Video game creators at Ubisoft Montréal – the development studio that rebuilt 18th-century Paris in its 2014 historical action game Assassin’s Creed Unity – have joined the global outpouring of grief in the wake of Monday’s devastating fire at Notre Dame Cathedral.
Ubisoft will be donating €500,000 to help with restoration efforts, and is also making Assassin’s Creed Unity available free on PC for the next week, “giving everyone the chance to experience the majesty and beauty of Notre Dame the best way we know how”, said a studio spokesperson. “We hope, with this small gesture, we can provide everyone an opportunity to appreciate our virtual homage to this monumental piece of architecture.”
The iconic building features prominently in the game, a centrepiece of its virtual Paris recreated painstakingly from old maps, photographs and drawings throughout its history to 90% of its real scale. Caroline Miousse, a level artist on the game, spent 14 months working almost exclusively on the cathedral, inside and out. It is furnished and decorated as it would have been in 1790, down to the paintings hanging on the walls. Players can explore every brick of the enormous building, watching clergymen go about their business, climb up to perch among the gargoyles, and scale its spires for an extraordinary view of the city. Its developers describe the virtual Notre Dame as a landmark technical and architectural achievement.
“My colleague Pascal Barriault (the texture artist) and I were constantly asking ourselves, what details of the building stuck in people’s minds? What kind of images linger when we think about this architectural masterpiece?” says Miousse. “Personally, I wanted to challenge myself to understand church architecture. Since I had never been formally taught, I had to figure things out on my own to recreate Notre Dame’s structure in the most realistic way possible.”
Though it was widely reported that Ubisoft’s work on the game could aid in the reconstruction of the cathedral, Ubisoft has not had any conversations along those lines. “We are not currently involved in the reconstruction of Notre Dame, but we would be more than happy to lend our expertise in any way that we can to help with these efforts,” said a studio spokesperson. “It is important to keep in mind that what we did for the game was not a scientific reconstruction but rather an artistic vision. While we wanted to be very precise with details, there are some differences in terms of scale.”
