00:04In Assassin's Creed Odyssey, you are the hero.
00:08And Ubisoft Quebec worked hard to create a world where you can feel heroic.
00:13Throughout all the design meetings, player tests, data analyses, build iterations, etc.,
00:19they were thinking about you, the players.
00:23They knew that by understanding how you play,
00:26they could build a better, more exciting, more immersive game.
00:32We caught up with game director Scott Phillips to get him to share some of the insights from their research.
00:37Our first topic? Navigation and the kind of tools they give to players
00:42to help them get where they're going with as little friction as possible.
00:46There was an eye-tracking study that Origins did early on,
00:50looking at, okay, with the minimap, where are people looking?
00:53And they weren't looking at the world, they were looking at the minimap.
00:55You're not really playing minimap the game, we want you to play Assassin's Creed the game.
00:59By putting a compass, it's something you look at less.
01:02By taking away the gold dot, you're looking for that gold dot less,
01:06you're looking at the world around you.
01:08Scott's talking about Exploration Mode,
01:10a new system the team developed for Assassin's Creed Odyssey
01:13that replaces major quest markers, those gold dots,
01:17with instructions on where to look for your objectives.
01:19Where exactly can I find the doctor?
01:22Somewhere east of Potidaia, following along the coastline.
01:25Directions like these encourage players to not only use their map and compass,
01:29but also to look around at the landscape and pay attention to landmarks.
01:34The data now shows that, you know, slightly over half of players
01:37play with Exploration Mode, which I think coming from never having anything like that before
01:42to having it, like, that's a, to me, half is, that's a huge, huge percentage.
01:47So that really shows that players do want that sense of discovery
01:50and exploration of the world.
01:53By building not just on the work of other Assassin's Creed teams,
01:56but also on their own experience as the lead studio on Assassin's Creed Syndicate,
02:01Ubisoft Quebec was able to refine familiar systems
02:04to further cultivate their ideal player experience.
02:08Take synchronization points.
02:10Recent games in the series have used these points in two important ways.
02:14To give you those iconic Assassin's Creed moments
02:17and to facilitate fast travel.
02:20In Assassin's Creed Odyssey, Scott says they chose to make the placement
02:24of synchronization points a little more infrequent than it had been before.
02:28We wanted you to spend more time in the world,
02:30to value that time spent in the world, to come across things in the world.
02:35But then we also want it to be accessible and fun.
02:38And when you really just want to go back someplace, like, okay,
02:41I've made the effort to go and sync that point.
02:45Okay, I can just go there.
02:46The accessibility of the fast travel system is one of the ways
02:49Ubisoft Quebec shows you that they value your time.
02:54Here's another.
02:55Collecting the spoils after a fight by scouring the area
02:58to pick everyone's pockets individually was feeling a bit anticlimactic.
03:04We're respecting their time.
03:05We're speeding things up that are,
03:07that don't necessarily add a ton to the fantasy.
03:10Like pressing Y once to loot a bunch of enemies is fun, is rewarding.
03:15Pressing Y 20 times to loot those same enemies,
03:18you know, you sort of diminish the value of it at a certain point.
03:21This idea of troubleshooting mechanics that don't add to the fantasy
03:26was a through line for the team that made an impact in a lot of areas.
03:30Another example is fall damage.
03:32So the fall damage was a not-all-that-difficult decision because of our terrain
03:38and because Greece is hugely mountainous, so often you're stuck at the top of a cliff
03:44and either you're going to spend 30 seconds climbing all the way down
03:48or you could jump down and die.
03:51Like, it's not a great choice and it's not a very empowering feeling.
03:54So now, over the course of your adventure, you'll progress from taking a lot of damage for a fall
04:01to taking no damage to being able to unleash a smashing area attack.
04:05This solution both eliminates a choice with no empowering outcomes
04:10and becomes another facet of your growth from plucky mercenary to epic hero.
04:16But consequences can be empowering, and they're often necessary.
04:20Given that Assassin's Creed Odyssey predates the Assassin Brotherhood,
04:24they couldn't rely on desynchronizing the player as a consequence
04:28for doing something their heroic ancestor wouldn't have done,
04:31like cutting down a bunch of civilians.
04:33But the team still wanted a consequence for murderous behavior,
04:37and that's where the mercenary system came in.
04:40Run up a bounty by getting buck wild with your blade,
04:43and the consequences will come to you.
04:45Mercenaries will hunt you down by land or sea,
04:49whether you're minding your own business or already in the middle of a fight.
04:53Yes, sometimes it's going to create those like,
04:56why are you here sort of moments,
04:58but I think that's great because we also give you the out.
05:01We give you the way to get rid of them before, to pay them off.
05:06In a way, we need it as much as possible not to make it a frustration with the system,
05:12but a frustration of the player having not taken the time to deal with it.
05:17And how you choose to deal with your bounties and your mercenary pursuers
05:21becomes another part of your odyssey.
05:24It's a story told through countless design decisions made with you in mind,
05:29but ultimately, it's uniquely your own.
05:33The player experience that we want
05:35is one where we're able to give you an amazing story,
05:39an amazing experience that you feel you earned,
05:44and that we gave you access to it in a way that was enjoyable as much of the time as
05:50possible.
05:50You are the hero in this game, absolutely.
05:53You are a hero in Assassin's Creed,
05:54and we want you to feel like that at every moment,
05:57like that you are awesome.
06:10Assassin's Creed Odyssey, available now.
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