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Ubisoft’s Alex Hutchinson, the creative director behind Far Cry 4 and Assassin’s Creed III, has been given the go ahead to work on a new ‘personal project’ now that the blockbuster shooter is complete.
Hutchinson will form a new team with some of his previous Assassin’s Creed staff, according to CVG. The project is part of Ubisoft Montreal’s ‘internal entrepreneurial initiative’, whereby the triple-A studio encourages staff to pitch new ideas between working on blockbusters.
A notable example is Child of Light, a title pitched by Far Cry 3’s creative director Patrick Plourde. The game proved to be successful enough to see Plourde’s team established as a permanent fixture at Ubisoft Montreal.
Other examples include Valiant Hearts and Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon.
Hutchinson said: "I’ve got clearance along with a bunch of people from AC3 and AC4 to go off and do something new after [Far Cry 4]. The challenge then is to keep costs down and makes something that competes at a high level, without saying ‘we need a thousand people for a new IP’!"
The creative director added that his project will face several obstacles before it can become a publicly announced game, including getting approval from Ubisoft’s editorial team, but hopes to share more details in future.
"There’s different pressures on these sorts of projects, but at least at the moment we’ve got the OK from the studio to try something new," he said. "Hopefully [in a year] I can show you. It won’t be finished in a year, but the aim is [to show it]."
