Valiant Hearts director leaves Ubisoft Montreal

Ubisoft Montreal’s Yoan Fanise is leaving the studio to enter independent development.

Fanise has worked on a number of the studio’s titles, including Beyond Good & Evil and the Assassin’s Creed series, and was most recently the content director for the acclaimed Valiant Hearts.

He has been working at Ubisoft for the past 14 years, but wants to return to small team development, believing there’s more room for creativity than in large triple-A teams.

"There are a lot of really interesting opportunities, and I’m still taking time to find the one that is most exciting," he told Gamasutra. "Why not go real indie after having been called ‘fake indie’ during my two years on Valiant Hearts? We’ll see in the near future."

He continued: "It was a very hard decision. The last 14 years in Ubisoft are unforgettable; it is like a family. I am proud to have been part of some of the most creative teams in the industry."

Fanise says Valiant Hearts was designed in the same spirit as Beyond Good & Evil: a "collegial creative process", in which every member of the team was involved with the script, level design and game design.

The title has gone on to sell more than 1m copies.

Image: Kotaku Australia