A portion of an official Watch_Dogs tumblr interview with Jack Potter, Tech Lead...

WDT: What part of your work on Watch_Dogs are you particularly proud of?

JP: The tricky thing about being in this part of the animation pipeline is that almost all animations go through my code but I can never go: “this is mine”. The animators created it and the gameplay programmers implemented it. So it’s all part of a team effort. However, I was able to put a lot of love into the “Living City” aspect of Watch_Dogs. The amount or detail and variation you’ll find in this game, it’s incredible. One of the big innovations in the “Living City” was making scenarios that are less static. For example, you’ll see a guy drinking a coffee cup as he walks down the street and then he puts it in the garbage. There’s no code that says: “Guy drink coffee and puts it in bin”. It’s all a big data system that animators will use. You can use the same system to have a mailman delivering letters around the city or people buying drugs in a back alley. It’s all truly quite powerful. It means that animators can get the most out of the actors because they can improvise. These subtle things sell the city in a good way, but on a sub-conscious level. We have to deal with all the “what if’s”, and I think we were able to pull it off.