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Hit List Q&A: Watch Dogs creative director Jonathan Morin
In the "Hit List" from the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, the video game industry's top talents describe their current gaming addictions, their most anticipated releases and more. This week: Jonathan Morin, creative director of Watch Dogs. With over fifteen years in the industry and thirteen of them at Ubisoft Montreal, Jonathan has held various roles in Game Design, Level Design and Art on games such as Peter Jackson's King Kong and Far Cry 2. For the past couple years, Morin has worked as Creative Director on Watch Dogs. In university Morin studied Human Science, Computer Science and briefly considered a career in mathematics education but chose to apply these skills in an environment that would be a bit less predictable. At the upcoming D.I.C.E. Europe conference, Morin will be speaking in a session titled, "Mind the Gap - Igniting People's Sense of Wonder." Morin tends to see games like musical instruments built for players to blow our minds with their creativity. It's an apt analogy but bringing everyone in a development team to think this way is challenging. After all, every brain is different. Working on a game as big as Watch Dogs made Morin realize that no matter how big the game is, or how many people are involved, or in how many countries, often the biggest borders he faced are hidden in an inevitable "gap" between two minds. "Mind the Gap" is a session that explores the importance of listening to others and challenging your own creativity. In this session, Morin will look at how these perception gaps impacted every aspect of his reality: his interactions with executives, the team, marketing, press, and ultimately how players play. In the end, Morin feels the hardest borders to cross are the ones we create in our own minds.
Don't be on the lookout for a Watch Dogs demo
Over the past few days, Watch Dogs creative director Jonathan Morin has been deluged by anxious fans asking about a potential demo for the open-world adventure - a demo that, Morin claims, is not in development. "Dude relax, I receive too much tweets," Morin replied to one Twitter user who had repeatedly badgered the developer for an answer. "[There is] no demo planned before release. Sorry for the wait, doing my best," he added. The next day, Morin was asked to explain this lack of a Watch Dogs demo. "Doing Demos take time, the focus is on the game," he tweeted. "You will see more footage before release. Be patient & thanks for your passion." Watch Dogs is slated for release on May 27. It will debut on the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One. A Wii U version of Watch Dogs is also in development, but we haven't heard anything on when that version will be released since Ubisoft delayed the game in February. [Image: Ubisoft]
