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Assassin’s Creed Nexus

Lead Game Designer 
Ubisoft

Overview

Assassin’s Creed Nexus brought the franchise’s physical fantasy into VR, where comfort, clarity, and embodiment are critical.

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As Lead Game Designer, I owned core gameplay systems including Parkour, Climbing, Player Combat, Assassination systems (Hidden Blade, Air Assassination), and Interaction Systems, while leading a multi-disciplinary team of over 20 designers, engineers, and animators.​​

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The Challenge

  • Translate Assassin’s Creed movement and player abilities to VR

  • Maximize immersion and verisimilitude

  • Balance agency with comfort

  • Maintain clear, deliberate moment-to-moment play

  • Ship within VR production constraints

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3Cs & Game Feel

Movement and traversal needed to feel fast and expressive without causing discomfort.

Design priorities:

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  • Assisted traversal that preserved player intent

  • Consistent input logic across actions

  • Immediate, readable feedback

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The result was a movement model that supported flow while remaining comfortable and predictable in VR.

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Assassination Systems

Assassination is the emotional core of Assassin’s Creed. In VR, it needed to feel intentional, readable, and earned rather than reactive or chaotic.

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Design goals:

  • Preserve the fantasy of striking from advantage

  • Make player intent explicit before commitment

  • Ensure assassinations feel decisive and satisfying

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Hidden Blade

The Hidden Blade was designed as a precision tool, not a default attack.

  • Reliable and realistic IK behaviors while embedded

  • Contextual activation based on position and awareness

  • Clear affordances signaling a valid assassination

  • Instant, unambiguous outcomes
     

This ensured that successful assassinations felt realistic and deliberate.

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Leadership & Production

  • Led daily design efforts for a 20+ person team

  • Set design priorities and iteration goals

  • Partnered closely with creative and game directors

  • Delivered 7+ milestones on or ahead of schedule
     

 

Outcome

  • Cohesive player feel across systems

  • Franchise fantasy successfully adapted to VR

  • Met comfort and accessibility targets
     

 

Reflection

This project reinforced that strong systems design is built on clarity, intention, and respect for player attention.

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