Watch_Dogs 2

So Watch_Dogs 2 came right after WD1 shipped, and honestly, WD1 had been brutal on UI. We barely got it to fit on last-gen. Mind you, that experience is what got us to push for something different on WD2. We asked production for the time between projects to rewrite the architecture from scratch. They said yes.

What we built was a real separation of concerns on MVC. GameplayDataElements as models, UIControllers as controllers, UIView for rendering. The game could literally run without any UI at all. Gameplay evolved on its own, and the UI just reflected the state. Every menu had to be as optimized as the HUD, because the Smartphone had to open anywhere, anytime, like a real phone in your pocket. Mind you, our performance budgets weren't much bigger than WD1, so imagination did the lifting.

This is also where I helped reshape how UI leadership worked at Ubisoft. The "Lead Programmer" path rewarded strong technical chops, but often under-supported the soft skills side. So I pushed to split the role into Team Lead and Tech Lead, working hand in hand. My Production Manager believed in me and pushed me toward the people side. I turned down tech-lead offers on Far Cry and R6 because team lead with people skills was where I wanted to invest. And honestly, that split is part of why WD2 worked.

Honestly, my proudest moment is the Smartphone. Everything we built architecturally converged on making that one interaction feel effortless. The team behind it stayed tight and shipped together. That's still the project I measure other ones against.