An exclusive interview on Immortals Fenyx Rising and accessibility in games with Nicolas Kraj, UX Director at Ubisoft Bucharest
Hello, dear friends, today I have the utmost pleasure of chatting with Nicolas Kraj, UX Director at Ubisoft Bucharest. We will talk about his role in the development process of Immortals Fenyx Rising, about accessibility in video games, next gen consoles, the challenges 2020 brought to the table and, of course, about his passion for playing and creating games.
Victor: Hi, Nicolas! Thank you for accepting this interview. First of all, I want to congratulate the entire Ubisoft Romania team for an excellent game. I played Immortals Fenyx Rising and enjoyed very much! Could you tell me what was your role in this project?
Nicolas: Hi Victor, and thanks for having me here! I’m so happy to hear you are enjoying Immortals Fenyx Rising: this has been such an incredible development process and the entire team poured their soul into the making of the game. Having it finally in the hands of gamers all around the world is always kind of magical, and the warm feedback we received is just the cherry on the cake! Ubisoft Romania played a key-role in its development, particularly in regards of the combat system, and enemies players will encounter through their journey. So, if you are having a blast juggling enemies or are raging because of a brutal boss, chances are the team and myself had a quite a role in it!
Victor: What was the most fun part of the game creation process for you?
Nicolas: I actually have two things in mind! The first one is linked to the tone of the game: as you have seen playing it, we really embraced a light-hearted tone and never shied away from a good joke. This was a breath of fresh air for the entire team as it allowed us to create truly unique enemies: from crazy roosters to clumsy minotaurs we never asked ourselves „Won’t it be too much? Or ridiculous?”. If a new attack was creating a good gameplay and added personality to the enemy, we would roll with it!
On the other side, what really excited me during this game creation, and was truly an adventure, was the creation of the final boss of the game: Typhon. I won’t spoil this fight for your readers but a boss of this scale, and with so many unique features, is an incredible challenge to tackle. It took the entire team months of researches, experimentation, tuning and polish in order to create the boss you will experience today, and we are immensely proud to have made it happen here!
Victor: As you may already know, I am an ambassador for accessibility in video games and I’m really excited about the effort that Ubisoft has put in their latest releases. How do you think your expertise may benefit the impaired gaming community for upcoming games?
Nicolas: There is a French saying that I hold very dear: “Le design est du dessin à dessein”, design is drawing with a purpose. And our purpose, as game makers, expresses itself through our players: without our players, our games are nothing.
At its core, accessibility is here to remove the barriers and frictions between our games and our players, which is why accessibility is one of the most important topic for Ubisoft and myself. As UX Director, my role is to help the development teams understand better the behaviors, psychology and needs of our players, every single one of them. With every game, and thanks to our amazing communities of players helping us along the way, we are refining what it means for a game to be truly inclusive and I’m proud of what we accomplished so far, though the path ahead is still a long one.
Victor: What do you think about the latest trend to include access to video games for impaired gamers?
Nicolas: To start, I deeply believe that this is not a trend: this is a key aspect into what makes, and will make, great games: tackling this topic should be the utmost priority of every game developer and game company. A mindset that creates a separation between all players, including those with disabilities, could only leave an important part of them away from games, and it is a shame.
What we need to realize is that every single player has unique, specific needs. We have gamers playing without sound, to not wake up their kids while playing at night for example, and these players will need to rely heavily on visual elements on screen. We have others that play on a small screen where suddenly the size of texts and interface elements become critical to be able to play. Some of them have difficulties coordinating multiple buttons presses at the same time and, without alternative, won’t be able to ever pass a challenge. Others have difficulties to read (or haven’t learned yet!) which can make entire sides of a game experience fail completely… The list is infinite!
Our goal should always be to be as inclusive as possible to this infinity of unique players with their infinity of unique needs: allowing full remapping of the controls, supporting every alternative controllers (like the Xbox Adaptive Controller), allowing players to simplify specific parts of an experience, or to change an interaction entirely (like removing every “hold” interaction from a game), letting players have subtitles cover half the screen or invert every color… The key here is to not try and cater for some specific players but have games so customizable that every single player will be able to play it, regardless of their needs.
The game industry has a very long way to go in order to really achieve this. But thanks to people like yourself, our players, and caring designers, we went a long way in a very short time. May it never stop.
Victor: With the next generation upon us, what features of the PS5 are you most excited about?
Nicolas: Without a doubt the haptic feedback capabilities of the new PS5 DualSense controller! We must realize that video games are relying almost exclusively on two of our senses: sight and hearing, with sight really overpowering hearing. For generations of consoles, touch as a sense has existed mainly as a gimmick in games: a way to reinforce immersion. But with the incredible work Sony has put in their new controller (letting us feel the “slow grittiness of driving a car through mud” to quote them), we may finally have the tools to create experiences using touch as a key part in our systems or signs and feedback approaches.
Talking about accessibility, this is an amazing opportunity to offer alternatives that could help so many of our players enjoy games better. I truly can’t wait to see how developers will embrace these new possibilities.
Victor: I’m curious, do you also play video games or it’s enough for you to take part in the creation process. What are your favorite games of all time and how did they influence your view on the creation process – you can choose only 3.
Nicolas: Of course, I’m an avid gamer! And asking me to pick only three games is so insanely hard. I’d say that I’ve always been drawn to games that feel infinite, mysterious, and let me express myself in them my own way. The games of Fumito Ueda (Ico, Shadow of the Colossus), Hollow Knight, Zelda: Breath of the Wild, the Fallout series… All of these games brought me such amazing memories and sense of immersion. This is probably why I felt such a strong connection to Immortals Fenyx Rising and why it is a very special game to me.
Victor: What’s your favorite game or franchise from Ubisoft’s long history of acclaimed titles?
Nicolas: I will always have the first Rayman deep in my heart, playing it with my mom on the family computer, as it is one of the games that made me be a game developer today. Otherwise, the Assassin’s Creed series is fascinating in its creation and evolution. I have been lucky enough to be a small part of its history working on Origins and will for sure continue to be amazed by how rich these worlds are.
Victor: How has this year with the Coronavirus and the move to work from home been for you on a personal level and in relation with your work?
Nicolas: I am a social person, and nothing beats being surrounded by talented, pumped developers trying to make a game altogether. It’s just an amazing feeling… So, for sure, this year has been a challenging one. We had to reinvent our way of working, and ourselves, in so many ways. Impressively enough, we adapted! There has been hiccups, unforeseen challenges, but we shipped Immortals Fenyx Rising, the team fought through it, and all in all we will probably get out of it stronger than before.
Our connection to our players feels different too! It is difficult for all of us, but there is this huge sense of support that we get from them that really helps us. The word of “community” makes every day more sense.
Victor: I’ve always been fascinated about how the advancements in technology offer game developers and entire studios the freedom to collaborate on huge projects. Is it hard to keep track of everyone’s involvement or do you have a set of rules that make your job easier in this regard?
Nicolas: Organizing a team of hundreds (or thousands) of developers will probably be among the most complicated challenges we face and will continue facing. There is just so much happening at the same time that you must deal with a lot of chaos and uncertainty. Personally, I believe that there are three key components to make it work: communication, trust, and agility.
By over-communicating (on the game direction, technical constraints, resources, timings, everything) you ensure that every developer is working in the same direction, you minimize loss. Trust brings focus: as a director, I have no way of checking every single detail of a game. I need to trust the talent of every designer which allows me to pick my battles, the ones that matter in the end. Finally, however solid your plans are, hell will break lose, issues will arise, complications. A game is made of millions of compromises, cuts and changes. It is important to embrace the flow and stay as agile as one can be.
Victor: What do you hope for in 2021?
Nicolas: To be back in the ”trenches” with the team, and to keep making games that people want to interview me about!
Victor: Thank you very much for your time, it was a pleasure chatting, hope that we all will have a better year in 2021 and that you will continue to bring us new immersive worlds to explore and to enrich our lives.
Nicolas: Truly the pleasure was shared! Thanks again for the time you spent with me and with Immortals Fenyx Rising!
Victor: As I manage the largest independent PlayStation Community in Romania, with over 35,000 gamers, let’s end this insightful interview with a message from you to them.
To quote myself from previously: “Without our players, our games are nothing”. To all of you: you have no idea how much your voice matters. By playing games, debating what makes a good or a bad game, praising us, or criticizing us, being part of communities like PlayStation Fans Romania… You are helping shape what the future of gaming will be. And the future looks bright!
Stay safe, and see you online!
Victor: Thank you very much, Nicolas, take care and stay safe!
Immortals Fenyx Rising is now available on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, PC, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One and Xbox Series X.
Victor Dima
