The Art of Watch Dogs

A book that goes behind the scenes to reveal the conceptual art of Ubisoft's new sci-fi tinged game franchise

While Watch Dogs may not have been the next-gen gaming revolution many were expecting, there’s no denying it’s a slick, open-world adventure with big ideas. The game takes place in an alternative vision of Chicago, in which Aiden Pearce must hack the city’s computer-controlled infrastructure to reprogram traffic lights and subways, and bend the rules to his advantage.

This Art Of book goes behind the scenes, showing the sheer amount of development that went into the game. Chicago itself is gamified for the title, with landmarks staying intact while other elements rearranged to fit in the console’s memory constraints. Rather than simply jazzing the city up with sleek futuristic buildings, the design team instead concentrated on authenticity, adding old gun shops and ancient back alleys.

There’s a great section on creating Watch Dogs’ distinctive cast of characters, too, showing the many iterations of Aiden Pearce and members of the DedSec hacking collective, with their pixelated face masks and the Banksy-like graffiti they’ve added to the city walls.

We would have liked a bit more insight into the process of creating the game, but nonetheless this is a book that showcases invention and big ideas.

Clara, described by designer Kevin Shortt as “alluring and disturbing”, shown in various stages of development.

Artistic direction asked for “sleek and simple”. Art Deco features, too.