How Ubisoft Philippines helped bring Assassin’s Creed Shadows to life
Written by: Nicolo Manaloto
Publication: UnGeek
Date published: June 23, 2025
Here's how the talented folks over at Ubisoft Philippines helped craft the latest Assassin's Creed title.
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As with all of Ubisoft’s flagship titles, Assassin’s Creed Shadows was a global effort, with the talented folks over at Ubisoft Philippines helping bring the game to life.
While Shadows is best known for being the first Assassin’s Creed game to be set in Japan, the game is also a cool showcase of Filipino talent in AAA game development. After all, Ubisoft Philippines was key in developing important aspects of the game. To be exact, the Filipino studio played critical roles in the development of the game’s Characters, Weapons, Architecture, and Technical Art. Plus, the studio’s Quality Assurance department also played a big role in testing the game before going gold.
One of the biggest contributions of the PPH team was in crafting the weapons for the game. One such weapon is Naoe’s kusarigama, a traditional Japanese weapon that’s featured heavily in the trailer, and one that the player acquires early in the game.
Senior Hard Surface Artist Dale Gacusan was tasked with creating the final weapon that players see in the game. Given the level of detail of the kusarigama in AC Shadows, it should come as no surprise that Gacusan did plenty of research to bring the weapon to its final, in-game form.
Along with this, the PH team also conceptualized the Assassin’s Creed-signature Hidden Blade for shadows. Specifically, Filipino concept artists created a breakdown of the Hidden Blade model that formed the basis of the weapon in the game.
Along with weapons, the Ubisoft Philippines team were also tasked with design buildings for Assassin’s Creed Shadows. As the game is set in the Sengoku Period (or Japan’s warring states period), the Architecture team led by Associate Lead Artist Nissi Gatan dove deep into the period’s architecture. During the design stage, the team developed an extensive visual library that helped build a foundation for their building and environment designs.
Given that the Sengoku Period was a war-torn period, the game features plenty of damaged structures. This was another big achievement for the team as the artists designed war-torn buildings that not only looked fitting for the setting, but also had incredible attention to detail. For instance, the team noted that tiles used in buildings at the time won’t shatter, so they had to take this into account when adding damaged details in the structures.
While Ubisoft Philippines developers helped with plenty of environmental assets, the studio was also invaluable when it came to ensuring they worked well gameplay-wise. This was not an issue thanks to the Development Testers Noah Batacan and James Quitoriano.
One of their biggest challenges was to ensure that the structures and environments were accessible to both Naoe and Yasuke, given that they have different heights and move sets,
Quitoriano explained their approach as:
“It was interesting for both the art and tech team since the destroyed buildings would appear more complicated than the intact ones, especially with all the debris and broken parts hanging off. It also meant that parkour would be greatly affected by how the architecture assets are constructed as their surfaces would be more organic and uneven. The principle behind asset construction is usually to keep it clean and simple to accommodate the fluid parkour gameplay—it was a delicate balance to keep it compatible with the code while maintaining authenticity.”
Along with weapons and environments, Ubisoft Philippines also worked on the game’s characters. For instance, Lead Character Artist Kenneth Hitosis worked on the main character’s armor, as well as armor sets for enemies.
Perhaps the highlight of their design work though is Yasuke’s Samurai Daimyo Armor of Legend, one of the most powerful armors in the game. While the armor sets in the game had some creative flair, the team also had to ensure that they were historically accurate to a certain extent, not to mention that they should be compatible with animations and the game’s engine. This was ensured thanks to the efforts of the team, including Technical Artist Charlene Altamirano.
Design is far from the only thing the team did art-wise as the studio were also involved in rigging the kusarigama. Given the composition of the weapon – a chain (kusari), a sickle (kama), and an iron weight (bundo) at the end – the kusarigama was quite a complex and challengin weapon to animate.
Altamirano was key in developing the pipeline to ensure that this weapon moved naturally. The results speak for themselves as the in-game weapon looked and behaved quite naturally. This is thanks not only to Ubisoft PH, but also to the collaboration with Ubisoft Quebec.
Thanks to the Ubisoft Philippines team’s efforts, Assassin’s Creed Shadows delivered on its promise of bringing the iconic franchise in the world of feudal Japan. Aside from being a major milestone professionally, many members of the team also cherished the opportunity to work on Shadows, given that many of the staff members are long-time fans of the franchise.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows is available now on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC, macOS, and iPad OS.
===
As with all of Ubisoft’s flagship titles, Assassin’s Creed Shadows was a global effort, with the talented folks over at Ubisoft Philippines helping bring the game to life.
While Shadows is best known for being the first Assassin’s Creed game to be set in Japan, the game is also a cool showcase of Filipino talent in AAA game development. After all, Ubisoft Philippines was key in developing important aspects of the game. To be exact, the Filipino studio played critical roles in the development of the game’s Characters, Weapons, Architecture, and Technical Art. Plus, the studio’s Quality Assurance department also played a big role in testing the game before going gold.
One of the biggest contributions of the PPH team was in crafting the weapons for the game. One such weapon is Naoe’s kusarigama, a traditional Japanese weapon that’s featured heavily in the trailer, and one that the player acquires early in the game.
Senior Hard Surface Artist Dale Gacusan was tasked with creating the final weapon that players see in the game. Given the level of detail of the kusarigama in AC Shadows, it should come as no surprise that Gacusan did plenty of research to bring the weapon to its final, in-game form.
Along with this, the PH team also conceptualized the Assassin’s Creed-signature Hidden Blade for shadows. Specifically, Filipino concept artists created a breakdown of the Hidden Blade model that formed the basis of the weapon in the game.
Along with weapons, the Ubisoft Philippines team were also tasked with design buildings for Assassin’s Creed Shadows. As the game is set in the Sengoku Period (or Japan’s warring states period), the Architecture team led by Associate Lead Artist Nissi Gatan dove deep into the period’s architecture. During the design stage, the team developed an extensive visual library that helped build a foundation for their building and environment designs.
Given that the Sengoku Period was a war-torn period, the game features plenty of damaged structures. This was another big achievement for the team as the artists designed war-torn buildings that not only looked fitting for the setting, but also had incredible attention to detail. For instance, the team noted that tiles used in buildings at the time won’t shatter, so they had to take this into account when adding damaged details in the structures.
While Ubisoft Philippines developers helped with plenty of environmental assets, the studio was also invaluable when it came to ensuring they worked well gameplay-wise. This was not an issue thanks to the Development Testers Noah Batacan and James Quitoriano.
One of their biggest challenges was to ensure that the structures and environments were accessible to both Naoe and Yasuke, given that they have different heights and move sets,
Quitoriano explained their approach as:
“It was interesting for both the art and tech team since the destroyed buildings would appear more complicated than the intact ones, especially with all the debris and broken parts hanging off. It also meant that parkour would be greatly affected by how the architecture assets are constructed as their surfaces would be more organic and uneven. The principle behind asset construction is usually to keep it clean and simple to accommodate the fluid parkour gameplay—it was a delicate balance to keep it compatible with the code while maintaining authenticity.”
Along with weapons and environments, Ubisoft Philippines also worked on the game’s characters. For instance, Lead Character Artist Kenneth Hitosis worked on the main character’s armor, as well as armor sets for enemies.
Perhaps the highlight of their design work though is Yasuke’s Samurai Daimyo Armor of Legend, one of the most powerful armors in the game. While the armor sets in the game had some creative flair, the team also had to ensure that they were historically accurate to a certain extent, not to mention that they should be compatible with animations and the game’s engine. This was ensured thanks to the efforts of the team, including Technical Artist Charlene Altamirano.
Design is far from the only thing the team did art-wise as the studio were also involved in rigging the kusarigama. Given the composition of the weapon – a chain (kusari), a sickle (kama), and an iron weight (bundo) at the end – the kusarigama was quite a complex and challengin weapon to animate.
Altamirano was key in developing the pipeline to ensure that this weapon moved naturally. The results speak for themselves as the in-game weapon looked and behaved quite naturally. This is thanks not only to Ubisoft PH, but also to the collaboration with Ubisoft Quebec.
Thanks to the Ubisoft Philippines team’s efforts, Assassin’s Creed Shadows delivered on its promise of bringing the iconic franchise in the world of feudal Japan. Aside from being a major milestone professionally, many members of the team also cherished the opportunity to work on Shadows, given that many of the staff members are long-time fans of the franchise.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows is available now on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC, macOS, and iPad OS.
