WITH ANCESTORS: THE HUMANKIND ODYSSEY OUT NOW ON GAME PASS, OXM SITS DOWN WITH NOT ONLY THE MASTER OF XBOX MONKEY MEN, BUT THE KEY CREATIVE MIND BEHIND ASSASSIN’S CREED AND PRINCE OF PERSIA: THE SANDS OF TIME TO DISCUSS HIS EPIC, GENRE-DEFINING CAREER
DAVE MEIKLEHAM
Over the past 20 years, Patrice Désilets has amassed ten official game credits. Compared to most high-profile industry figures, that’s a fairly small CV. Yet when said resume rocks three bona fide masterpieces, our collective caps should be well and truly doffed to this hugely influential, Montreal-based designer. Not only did Désilets make Prince Of Persia relevant for the first time in 15 years with 2003’s wonderful The Sands Of Time, in the process of making a new POP game he also created arguably the iconic third-party series of the last two decades… Assassin’s Creed.
The mastermind behind Altaïr and Ezio’s stab-happy historical adventures, Désilets is responsible for helming the most beloved entries in Ubisoft’s chart-topping franchise. After parting ways with the French publisher, he created his own studio, Panache Digital Games, going on to make one of 2019’s most conceptually interesting games, Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey. We recently caught up with the esteemed game director to talk Xbox homo sapiens, the origins of Assassin’s Creed, what makes a great a videogame reboot, and why you shouldn’t believe every Donald Duck-related rumour you read on the interwebs. And to celebrate the tenth anniversary of Désilets’ beloved Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, we run through the very best games of 2010 over on page 62. Anyone else feel hideously ancient?
How daunting was starting your own studio back in 2014? Was founding Panache one of the biggest gambles of your career?
It was a big thing, but not as much as becoming a father… but yeah, it was kind of a big deal. But at the same time I feel it was time to start my own shop. It was a long process, because we were founded in 2014, we received some money in 2015, and we actually opened up the studio in July of 2015. It was a two-year process [getting the studio up and running]. And then it was four years of making the game. So in all it’s been a six-year journey [to finish Ancestors]. But it’s been great, and like I said, at the end of the day, I think I was at a point in my career where I needed my own studio to actually build the type of games that I wanted to make… games that are a bit ‘outside the box’, with different subject matters. With all my knowledge built up from 20 years of making games, I was ready.
There were nine years between Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood hitting shelves and Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey launching. What lessons have you learned over that time?
My chain of thought has evolved to be more foc
