't need to explain any of that. I understand completely and was half joking. It was mostly in reference to when people got mad at EA for Anthem and then we found out most of the bad decisions were Bioware's.

[@SkylerLinux]

I love how the whole video is i"it's an amazing feature, too bad it's in a Ubisoft game" . Alternatively it's more like Ubisoft got so much crap for calming that women are too hard to animate, so now they made up by making everyone playable.

[@subprogram32]

This was an important choice for this series I think. You could have so easily made this video a straight celebration of an innovative game, but instead you made it a lesson about how sometimes, innovation cannot be enough. Very great work! :D

[@liammcbride4956]

Congrats on the awesome year! The channel deserves those wins!

[@tommysedin]

10:20 Waaiit a minute, Tim Rowett of Grand Illusions is in the game?!

[@mohc6865]

Special ability: Water from the nile

[@seamus2059]

"It just works"- Bethesda

[@oscarwang7227]

Xbox: Stop it

[@Oisin2]

Great video and congratulations on all your achievements this year, you're an absolute star! :)

[@m_ouz4211]

Wow you really are the best youtuber i've ever seen, such passion and work is done for these videos keep it up please