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PSM3: Has it surprised you how well received Assassin's Creed 2 has been by both critics and the game-buying public?

Corey May - Scriptwriter
I'm obviously VERY happy (and relieved) that AC2 is shipped and appreciated by gamers and press - on the other there's a weird feeling of "what now" - this thing that basically consumed my life for 2 years is gone and done.

PSM3: It's obvious that you paid a lot of attention to what fans were saying about the flaws in the original AC. How much of AC2 was 'fan driven' and how much came from your own ideas for the sequel?

Sebastien Puel - Producer
I think the sales of Assassin's Creed showed the interest gamers have for what it proposes: a non linear open ended game set in an historical background. When you have a new IP like Assassin's Creed and it sells very well, you get a lot of feedback from thousands of players. The comments we received on Assassin's Creed had lots of impact on the conception of Assassin's Creed 2 and we definitely listened to all their feedback.

PSM3: We love Ezio as a character - he's much more likeable than Altair. Is he inspired by anyone in particular (modern-day, or from the renaissance), or is he more an amalgamation?

Mohamed Gambouz - Art Director
Ezio is a fictional character who is inspired by a lot of sources. Our main inspiration was of course Altair. From there, we got a lot of inspiration from paintings and sculptures from the period as well as movies which are set during the Renaissance like : Marcant de Venice, Elizabeth - The Golden Age - (It got an oscar for it's costume) or TV series like the Tudors - the last two are set in England so we readapted them to fit in Renaissance Italy. We also took a few inspirations from video game characters, such as Dante from Devil May Cry.

Since we are essentially keeping the main visual characteristics of Altair, the best way to do the change from the medieval look to the Renaissance look is to put more refinement and richness to the cloth and ornaments of our main characters. We are also adding more elegance to his silhouette. Since Ezio is from a noble family, these changes in his design works very well with who he is.

We've kept the silhouette which suggests the bird of prey as well as the white hood with the pointy end. We've also kept the red belt around his waist but we have modified its design a bit. We took the hidden blade and gave it a more refined look. These are the ingredients that make both of our characters so unique.

Corey May - Scriptwriter
In terms of inspiration for the personality of Ezio, we like to refered to the count of Monte Cristo... but there are many other inspirations.

PSM3: The way Leonardo and Ezio interact suggests that Leonardo has something of a crush on Ezio. Is this intentional, or have we read too much into the cut-scenes?

Corey May - Scriptwriter
Reading too much into it... ☺

PSM3: Ezio's range of weaponry is impressive and it all feels very balanced. Were there any hidden blades, or special weapons you tested that didn't make the final cut?

Patrick Plourde - Lead Game Designer
Actually, not really. We managed to fit all the weapons and hidden blade upgrades in that we decided on in our game design documents.

PSM3: Was renaissance Italy always the plan for the sequel, or did you consider any other time periods / locations? If so can you give examples?

Sebastien Puel - Producer
When we created the Assassin's Creed franchise, we knew we wanted to talk about pivotal periods in History. Moments where everything changes; that define the world in which we live. That is exactly the case for the Third Crusade: this period defined the balance of power between Civilization and Religion for the centuries to come.

So when we started Assassin's Creed 2, we asked ourselves the same question. What is an even more exciting defining moment in history? The answer was pretty easy to find: in a few years and in a very precise place, a handful of geniuses radically changed everything. They invented a modern vision of the world, where men were at the centre rather than God. They invented a new way of representing the world (the invention of perspective), they changed politics, architecture, created the art of modern war and diplomacy - they even invented the banking system as we know it. One man even invented planes, helicopter and tanks. Those men were Machiavelli, Leonardo Da Vinci and the Medici to name a few. The place is Italy. The time is the end of the 15th century and it is called Renaissance, literally a Rebirth.

This is history as we learn it. But those were also cruel times, ruled by war, treason and murder. Of course we found it very interesting to depict this darker side of the Renaissance in an Assassin's Creed game and cast a new light on those astonishing events.

PSM3: Were the city locations nailed down from the start? They are obviously great for the period, but did you ever consider including cities such as Sienna or Rome?

Patrick Plourde - Lead Game Designer
Of course, there were lots of discussion in the team during conception to decide exactly which cities would be featured... We had various options but we knew that Venice would be a perfect playground for Assassin's Creed 2. As for Florence, it was an obvious choice for us to have this city as it is where the Italian Renaissance bloomed...

PSM3: How important was it for you to create authenticity in the settings, the language and the general atmosphere? Was authenticity rigorously enforced, or is there a certain amount of artistic license in there?

Mohamed Gambouz - Art Director
The core team members went to Italy and visited each city, assisted by a guide who explained the story behind each building, street and corner of the environment. We also took a lot of pictures of the buildings from that time to use as references for the game. So early 2008, right after our visit to Italy, we started to build our first sections of Venice. Our art team did an amazing job of recreating 15 century Italy. I worked closely with the world and characters team so that they painted an accurate picture for gamers. The main challenge was really to recreate the cities as they would have looked in the 15th century. This requires lots of research. For example, there is little information on what the Rialto Bridge in Venice looked like in the 15th century since it burnt down around the time our game is set. The only thing we knew is that it was made of wood. Therefore, we designed the bridge based on what it looks like today but in wood.

In terms of art style, the lighting was quite a big challenge. Especially with the time of day cycle. Our large environments are fully navigable and require clear lighting all over the place for good readability, which sometimes reduces the possibilities of having contrasts in the image. But after a lot of tweaks and iterations, and thanks to our color correction tools, we were able to find a good balance between readable paths and interesting contrasts. I think that we've achieved quite a good level of detail for large cities taking into account the fact that these cities are fully accessible to the player without any loading time between areas and cut-scenes.

Each city is around 1km square divided into a dozen cells that allow the engine to load & display the big environment gradually. To make cities fit in memory we used a lot of 'recycling' of geometries (buildings and props) and smartly spread them to avoid repetition and maximize realism.

PSM3: The Assassin's Tombs are fantastic. What was the thinking behind these? And how did you go about designing such complex platforming challenges? A lot of gamers have compared them to Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time - what do you think about this?

Patrick Plourde - Lead game designer
We wanted to have a radically different experience for the tombs to change the pace from the main game. That's why the Tombs are always inside buildings and are linear - because they are the exact opposite of the rest of the game. We wanted the secret locations to be optional to the players. If they want to complete them, they can. We didn't want to force all the players to complete these. Therefore, we decided that only one of them would be mandatory to the main path, the one in the end of sequence 4, Santa Maria Novella where Ezio spies on the meeting with the Pazzi. But, if players completed them all, they would have the ultimate reward in Assassin's Creed 2...

PSM3: You had a very big team working on Assassin's Creed 2, and the end result was an incredible game. Do you think it is getting more and more difficult for smaller devs to compete with the big development studios with their limited resources?

Patrick Plourde - Lead Game Designer
We had a big team indeed! Montreal took care of what we call the 'core' game: AI, Fight, Missions, Behaviours, UI, Database, Economic System, etc. Our job was also to provide technical support to the 'outsource' teams.
Singapore took care of the Secret Locations. The core team there is composed of Assassin's Creed and Prince of Persia veterans, so they knew the engine well and how to create maps that would capture the PoP vibe quite well. Annecy took care of the Auditore Villa.
As for how we manage to keep track of all this, well it was a challenge (mind boggling would be appropriate) but to sum things up, we had a team of people dedicated into communicating regularly to make sure all teams would be on the same page. One of the biggest challenge was with the time difference. Singapore is about 14h ahead of Montreal, while Annecy is 6-7h early. Some conference calls took place around midnight.

PSM3: Finally, the giant squid in the Santa Maria Delle Visitazione is a nice Easter Egg. What was the thinking behind that?

Patrick Plourde - Lead Game Designer
This was a little surprise for us too! The Singapore team decided to put this little Easter Egg in the game.

Made it to the end? Good for you. Have a great weekend.

Andy H, PSM3