The Rainbow Six brand has redefined the tactical first-person shooter genre, with Rainbow Six Siegebeing the absolute reference on consoles and PC.  On February 23, Rainbow Six Mobile launches worldwide, bringing the brand’s iconic operators, environmental destruction, and tactical close-quarters combat in players’ pockets wherever they are.

Bringing such a complex and refined experience to mobile was no easy feat. So, we sat down with four developers from the Montreal and Winnipeg teams to find out how they pulled it off.

The core of Rainbow Six

“From the beginning, we had two key pillars,” says Cameron Penner, team lead programmer at Ubisoft Winnipeg. “First, it’s Rainbow Six. It has to feel tactical and deep. And second, it has to be approachable to someone new on mobile.”

Balancing those pillars wasn’t easy. Siege’s realistic tactical experience relies on many controls, abilities, weapons, and gadgets—all of which had to fit on a small phone screen.

These creative solutions allowed the team to integrate Siege’s main controls and preserve the realism of the game without crowding the screen. “I remember a match about a year into the project,” Cameron recounts. “My team was blasting down walls and flanking, trying to break into the basement of Bank to plant the bomb. And the first time it all clicked, it felt like we were a real SWAT team. We destroyed the other side, and I was like, ‘This is how I feel when I play Siege.’”

“I realized our game isn’t just about dexterity. It’s about how fast you can click on a head,” he continues. “It’s a game about information. The hardest part of the game happens in your head, and every piece of that works just as well on a phone.”

Having achieved that first pillar of deep and tactical gameplay, the team had to focus on making Rainbow Six Mobile accessible, and that required some adjustments.

Sound is extremely important in Siege. It helps players know what’s going on around them and communicate with teammates. But on mobile, many people often don’t use sound.

“Some players use their own music or mute sound effects to chat with friends. Maybe there’s too much noise around them, and they can’t hear everything that’s happening,” explains Roberto Gomez Romay, lead audio designer at Ubisoft Montreal. “We still wanted them to have all the relevant information.”

Enter the audio compass: an element at the top of the screen that shows when something happens that you’d normally hear, like footsteps and explosions. Its first iterations were too precise. Players were using the information on the compass to shoot opponents through walls. “People weren’t looking at the environment anymore, weren’t really aware of their surroundings, they were just looking at the top bar,” says Vincent Gagnon, game designer at Ubisoft Montreal. “We didn’t want to break the tactical feeling, so we adjusted the compass to show zones as opposed to precise icons.”

The goal was to ensure the audio compass didn’t give players an unfair advantage over headphone users. And with zones instead of icons, the team was able to provide relevant information without giving away exact locations, making the experience closer to the original one with audio.

Cameron notes that the compass can’t match the experience of playing with sound on.“If you’re playing at a high level, you want to hear what’s going on. And the game sounds really good,” he adds. “You should play with headphones because the audio team cooked.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The sound of music

There’s a saying that in movies, sound is fifty percent of the experience. The same is true in video games. “Visuals tell you what’s happening, and sound tells you how to feel about it,” says Roberto. “But mobile gaming has memory limits, so we had to be very picky about where we used more and where we used less resources.”

Staying true to the original, Rainbow Six Mobile has a plethora of sounds—everything from weapons and gadgets to operator voices and ambient elements. But the team didn’t have the luxury of an 80-gigabyte PC title, and the game had to run smoothly on both new and older devices.

One area the team chose to refine was the ambient soundscape. “We can remove non-essential noises, like birds in the background,” says Roberto. “The idea is to maximize our resources while keeping the game feeling natural, so you don’t notice any changes.”

Listening is only one side of the audio experience. The other is communication. “If you don’t use a mic in Siege, you’re at a disadvantage, and on mobile there are even fewer people who use one,” says Gabriel. “So we asked ourselves how to bring more communication to mobile. That’s when we came up with the ping wheel.”

The wheel has different pings (like a pin icon) to show intentions like “destroy this wall” or “this is a safe area.” “It helps players communicate without speaking,” says Vincent. “It helps with accessibility and also lets players communicate strategy. It supports our goal of simplifying controls so the gameplay stays smooth.” While there’s still some refining to do before the ping wheel makes it into the game, the Siege team has already added the original prototype to their title.

Innovations made for mobile

Mobile gameplay also brought its own challenges, which led to new features that set the game apart from its HD counterpart. For instance, enemies in Rainbow Six Mobile are outlined in red. “On Siege, you’re on a huge screen. Everyone has their settings tuned so they can see every single detail,” explains Cameron. “On mobile, your screen is tiny. You won’t see someone’s head peeking around a corner at the end of a corridor.”

 

Such features make the game accessible to a wider audience, which is crucial since everyone has their own approach. “Our philosophy was to help new players and those who play on mobile in different ways to feel on equal footing, without forcing them to use any specific feature,” explains Gabriel. “The best players on touchscreens are going to be as good as the best players with controllers.”

 

“Devices come in all sizes, people’s hands are different sizes,” adds Vincent.“Some people play on tablets, some play with only two thumbs, others with six fingers, and everyone has a very specific layout that they want when they play a mobile shooter.”

 

 

So, beyond adding features like the audio compass, ping wheel, and red outlines, the team made the controls completely customizable. Players can move almost any button anywhere on the screen, make it as big or small as they want, and adjust the opacity.

 

The team also offers presets for tablets, phones, or controllers. “We give players a starting point,” continues Vincent. “Then they can build a layout that fits their playstyle.” 

 

“That’s what makes the game work,” Cameron adds. “Everyone can play the way they want.” 

“And we’ll keep listening to player feedback and adapt,” says Gabriel. 

“We just want players to have fun,” concludes Roberto. “We hope players enjoy the game as much as we loved working on it.” 

Rainbow Six Mobile launches worldwide on February 23. Download it on Android or iOS and take the thrill of Rainbow Six wherever you go.