Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed series has been "requiescat-ing in pace" for almost two decades, bringing us iconic protagonists like Ezio Auditore, Edward Kenway, and Kassandra. The latest installment, Assassin's Creed Shadows, raises the series to new heights. But how were they able to successfully render this immense project? Ubisoft Technical Architect Nicolas Lopez, who's heading to GDC 2025 to discuss this very thing, is here to explain it.
Behind the Rendering of Assassin’s Creed Shadows: An Interview with Ubisoft's Nicolas Lopez
Assassin's Creed Shadows takes players to Feudal Japan, to fight the Templar Order as dual protagonists Fujibayashi Naoe and Yasuke. Not only has Ubisoft ventured into a new location with this latest release, they've also added features that make the experience more immersive than ever before. There are times of day, seasons, complex weather systems, a massive open world that rivals Assassin's Creed Origins, and more. Of course, the bigger the game, the more to render!
Nicolas Lopez is heading a session at GDC 2025 about "Rendering 'Assassin's Creed Shadows,'" taking place on Thursday, March 20 from 11:00am to 12:00pm in Room 3001 (West Hall). We sat down with Nicolas to discuss his upcoming talk, his favorite Assassin, and how working on this series has been his "dream job" since the very beginning.
See Nicolas Lopez at GDC 2025
Session: Rendering 'Assassin’s Creed Shadows'
March 20, 2025 | 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM PT
Room 3001, West Hall
Exclusive Interview with Ubisoft’s Nicolas Lopez
Hi Nicolas! Could you introduce yourself and share your history with the Assassin's Creed series?
Nicolas Lopez: I'm Nicolas Lopez, I'm a rendering technical architect on Assassin's Creed Shadows and the Anvil Engine. I've been at Ubisoft for close to five years. It's the first Assassin's Creed I've worked on, actually. Before that, I worked on games like STAR WARS Battlefront II, Deus Ex, Never Dead, Sniper Elite, and some other games.
Something people don't know about me is that, during my first interview in the industry, when I was asked about my dream project, I answered Assassin's Creed. So I'm where I belong.
What is the first video game you remember playing?
Nicolas: I believe that would be Tetris on Game Boy. And actually there's a fun story about that, because I didn't know what a Game Boy was when I was a kid. I saw Tetris in a review and I told my parents, "I want to order this for Christmas." And when I got it, I discovered it was an actual game console. I thought it was just a Tetris Game & Watch! What a surprise when I discovered I could actually play multiple games. It was incredible.
You played through several of the past Assassin's Creed games to learn about the series ahead of working on Shadows. Which games stood out to you and why?
Nicolas: For me that would be Assassin's Creed Unity. Maybe it's also because I'm French, so I'm biased—but the depiction of this Paris during the revolution was outstanding. It's one of my best memories of gaming, actually: climbing Notre Dame and watching the panorama of this Paris, as if I belong to this world, was just incredible to me.
Who would you say is your favorite Assassin so far?
Nicolas: For me it's Ezio. Ezio is incredible, he's such a charismatic character. I think he's also a bit cliché, the stereotype of Italian characters that you imagine you see in movies. But, to me, it was really like the achievement of what Assassin's Creed could be. Assassin's Creed was the Assassin's Creed fantasy—being in a world like this and being an assassin. [Assassin's Creed II] expands that to have very charismatic characters and storytelling.
The Challenge of Rendering a Massive Open World
You're speaking at GDC about Assassin's Creed Shadows, which takes place in Feudal Japan. What excited you about bringing the series to this era?
Nicolas: I think many people in the industry love Japan, naturally, because it's been one of major places for big games in the past and today. Also, in France we have a very deep connection with Japan—especially people from my generation. We love Japan, we love Japanese anime and things like that, because we used to have many of them on TV when I was a kid.
I love the language, I love the culture, so for me it's just a dream come true.
What unique challenges did you face in adding seasons to Assassin's Creed Shadows?
Nicolas: The scope of the game is huge. It's the largest I've ever seen. We have time of day and seasons, we have a systemic weather system, and the world is very large.
So, the first issue that comes to mind is testing. Just testing, and being able to reproduce an issue, is already a challenge. For example, when testers have to describe where the issue happened and what were the circumstances, we have to make sure we have exactly the same weather parameters, the same time of day, the same time of the year, with the season. It got to the point where I was thinking about crazy ideas, like generating QR codes to reproduce the exact setup we had in game during an issue!
How did you and the team overcome these challenges?
Nicolas: We have to be very creative, actually, and find the right balance between believability and accuracy. I think we managed to do that, and I invite you to come to my talk to discover more!
What were some of the other challenges you and your team faced when you were rendering this title?
Nicolas: The team really wanted to set new technical standards for the series, so we upgraded our Anvil engine with many new techologies and features to fully leverage the latest hardware capabilities. It's really like the next-gen version of Anvil. All this was developed at the same time as the game. We had to anticipate the cost of many things and produce data, guessing or estimating what it would cost. It's very challenging because, in this kind of game, there is little room for error. If you make a mistake, you potentially have to go through all the assets of this large world and review everything. It was a bit scary at times.
What's one lesson that you're hoping GDC attendees take away from your talk?
Nicolas: Working on such a large game can be daunting and very intimidating, but I hope people who are not used to work on open worlds or such large games can get more confidence from this talk to see that it's a lot of staging and imagination. And that, to work on an open world game, it's about shifting your mindset—from going to maximum quality to going to scalable solutions at every stage of the production. It means having smarter ways to produce data, maybe using procedural generation or even AI.
Nicolas Lopez’s GDC 2025 session will provide insights into the rendering of Assassin’s Creed Shadows—from Feudal Japan’s landscapes to next-gen rendering techniques.
Session: Rendering 'Assassin’s Creed Shadows'
March 20, 2025 | 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM PT
Room 3001, West Hall
The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
GDC returns this March 17-21, 2025, and registration is open! Check out our Passes & Prices, and follow the #GDC2025 hashtag on Bluesky and LinkedIn.
Subscribe to the GDC newsletter and RSS feed.
Get regular updates on GDC social media—including Bluesky, Instagram, TikTok, and LinkedIn.
