Darby McDevitt

Darby Christopher McDevitt is a creative scriptwriter at Ubisoft Montreal. He was born in Spokane, educated in Bellingham and Dublin, and lived in Seattle briefly. With a diverse professional profile spanning more than a decade, he has worked as a writer, film maker, musician, and game designer.

Biography

Assassin's Creed

As an employee of Ubisoft, McDevitt's first foray into Assassin's Creed was as the lead writer in the Nintendo DS game Assassin's Creed II: Discovery, released in 2009. Following that was PSP game Assassin's Creed: Bloodlines released the same year. McDevitt then began work on the Nintendo 3DS title Assassin's Creed: Lost Legacy, it was revealed at E3 2010 but was silently cancelled in September. Content for it for then reused in Assassin's Creed: Revelations, released in November 2011, marking McDevitt's first mainline game. McDevitt was also the lead writer of Assassin's Creed: Embers, a short film the acted as the epilogue to Revelations. During 2011's Comic-Con, McDevitt confirmed that Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad and Ezio Auditore da Firenze were not related to each other, and further explained that Altaïr came from one side of Desmond Miles' family, while Ezio came from the other. Prior to the release of Revelations, in an interview with Game Informer, McDevitt revealed information about the game's setting and some of the characters. During this time, McDevitt also provided additional storyline development consultation on the mobile game Assassin's Creed: Recollection.

In autumn 2011, McDevitt worked closely with the Assassin's Creed III development team as a narrative consultant and for possibly creating DLC expanding on the naval missions and starring Ratonhnhaké:ton's grandfather Edward Kenway. This idea eventually evolved into its own separate game, Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, with McDevitt as lead writer and Ashraf Ismail as game director. As lead writer, McDevitt planned the full story with Jean Guesdon and mission director Mustapha Mahrach. He also wrote the main story arc, the modern day as well as some lore. Black Flag was later released in October 2013. In a Reddit AMA, McDevitt stated that there were no plans to continue Ratonhnhaké:ton's story, nor were there plans for a fully modern day Assassin's Creed game, and that Watch Dogs is the closest thing that will exist for a modern day Assassin's Creed game.

In 2014, McDevitt was the co-writer for Assassin's Creed: Unity alongside Cameron Labine and Russell Lees. McDevitt stated that he wished for more modern day elements in Unity, but cited working on a new generation of console to be too big a hurdle for creating multiple modern day elements in addition to main game elements. McDevitt also revealed he had plans for the Isu lore, and together with the Assassin's Creed narrative team had created 500-700 years worth of Isu history.

McDevitt acted as an narrative consultant for Assassin's Creed: Origins during its early phases from 2013-2016, working on research and conception also. However, he left midway through production when he got an offer to work on a new IP.

In 2020, McDevitt returned to the franchise as narrative director for the upcoming Assassin's Creed: Valhalla. In May, McDevitt revealed that Layla Hassan's story, started in Origins and continued in Assassin's Creed: Odyssey will carry on. Also revealed to be in the game are references to the deep lore, and players who complete the game 100% will get the full story with all lore bits included. Talking about the protagonist Eivor, McDevitt revealed that their approach to the character was different compared to previous games. When questioned about the Norse mythology, McDevitt's response was that "[they] wanted to take a grounded approach, but [they] wanted to portray this culture as people who legitimately believed in these things."

Personal life

McDevitt's stage name is "DCMCDXVIII", which is an incorrect Roman numeral for 1818. The first five letters of it are his full name's initials. When asked in an interview where he would like a new Assassin's Creed game to be set, McDevitt mentioned that he found the setting of Ireland interesting, especially in the last 200 years of Irish history.

Assassin's Creed credits

• Assassin's Creed II: Discovery (2009) – scriptwriter
• Assassin's Creed: Bloodlines (2009) – scriptwriter
• Assassin's Creed: Lost Legacy (Canceled) – lead writer
• Assassin's Creed: Recollection (2011) – narrative consultant
• Assassin's Creed: Revelations (2011) – lead writer
• Assassin's Creed: Embers (2011) – writer
• Assassin's Creed III (2012) – narrative consultant
• Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (2013) – lead writer
• Assassin's Creed: Unity (2014) – co-writer
• Assassin's Creed: Origins (2017) – narrative consultant
• Assassin's Creed: Valhalla (2020) – narrative director

External links

• Darby McDevitt's official website.
• Darby McDevitt (@DarbyMcDevitt) on Twitter
• Darby McDevitt's professional profile on LinkedIn.
• Darby McDevitt's music channel on Vimeo.
• Darby McDevitt's books and music at Lulu.com.