Set to be one of the key launch titles in the next generation console war, Ubisoft's open-world cyberpunk thriller, Watch Dogs, looks to be a fascinating comment on surveillance and urban paranoia. Following hacktivist vigilante Aiden Pearce, the game takes place in an alternative Chicago where the city's infrastructure is controlled by one central computer. When Pearce manages to gain control of the system, he uses it to take on a mysterious cabal of enemies.

Blending elements of the stealth and strategy genres within an action-adventure format, this is another epic narrative undertaking from Ubisoft Montreal, the studio behind the Assassin's Creed and Far Cry titles. To get an inside look at the making of the game, anda few hints at the team's ambitions, we spoke to lead designer Danny Belanger, creative director Jonathan Morin and producer Dominic Guay. Here's what they had to say about next generation game design, AI and the increasingly malleable divide between single- and multiplayer experiences.

First of all, Watch Dogs looks really beautiful; the streets are filled with very naturalistic civilians. There's a reality about it all. At the PS3 press conference back in February, David Cage talked about how games will become more emotionally complex as graphical fidelity increases. Do you agree? As characters become more human, will games shift in tone?

Dominic Guay: I don't want to contradict David Cage, but… I could doodle a short story that could make someone cry. It's true that we can relate to a realistic human more easily, but when I watch Pixar movies I have a lot of emotions. I think everybody cried during Toy Story 3 and those characters don't look like realistic humans. It's as much about story telling. Of course, high fidelity is going to help us out, and it will be especially useful in bringing new people to games. This idea of the suspension of disbelief - which is this state we try to get gamers into - I think as fidelity improves, more people will be able to do that.

It seems that there is a main story running through the single-player mode, but how much freedom will we have within that? Are there emergent possibilities there?

Danny Belanger: There's a campaign, complete with main missions and a narrative, and then there's what I call the 'player narrative'. Once you're in a mission and you have an objective – say, to get information from this person – that is a problem and you can use the tools in anyway you want to solve it. We're not saying, mission A is shooting, mission B is driving, mission C is stealth; If you're clever and you really use the tools you can play it the way you want. That's the philosophy of the team.

Have there been any surprising emergent behaviours so far from testers?

DB: In some of the play tests, people have been finding really clever ways to work around the problems – one guy used a motorcycle to jump over a whole section of the map to get to the end. That's fine, he used the environment to his advantage. If players are really breaking the game, then we'll find ways to deal with that, but if it's within the rules of the universe, it's okay. We're giving you a lot of tools, so we won't stop you using them.

So Watch Dogs still revolves around a set narrative, but do you think mainstream game design will eventually evolve toward more emergent mechanics?

DB: I do believe there's still room for crafted experiences that are fun and immersive, like playing a movie. But an open world game with a lot of quality mechanics gives the player a lot of power. If we succeed with all the mechanics in the game, players may say, well, if an open-world game offers all this variety, will I be tempted to buy a game that only does one thing? And with multiplayer, players just have so much to do.

DG: The key stories are the ones that gamers create not the ones we give them. In Far Cry 3, everyone had their own animal story – they weren't talking about the cinematics, they were talking about when a tiger attacked an outpost. The best stories are the ones told by the player. But we're trying to do both. We forced ourselves to push the AI because the player has such an impact on the environment. The AI needs to be able to slide over cars… if you start firing, citizens need to be able to figure out what's going on and where to run. We're benefitting from the technology pool and the knowledge at Montreal. We're sharing with the Assassin's and the Far Cry teams.

Ah, so what's the working atmosphere like at Ubisoft Montreal? Do all the teams discuss their projects? I wondered if it might be all very guarded and competitive!

DB: We talk! What we're trying to do is take there best practices of those games. What we really believe in is open worlds with progression. No one is copying each other but we exchange a lot on those ideas. And we're very open minded to comments. But all the games have to be unique.

DG: The company culture, even at the top level, is about pushing for innovation, giving teams the means to do those things. The key to success for a new IP is time and good technology and a talented team. Sometimes when you have a very large team a publisher will say, okay, you have a year… but we've had four years to make this game - it gives time for the creators to put in place all the things they want. And you want every individual on that team to have the ability to create – not just execute, create. So the way we build our teams is to have cells, which are smaller inter-disciplinary teams that own parts of the game and can push those sections. You have to trust those people. And they have to align with the core objectives.

How do you generate the civilians in Watch Dogs – we see that they all have names, jobs and back stories – is this totally random?

Jonathan Morin: It's a controlled randomised system. It generates the look of the person, their backstory and anything that might happen to them. We don't control the exact combinations - but that's desirable to the player because they can discover a lot more narrative than a team can craft. The aim is to create a self-contained world.

But it's interesting – this sense of moving away from scripting and surrendering core game aspects to systems. How do designers feel about that?

DG: More and more as we build games that are big and rich and very interactive, you can't script everything - you need to start thinking in terms of, well, we can't have 2000 people building this game, we need the systems to manage what's happening. The player will decide what happens. I've realised now even though you need designers who are very creative, more and more they also need to be very logical - they need to think of systems. The engineers are also becoming designers, because they're thinking of design when they build these systems. So on Watch Dogs, that's how we've been building it. We need to have AIs that can manage anything that the player throws at them. This is changing the way of making games.

It seems that there are moments in the single-player game that allow other players into your game as NPCs. How does that work?

JM: If you're playing alone in single-player, there are a bunch of ways to discover content when you're free-roaming. Eventually you may trigger something or receive an instruction and suddenly you have an objective – and that objective may well be another player. So now you're in their game. You won;t be told it has happened and maybe you just have to observe the character, but at the end of the mission, whether you succeed or fail, our games separate - now you're back. Certain sequences might be entirely multiplayer in design, but we control the context of how you're doing it. It's an interesting challenge - it's a hell of a headache in design. But it seems that players are really open to it.

DG: When I play an action adventure game, I want to live that adventure – I don't want to go into a lobby and play capture the flag. We're trying to bring players together while they're living that adventure and while they're existing in a living city. In the demos we showed at E3 and the PS4 event, while we were playing something that looked very much like single-player, there was actually another player involved who had his own set of objectives and who crossed paths with the other participant. There is a lot of uncharted territory to explore here. Demon Souls was one of the first titles to touch something that's full of potential - we're exploring that in our own way.

And while you're creating this narrative adventure, and a whole sort of alternative city to house it in, can you learn any lessons from other media? Does Hollywood have anything to tell you about universe creation?

DG: We've worked with consultants who work in Hollywood – not just because they work in Hollywood but because they've been doing for a decade what we're talking about here: thinking of a brand, a universe, that exists beyond what you can watch or play right now. Watch Dogs will be stronger because we've created a universe that goes beyond the limits that you can experience right now. Especially in an open world where you can hack into anyone's data – there's a lot of information at your fingertips and we wanted that info to be relevant... So we can hint at a lot of things going along beyond even the limits of Chicago as you hack into phones and PDAs.

Are we heading toward an era where all games are essentially platforms, where there are no sequels, just continuous updates?

DG: I Think gamers will decide - I don't think developers will impose that model on players. But clearly what we're trying to do with Watch Dogs is be ready to go in that direction if that's what people want. In the way we build the city, our systems and our technology, we can grow the universe of Watch Dogs either in discreet sequels or in a more gradual way if that is the way the business model evolves.

What opportunities have the next generation consoles offered to Watch Dogs?

DG: These platforms are almost magnifying lenses on what we're doing. Fundamentally, we're trying to create a new kind of gameplay experience, something new and fresh. What the next-gen consoles allow us to do is have more dynamism, more interactivity. Also a lot of walls are being brought down in terms of connectivity, which will allow users to play together in new ways – either through the consoles or with mobile devices.

Can you tell us a little more about the smartphone Watch Dogs companion app? How does it extend the experience?

DG: At the core, what we're trying to do is extend the fantasy of Watch Dogs onto mobile - literally holding the city in the palm of your hand. It's not just a mini-map, you have control over the city computers and you can grow that control through the mobile; as you do, you'll get more abilities like Aidan has in the game, so you can hack a train, hack traffic lights, there are scores of examples - you'll be able to do all these things from your mobile.

What will you do with that? First of all, you'll be able to play directly against other players on console. I can be on a bus in Montreal and you can be in your living room in the UK, and I can play directly with you. I can also be in the same room with you, on my tablet, helping you out. I can compete and cooperate. I can also grow my control over the city within my mobile and when I get on my console I get clear benefits of that investment. I could play just on mobile for a week and when I get on to my console or PC, I'll get the benefits of that investment in terms of conquering the city. We're trying to go beyond just exposing stats - which is what some companion apps have done in the past. We want it to be a real game, a real point of entry for people to the universe of Watch Dogs.

Does the game have one ending then, or does it branch?

JM: Yes, one ending. I understand the idea of multiple endings but the problem I have is a branching structure inevitably diminishes the perception the player has of the story, to some extent. I mean you can't divide individual player perception of a game into ten choices, it's so much more complicated than that. Because this is an interactive medium, a lot of people want to tackle that idea of perception, they want, like, six billion different situations so every individual has a logical bond with what's going on based on their own choices. If anyone ever manages that, great! Two thumbs up!

But the other way is, stop doing a story that's crafted to such an extent that it's going to tell every player the same message – make a message that's interesting to think about and make an ending that's satisfying, but that retains a question that reflects how you played, and everything you did in the open-world in a personal way, not in a binary way. It shouldn't be about, 'you have 600 points so you've unlocked the answer'; it's a lot more about you. If you care about the question, you're left with wonder. I think we've found a way to respect the player's intelligence and not limit them.

Bungie has a 10-year plan for destiny – can you think in that way with Watch Dogs?

DG: Honestly that's what we're doing too. Here's the way we think about it: even if we change our minds mid-course or after shipping Watch Dogs and say 'scratch that, we'll do something else', the planning helps to make a strong core. We've all seen TV series where after a season there are a lot of mysteries; then at the start of season two you think, they didn't know what was going to happen - they're just stringing us along! You feel it! And it's the same with games. If there's a clear long-term plan, you'll have stronger characters, the universe will be more coherent. So when you have the luxury of creating a new brand - which is happening less and less in this industry, you need to do just that. We've been doing the same thing Bungie has been doing – we're trying to see how our characters and world will evolve. That's always in the back of our heads.

Do you think we're heading into an era where games become the default entertainment in the living room? So instead of entering the room and switching on the TV, people will just switch on a console and flick through their games?

DG: That would be great - I think that's what the industry wants; it's definitely what we want for Watch Dogs. We need to make games that are relevant and accessible to people. Even though we're making a mature action adventure game, we're trying to make it relevant to people's lives - that's a good start, I think. I love aliens and zombies and explosions, but that only appeals to a certain amount of people – our game talks about the impact of technology in our lives, and that concerns everybody!

• Watch Dogs is released on 22 November for PC, PS3, PS4, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One