There's an abhorrent developer hack in the first Assassin's Creed that was recently revealed on Twitter, and it portrays the game in a different, slightly horrifying, light. Charles Randall, one of the game's developers, shared secrets regarding the hacks that the animators and riggers had to use to create certain elements that completed the open world for Altaïr's adventure. While the techniques used to create some of the models are creative and interesting, they're also a bit nightmarish.
Learning developer secrets adds another layer of depth to their games and shows the level of effort that goes into building diverse and visually impressive worlds. While creating the original title, the development team had to make the best of the limited options that their tool chain worked with in 3DS Max.
According to first Assassin's Creed ruined their base biped to build some of the other models. Due to the limitations that arose while creating Altaïr's world, the developers had to get creative to build some of the unique character and creature models used throughout the game. The horses in particular were created in a disturbing way that inspires a sinister notion every time Altaïr mounts one of the creatures. According to Charles Randall, a human skeleton was stretched to create the horses in the original Assassin's Creed. After learning the development team's secret, it's difficult to stop imagining the horses as tortured human bodies.
The Original Assassin's Creed Horses Were Actually Twisted Human Skeletons
The process of creating these Altaïr's animal companions in Assassin's Creed involved contorting a human skeleton enough to make it look like a believable horse. The notion that Altaïr and some of the NPCs are actually riding around on mangled people is a frightening concept, but it also shows how innovative the development team is and the ways that people involved in the animation process can work around their limitations. Charles Randall also explained a few other hacks that were used.
The horses are now irreversibly disgusting, but these creatures aren't the only ones that were created using a hack. Malik Al-Sayf, Altaïr's right-hand man, didn't have a unique character model despite the fact that he was missing half of his left arm. Since a custom skeleton wasn't in the budget, the base model's arm was turned inside out, and the half that was hidden inside Malik's bicep was shrunk. Twisting or altering human skeletons is an unsettling hack used to fill out one of Assassin's Creed's coolest settings.
Charles Randall went on to explain that Altaïr died after crossing level boundaries as a failsafe to prevent players from exploring areas that they shouldn't be in yet. The various techniques that have been revealed about the successful debut title raise the question of what other hacks were used in the creation of this and other games in the series. It's will be interesting to see if any other gross hacks for the original Assassin's Creed are revealed by the development team in the future.
Source: Charles Randall/Twitter