According to one of the developers of the original Assassin’s Creed games, the horses were human skeletons that the team had distorted into the shape of a horse…

The original Assassin’s Creed released back in 2007, was an open-world action-adventure game and established the series’ later reputation. In many ways, the creators of this ground-breaking programme often encountered unexpected obstacles and challenges in creating the game. One such challenge, says a developer who was part of the original game team, was making the game’s horses, which the developer says were created by rendering the game’s human skeletons into horse shapes.

Regarding the game’s development, Charles Randall, a former Ubisoft developer, talked about some of the challenges the Ubisoft Montreal team faced while working on the then-new title.

One of those challenges was the game’s horses, which Randall said the game’s toolbar couldn’t cope with in the 3D environment the team had created. Instead, it was up to the game’s “amazing animators and riggers” to turn a human skeleton into a horse that could be rendered inside the engine.

Among other development challenges, Randall cited the creation of Altair’s fellow Assassin and rival-turned-friend Malik, who the team also had difficulty rendering a skeleton for due to lack of funds. In Malik’s case, he said that the team created the character’s missing arm by turning his left arm inside out, which Randall said players could spot if they could focus the camera on the arm.

As terrifying as the creation of Malik’s missing arm is, gamers may find it even more nightmarish in the process of creating Assassin’s Creed’s horses.

It also reflects the need for adaptability and improvisation required at all game development levels, whether it’s a project as large in scale as Assassin’s Creed or smaller titles made on a relatively small budget or with a minor team.

Source: GameSpot

Also the horse in AC1 was just a twisted fucked up human skeleton, because our tool chain only worked with biped in 3ds max.

Cheers to the amazing animators and riggers that managed to make that guy look like a horse!

— Charles Randall (@charlesrandall) June 23, 2022