“Now that we have a hero AI, you need somewhere to fight them," Yerli continued. After FarCry, the studio hired many new designers. Yerli asked them for ‘sandbox level design’ -- but none of his designers knew what it meant. Some would say “systemic design” or “emergent gameplay."

"You don’t design emergent gameplay! It emerges on it’s own,” he said. “In the end, every developer in the studio is an interpreter of your vision.” But one day, he recalled, he was watching a documentary about the Roman Empire. The latin phrase "veni, vidi, vici" was used, and Yerli liked it. He began to use the fresh phrase in order to communicate to his team.

And the goal of this sandbox gameplay was simple. “It’s a player's game, not a designer's game, and that’s important,” said Yerli. “When players experiment with tactics… they should get a response out of it. We try always to lead the player -- but subliminally, with hints and direction.” A designer might say, “I have to provoke the player to use stealth gameplay in this area.” - Gamasutra

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