As a Game Designer on Far Cry 6, I owned several systems. The features I’m most proud of having worked on are Bribing Double Agents and the Guerrilla Camp System and 6 Camp Facility Buildings that can be constructed within each of the 3 Guerrilla Camp locations. Please note that I left Ubisoft Toronto before the Beta milestone, and my colleague, Game Designer Sanaa Memon, took over my features and did a fantastic job owning and driving them to the finish line.
Bribing Double Agents
The goal of Bribing was to leverage the brand-new Holstering feature, that allows the player explore the island of Yara in non-violent ways. Bribing immerses the player in finding, meeting, and trading money for information with Double Agent NPCs who are covertly betraying the military by helping the player-aligned Guerrilla fighters.
A tri-panel full-screen tutorial appears the first time the player is within proximity of a Double Agent that can be Bribed.
If the player observes their surroundings and keeps their weapon holstered, they can safely approach and pay Double Agents for Intel Markers that get added to their Map. Intel is a legacy Far Cry system that veteran players know, but I’d argue that we extended the system in an exciting, immersive, and innovative way with Bribing — one that speaks to the “Guerrilla Fantasy” that was a key pillar of the Far Cry 6 player experience.
At the 30-second mark in this video, the Player approaches a Double Agent and Bribes them.
I worked with various Technical Design, Audio Design, Character Art, Animation, Narrative Design, UI Design, UI Art, UI Programming, Voice Design, Quality Control, and AI Programming team members to implement this feature. A big shoutout to Narrative Designer, Nuha Alkadi, who was my counterpart and co-owner for this system on the Narrative side.
Guerrilla Camp System and Facility Buildings
The key aims with the Guerrilla Camp System were to integrate the player’s “core skills progression” into the physical environment, contextualizing what was (in previous Far Cry games) an abstracted menu screen where the player would spend skill points earned through mastery to unlock enhancements or tools.
A handy marketing video where Far Cry 6 spymaster extraordinaire Juan Cortez gives you a quick rundown of the basics of Guerrilla Camps and Facility Buildings.
It also provided a place to spend “world resource“ soft currencies (Gasoline, Medicine, and Metal) salvaged throughout the world. Spending these currencies allows players to construct 6 specially-themed Facility Buildings, each with a unique area of focus. Each Facility Building can be upgraded 3 times to unlock additional bonuses, exclusive equipment, and more.
A player explores 1 of the 3 Guerrilla Camp locations. They speak with the Camp’s Foreman in order to select, build, and upgrade Facility Buildings.
The 6 Facility Buildings
• La Cantina allows players to trade Animal and Fish Meat for cooked Meals that grant timed Buffs that tie into Far Cry 6’s brand new RPG-style combat system.
• The Hunting Lodge & Fishing Hut extend the player’s capabilities in these gameplay loops, help guide players to Hunting and Fishing Spots in the world, and even offer unique equipment that has specially-themed Perks.
• The Hideout Network adds additional Fast Travel locations to the world and grants the Wingsuit tool, allowing the player to do skydive-style Air Drops into any Fast Travel location.
• The Guerrilla Garrison arms friendly Guerrilla NPCs with better weaponry the more it is upgraded, as well as adding Recon Laptops to the perimeter of FND Bases (Outposts) that reveal the locations of Trip Wires, Auto-Turrets, Security Cameras, and more.
• The Bandito Barracks helps players enlist more Bandito Recruits to send out on Los Banditos missions (a real-time choose-your-own adventure metagame within Far Cry 6) and grant a higher likelihood of successful Los Banditos mission outcomes.
Guerrilla Camps: A screenshot of the Construction Desk overview.
Guerrilla Camps: A screenshot of the Camp Facilities sub menu screen.
To implement the Guerrilla Camp System and the accompanying Facility Buildings, I worked with various Technical Design, Technical Art, Audio Design, Character Art, Animation, Narrative Design, UI Design, UI Art, UI Programming, Voice Design, Quality Control, Programming, Cinematics, Level Design, Level Art, Concept Art, and Realization team members. This also involved close collaboration with staff at partner studios across the globe, in Montreal, Berlin, and Kyiv.
Reflecting on Designing The Geurrilla Camp System
The Guerrilla Camp System was by far the largest collection of interconnected systems I’ve ever designed and owned and I learned a lot in the process. There are so many people who are key to its successes, but I want to highlight the efforts of Game Designer Sanaa Memon and UX Designer Filipe Seabra. I’ve already mentioned Sanaa’s contributions to taking over the system after my departure, but Fil was a key contributor from the start, chiefly because the player-facing access points and inner workings of the system(s) here are so UI-dependent. Finally, I owe the biggest thank you to Team Lead Game Designer, Andy Schmoll, who was my direct manager. Their design guidance and superhuman management skills helped produce everything you see on this page.
A player speaks about optimizing their play using 3 Facility Buildings: La Cantina (Camp Chef), The Hunting Lodge, and The Fishing Hut. They find and discuss the synergistic combinations between the 3 Facility Buildings. Complementary design was a key intention when designing the roster of Facility Buildings.