Developing Assassin's Creed

image shows the "Dagger of Time"

Treading lightly across rooftops to stalk your unwary pray waiting for the right moment to leap from the shadows above to plunge a hidden blade into the enemy of free will. This is just part of what happens during one of the most successful games to come from Ubisoft. As I stated in my previous blog, I will be covering the development of the game series Assassin's Creed. To really understand how Assassin's Creed came to be, you would have to look into the history of Prince of Persia.

Playstation 2 game cover image

Prince of Persia was a game centered around a young warrior prince that sought to impress his father. His army attacked a city and within the vaults of the city the prince found a legendary dagger that allowed the wielder to control the very flow of time with only himself being aware of what had happened. He unwittingly unleashes the "Sands of Time" which turn everything around him into mindless monsters doing the bidding of an evil sorcerer. You play as the Prince and try to turn back the sands of time and restore the natural balance to the world.

The story for that particular game was original and interesting in and of itself. What was remarkable about the game was the beginning of the "sandbox" and "freedom" style of playing. This basically refers to a game in which almost every object is capable of being interacted with. The player was able to run along walls and to interact with things that you would not normally be able to interact with. The fluid motion of the Prince's fighting style and parkour abilities were also very appealing. A Ubisoft team began to develop a sequel to the game Prince of Persia: Assassin which later evolved into a much darker and more historically accurate game which became Assassin's Creed.

Game's poprtrayal of actual Auditore Family

One of the most important aspects of the Assassin's Creed game series is that it is one of the most historically accurate games on the market. Sure there are games that refer to important dates in history such as war games, but none have really allowed you to meet historically important figures that actually lived and died on the exact dates as portrayed in the games. Sure there are some creative twists here and there but for the most part, all the characters you meet in history actually existed. Including one of the most important characters to the series, Ezio Auditore de
Firenze. The Auditore family is a real family from Italy and the game incorporates some of the actual Autitore family diaries in the game.

I never knew how Assassin's Creed was originally created before now. I always thought it was years and years of writing a story before it was actually bought by Ubisoft. It was in fact inspired by one of Ubisoft's other games but that does not make it any less original and incredibly unique. I am looking forward to learning more about how the rest of the series was developed and what makes it such a continuous success.