Ubisoft Releases Assassin’s Creed Concept Art

Did you know that what became the original Assassin’s Creed game began its life as a Prince of Persia spin-off? Given that game’s Middle Eastern setting, it kind of starts to make sense. That little bit of trivia was released along with a bunch of concept art by Khai Nguyen in November of 2004. The art was published on Ubisoft’s Facebook page, and many of the images have some pretty helpful Nguyen-written explanations of the thought process behind each piece, many of which come from meetings with former Assassin’s Creed creative director Patrice Désilets. It’s interesting stuff!

For instance, cooperative multiplayer was being discussed during the development of the first game, and the developers also considered including a female assassin. Intriguing! Oh, how I wish that Assassin’s Creed could’ve been a more pure game, eschewing this silly Animus business.

Anyway, enjoy:

”This concept was one of two illustrations. Patrice was playing around with the concept of ‘low profile’ vs. ‘high profile.’ For the low profile, I needed to concentrate on the nobility and mystery surrounding the assassin.”

”This is the second concept presented for our initial meeting. In the first concept, we saw an assassin in his ‘low profile’ state, which gives an air of nobility and mystery. I wanted to contrast that image with an assassin that is more dynamic for his ‘high profile’ state. With the two concepts side by side, Patrice was able to effectively describe his vision and the mechanics of high and low profile.”

”This is a concept for a mountain fortress called Alamut. As you can see, the setting is quite fantasy oriented since the creative director and I were not sure how realistic we wanted the setting to be.”

”Quick sketch showcasing the iconic Assassin weapon. I believe this was the very first concept of the weapon after the initial meeting with Patrice.”

 
”Inspirational sketch for ‘mount’ game-play’.’

”This is a particularly interesting image because it pre-dates our understanding of the Assassin Brand. As you can see here, the little kid on the horse is supposed to be the ‘Prince’ of Prince of Persia, because we were all under the illusion that we were making a ‘POP –Sands of time’ spinoff. The assassin was supposed to be the little prince’s bodyguard.”

“We toyed with the idea of making a female assassin.”

”We debated whether or not co-op was going to make it into the first game.”