Inside the Build: A Conversation with CRIM on the Sandscape Engine
We recently had the chance to sit down with our research partners from CRIM (Computer Research Institute of Montréal) for an in-depth conversation on the Succès IA podcast. The discussion covers where Sandscape came from, where it's headed, and how we're approaching the technical challenges of building a generative game engine.
If you're curious about the thinking behind the platform, this is a good place to start.
Note: The interview is in French.
Who's in the Room
On our side, Sébastien Nadeau (CEO & CTO) and Laurent Bernier (Chief Creative Officer & COO) represent the Breaking Walls team. Both are Ubisoft veterans and the creators of AWAY: The Survival Series. They're joined by researchers from CRIM, who are collaborating with us on the AI side of the engine.
What We Talk About
The conversation covers a lot of ground over about an hour. Here are some of the main threads:
Describe It, Don't Build It
A big part of what we're working toward is shifting the creation process from assembling assets and writing code to simply describing what you want. The goal is for a creator to express an idea in natural language — a setting, a mechanic, a character — and have the engine start generating it. We're not there yet on every front, but it's the direction, and we discuss where we are on that path.
The Cost Problem in Game Development
We spend some time on a problem most people in the industry are familiar with: the cost of making games keeps going up, but the creative output doesn't always scale with the budget. For indie studios especially, competing with large teams is incredibly difficult. A core motivation for Sandscape is to close that gap — to give a small team access to capabilities that previously required a much larger one.
AI as a Tool, Not a Replacement
One thing we feel strongly about is that AI shouldn't be a black box that produces a finished game. The creative direction still needs to come from a person. What AI can do well is handle the repetitive, time-consuming parts of development — generating base assets, rigging models, coding standard mechanics — so that creators can spend more of their time on story, gameplay, and the things that make a game feel like their game.
Emergent Characters and Living Worlds
We also get into some of the more forward-looking research, particularly around NPCs that aren't purely scripted. The work with CRIM explores how characters might maintain memory, develop over time, and respond to players in ways that weren't explicitly programmed. It's early, but it's one of the most interesting areas we're exploring.
Why CRIM
Building something like this isn't just an engineering challenge — it's a research one. Our partnership with CRIM lets us combine practical, production-tested experience from the Breaking Walls team (who are actively using Sandscape tools on their upcoming title, Venus: Build Your Destiny) with rigorous AI research. It keeps us grounded: we're building tools that need to work for real developers solving real problems, not just demos that look good in a presentation.
Watch the Full Interview
The full conversation is about an hour and goes deeper than what we can cover here. If you're interested in the technical direction of generative game engines, or just want to hear how we think about the relationship between AI and game development, give it a watch.
Sébastien Nadeau & The Sandscape Team