On Skull & Bones, the team in Berlin was responsible for the social features. As the Lead UI Programmer, I worked with my team to set priorities for implementing these features in the game. The UI for Skull & Bones is made with a proprietary UI framework called Phoenix. The framework uses visual scripting to connect data sources to visual elements and extensive code generation to simplify the data flow from game to UI.

We had an in-house backend team that enabled us to build social features completely separate from Ubisoft Singapore, the lead studio on the game. This independence allowed us to iterate quickly on our feature work and helped to speed up development. We organized the backend using microservices, so we had to use a complicated architecture in the game client based on promises to compile the necessary data into a format digestible by the UI.

One aspect of the social features that I personally championed was the privacy controls. I was adamant that these controls should not be an afterthought but considered from the start, reflecting our team's commitment to a safe and fun user experience and our meticulous approach to feature development.