Former creative director of Assassin’s Creed shared how to save AAA development
Former Assassin’s Creed Creative Director Discusses Saving AAA Development
Alexandre Amancio, known for his work on Assassin’s Creed Unity and Assassin’s Creed Revelations, shared his vision for the future of AAA games in an interview with GamesIndustry.biz. According to him, major studios are in crisis due to bloated teams, fear of risks, and a focus on metrics over creativity.
After a decade of excessive expansion, bloated studios, and a cautious, risk-averse approach, we are now reaping the consequences: mass layoffs, creative stagnation, and a growing disconnect between developers and the games they create. Somewhere along the way, we stopped striving for greatness and started chasing metrics. We prioritized politics over craftsmanship, comfort over challenge, and content pipelines over originality. As a result, the Western gaming industry is in crisis.
Alexandre Amancio
First, Ask the Right Questions
Amancio believes that resolving AAA development issues begins with asking the right questions. He describes game creation as a complex task, theoretically described as a "wicked problem": it involves many variables, and it's impossible to determine if the process was optimal or led to the best outcome. Therefore, ongoing difficulties in development are considered normal.
He also stresses that the term "video game" is too broad, encompassing everything from mobile card games to massive open worlds. Different scales and genres require different approaches. The key, according to Amancio, is identifying bottlenecks where complex processes can be simplified and establishing a control system that guides workflow effectively, ensuring systematic and manageable project progression.
Big Teams, Big Problems
Amancio believes that massive teams working on games like Assassin’s Creed are unnecessary and actually create more problems than they solve. He explained that when a project involves more than a hundred people, the structure changes completely: the number of managers increases sharply, leading to a cumbersome system where efficiency drops.
Many AAA studios mistakenly believe that any problem can be solved by adding more people. In practice, this only slows down those who were already working efficiently and creates additional noise.
Amancio envisions a future for smaller teams. He suggests taking inspiration from the film industry, where a core group of specialists is temporarily expanded for specific projects. This approach allows teams to be formed based on the needs of a specific game rather than maintaining a large permanent structure. Developers thus have "their" trusted people for different tasks who they wish to work with long-term.
The creator pointed out that the gaming industry traditionally aligns itself with software development, but it is actually a peculiar hybrid, with lessons to learn from cinema. In games, a core team can be established and supplemented by outsourcing or co-development for specific tasks, ensuring the "right mix" for each project.
Game development, especially when aiming for innovation, involves creating many elements on the fly, unlike cinema, where a script is ready. Amancio compared the process to a train.
The best analogy I can provide is a train. The locomotive is the core team, and the cars are different divisions responsible for various tasks. The problem is that each car wants to move at its own speed.
The locomotive pushes the train in a certain direction at a certain speed, while the cars try to either speed up or slow down—and you end up with a massive train that is literally tearing apart. I see the future in a much lighter train: at each station, you attach the necessary cars, remove unnecessary ones, and so on, making the process much more manageable.
Alexandre Amancio
Different Projects, Different Approaches
Amancio discussed how to organize co-development and outsourcing in AAA projects. He noted that the approach depends on the specific title. Sometimes a game has separate modules that are almost entirely autonomous. He cited the naval system in Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag as an example—it can be entirely outsourced to another studio. With proper management, the studio gains the freedom to make the module as interesting and high-quality as possible, while integration points with the main game remain stable and intact.
It's crucial to clearly define work boundaries from the start. Once these constraints are understood, the team can operate freely within them, devising solutions and implementing them in the best way. Too much freedom at the start often hinders both parties, turning the process into "throwing darts in the dark," where no one knows which direction to take. If the process is well-structured, collaboration between the main studio and auxiliary teams can be highly effective. Moreover, given the right tasks, an external studio can sometimes exceed initial expectations and contribute more to the project than planned.
Many games face issues where after a quick pre-production phase, production stalls because the team doesn't fully understand the direction. According to Amancio, this is a typical industry situation: when there are hundreds of people, the process becomes chaotic with no clear direction.
He drew an analogy to cinema: films have a ready script, and shooting can start immediately. In games, a working prototype serves as the screenplay equivalent. Amancio considers the golden rule of pre-production to be coming out with something that at least demonstrates the essence of what you want to create, even if not all elements are ready.
However, he emphasized that having a vertical slice showing an example of gameplay does not guarantee project success. In large AAA titles, you can assemble all the elements, but the big picture still needs verification and refinement. This is especially crucial for systemic games, where multiple interconnected systems must advance concurrently.