EMPIRE

Design Overview
A ruthless new hero for a brutal world.
 http://as
sassinscr
USP: Relive History.

Document Created by: Harry Lister

Date: November 17, 2016
20072014 Ubisoft Entertainment.

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Contents

Page 2:
1.0 Overview
1.1 Platforms
1.2 Timeframe
1.3 Scope
1.4 Goals
2.0 Game Synopsis
2.1 Setting Synopsis
2.2 Home Screen

Page 3:
2.3 Gameplay View
2.4 Market Research

Page 4:
3.0 Audience
3.1 Language
3.2 Territories
3.3 Structures
3.4 Features
4.0 Characters

Page 5:
4.1 Mechanics
4.2 Story
4.3 Environment

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1.0 Overview
Assassins Creed Empire is an open-world, action-adventure RPG game. The game is
a franchised IP from the Assassins Creed video game series. Throughout the game
you will play as a single avatar progressing through a storyline. The player can also
travel around the open-world and complete side missions and picking up collectibles
to unlock in-game content.

1.1 Platforms
Assassins Creed Empire will initially be developed as a
console beta for PS4 and XBOX One. After this it will be
released on these specific consoles.

1.2 Timeframe
The timeframe I will try to stick to during the development will last around two
and a half years. This will be broken down in the following
manner:

Pre-production 6 months
Production 21 months
Testing 3 months
Shipping 1 month

1.3 Goals
To complete the prototype for E3 2017
To complete most production of my game and produce an alpha for E3 2018
To produce a beta by November 2018
To be fully completed, shipped out and released by November 21, 2018

1.4 Game Synopsis

The players aim is to play through the story missions and
initially complete the story and all of its objectives.
Alongside the story the player will encounter lots of side
missions that will reward the player with money or unique
pieces of equipment. Along the storyline and throughout
the open-world there will be different types of enemies that
the player will come across and have either use their skills
in fighting or stealth to overcome. There will be collectibles
placed all around the game world for the player to collect,
things like opening chests and collecting small objects like a
set of keys, to unlock an armour set for the player to use.

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2.0 Setting Synopsis
Assassins Creed Empire will be set in Ancient
Egypt. The main open world will have many
different locations including cities like Cairo,
Alexandria and Giza. Also different towns, villages.
The world will also include famous landmarks like
the Pyramids of Giza, The City of the Dead, and the
River Nile. The missions may take place indoors like
inside the Pyramids and inside temples, these places will be explorable only in
missions.

2.1 Home Screen

The home screen is displayed at the beginning of
the game. Being displayed at the beginning this is
the screen that allows the player to start the game
by loading an existing save or creating a new one.
The screen includes things like settings/options,
extras, e-store and Ubisoft Club.
The home screen has the following headings:

Heading Purpose
New Game Start a new game
Load Game / Continue Load existing save file
Extras Can look at unlocked concept art and
other extras
Options Options menu
E-Store Take you to the specific console
marketplace
Ubisoft Club Takes you to the Ubisoft Club website

2.2 Gameplay View

The whole game will be played in third
person exactly like all other games in the
Assassins Creed series. The reason the
game is in this perspective is so that the
player can see the character clearly and
also see what is around the character on
every angle so it has an easier combat
element in it.

2.3 Market Research

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Age:
As the video games industry is a worldwide industry means that to further
companies sales they would have to make games that appeal to all different ages
as then more people would buy games. Over the years games have adapted to
different age groups and restrictions. PEGI is the European video game content
rating system. PEGI has five age categories.

3: Suitable for all ages. May contain very mild violence in an appropriate
context for younger children, but neither bad language nor frightening
content is allowed.

7: Suitable for ages 7 and older. May contain mild or unrealistic violence (e.g.
violence in a cartoon context), or elements that can be frightening to younger
children.

12: Suitable for ages 12 and older. May contain violence in either a fantasy
context or a sporting action, profanity, mild sexual references or innuendo, or
gambling.

16: Suitable for ages 16 and older. May contain explicit or realistic-looking
violence, strong language, sexual references or content, gambling, or
encouragement of drug use.

18: Unsuitable for persons under 18. May contain extreme or graphic
violence, including "violence towards defenseless people" and "multiple,
motiveless killing", strong language, strong sexual content, gambling, drug
glamorisation, or discrimination ("stereotyping likely to cause hatred").

Having to stick to these

ratings whilst trying to
produce a good game can be
hard as most of the age
restricted content is the
content that actually sells in
video games.

Gender:
Both males and females play video games. Through gender stereotyping it makes it
seem that males play video games more prominently than women, when in fact
both genders play video games equally as it depends on the persons mind set
whether they like to play video games or not. Making a game appeal to a certain

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gender may seem easy as people may say you could make a video game appeal to
a girl by making the game all pink and flowery. But this may cause
controversy in gaming communities that a certain games
developer wasnt considering the ethics of the game and
that people may find it offensive that they chose to put
flowers into a female based game.

2.4 Audience
Looking at previous Assassins Creed installments I can see that the
gaming audience that bought them were both genders aged 18 and over, this
is because of the age restriction on the Assassins Creed games with there being
violence. The storylines throughout the Assassins Creed series have always had a
deep emotional feeling to them and that is why they are popular with both genders
and most ages.

3.0 Language
Like the other Assassins Creed games, the audio will be recorded in
different languages which the player will be able to dub over the
gameplay through the options menu.
The languages it will be recorded in are:
English
French
Spanish
German
Italian

3.1 Territories
As my game is set in Ancient Egypt the environment will be a lot of sandy plains.
The terrain of the world map will be sand and oasis. The villages will be small and
scarce. The bigger cities however will have wide cobbled streets with huts and
houses lining them. I will try and make the territories stick to what Egypt actually
looked like in them times.

3.2 Structure
Assassins Creed Empire will have a complex structure. To see this structure in more
detail, see attached copy of structure diagram.

3.3 Features

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 Assassins
Creed
Empire
features a
new setting;
Empire is set
in Ancient
Egypt during
Ramses IIs reign over the 19th dynasty. A new system for detecting the environment
around players will allow them to use walls and other in-game structures as tools for
dismantling hostiles. Those that prefer sneaking around will have a much easier
time as well, with increased options at their disposal for stealth takedowns. Barrels
hanging precariously over an enemy? Bring it down on them. Guards huddling
around a fire? Shoot a berserk dart into the flames and watch those around the
blaze begin to attack one another as they inhale the fumes.

3.4 Characters
Empires story line will be based around a new set of characters.
There will be 3 main characters within the game, these
characters are;

Ammon: Ammon is a slave that has escaped captivity from

Ramses II. Throughout the story he will join the Assassin
brotherhood with the help of mentor Zane and overcome the
hold Ramses II has on Egypt.

Zane: Zane has been part of the Assassin brotherhood since he

was a young boy. Overtime the brotherhood has deteriorated
within Egypt but with the help of Ammon, his assassin trainee,
the brotherhood may be reborn again.

Ramses II: Ramses He was the third Egyptian pharaoh of the

19th dynasty. He was also regarded as the most powerful
pharaoh of the Egyptian empire. Ramses is part of the Templar Order and is the
main antagonist throughout the storyline of Assassins Creed Empire.

4.0 Mechanics

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The controls of Empire will be exactly the same as previous Assassins Creed games
as if I were to change the controls the audience may not like the change as they
may be used to the normal controls. To see the controls for Assassins Creed Empire,
see attached document.

4.1 Story
Ammon is a slave that has escaped captivity
from Ramses II. Throughout the story he will
join the Assassin brotherhood with the help of
mentor Zane and overcome the hold Ramses II
has on Egypt. Along his travels he meets a man
called Zane. Zane is part of the Assassin
Brotherhood, during the story he becomes
Ammons mentor. Ammon and Zane go through
the story dismantling the Templar Order that
resides over Egypt because of Ramses IIs rule.

4.2 Environment
As my game is set in Ancient Egypt the environment will be a
lot of sandy plains. The terrain of the world map will be sand
and oasis. The villages will be small and scarce. The bigger
cities however will have wide cobbled streets with huts and
houses lining them. Throughout the game the environment
will change and adapt to the way the story lays out. The
NPCs throughout the environment will be programmed with
advanced AI which means that if the NPC is busy talking to
another NPC and you interrupt them they will retaliate in the
appropriate way.

4.3 Objectives
The objectives within my game will be to initially play through the main story
missions and complete all mini challenges within them. Once the player has played
through the missions they can then go off into the open world to pick up collectibles
and complete other challenges like races and bounty hunts. If the player fails to
complete the mini challenges within a mission they can go back to that particular
mission, replay it and complete the challenge.

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 4.4 Theme
The theme of my game is to play through the
story and side missions and to initially reach
%100 synchronisation by collecting and
completing everything within the game.
Depending on the console, the player can also
get trophies or achievements to add to their public collection for other players to
see.

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