“We had no budget and time limits”: Indian Ubisoft spoke about work on the remake of Prince of Persia

Developers from the Indian studios Ubisoft told about the features of creating a remake of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.

According to game director Pierre Sylvain-Giret, his team had difficulties developing the Sands of Time on the Anvil engine, originally created for Assassin’s Creed. Sylvain-Giret noted that the engine is not designed for creating linear levels and mechanics like rewinding time, which is why the developers had to adapt it.

Anvil is not designed to create mechanics like rewind, slow-mo, or other time manipulation. So technically, developing a remake was a challenge for us.

In addition, anvil is designed primarily for open-world games. We are working on a short, linear game, which creates additional difficulties.

Pierre Sylvain-Giret
Prince Prince of Persia: the Sands of time

Sylvain-Giret also commented on the criticism of the appearance of the remake of the Sands of Time from the players. According to the game Director, Ubisoft sought to convey in the visual style of the game its fabulous, magical atmosphere.

The developers also decided to show that the remake of the Sands of Time is different from other franchises of the publisher, including Assassin’s Creed.

In the case of a game that was released 17 years ago, there are many opportunities to improve the graphics. We wanted it to have a unique visual style, we wanted to show that Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is a fairytale story.

Its plot and the 40 levels that need to be completed are an immersion in the magical world, a journey into the universe of the “Baghdad thief”. So we decided that our game should be different from the others. This isn’t Assassin’s Creed or 2008’s Prince of Persia. This game is unique. The magic in it is shown through light, through rich colors — and therefore it was a test for us to rethink the visual component in the remake.

Pierre Sylvain-Giret
game Director of the Prince of Persia remake: The Sands of Time

Production Directors of the remake noted that only Ubisoft departments from the Indian cities of Pune and Mumbai are directly involved in the creation of the game, but its team is assisted by specialists from other studios. The maximum number of people who played the game at the same time is 170.

Work on the updated the Sands of Time, according to Saeed Abbas, one of the production Directors, has been going on for about two and a half years. Abbas also stressed that Ubisoft did not set budget or time limits for Indian studios.

Ubisoft plans to release a remake of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time at the end of January 2021.