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From Game Jam to the Creation of 'Starlink: Battle for Atlas'
This session will share how a small team approached a mandate to innovate by employing game jam techniques and rapid prototyping, building Ubisoft Toronto's first new IP, 'Starlink: Battle for Atlas'. After completing work on 'Splinter Cell: Blacklist', Ubisoft formed a small team with a mandate to pitch a new IP based on the combination of a technological breakthrough and an innovative gameplay mechanic. This wide open mandate was incredibly liberating, but also terrifying, having so few constraints could easily result in scattered development. This talk will include an overview of how the Ubisoft team successfully employed game jam techniques, democratized early development and used rapid prototyping to create dozens of pitches and prototypes. It will include never-before-seen footage from these early prototypes, as well as practical tools and techniques they used to define and maintain the core vision in 'Starlink', including a modular starship collectible, a fully simulated AI ecosystem and seamless circumnavigable planets.
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