Assassin's Creed may never have been created. Meet Prince of Persia: Assassins, the would-be PoP, who became Assassin
The devs of the first Assassin's Creed didn't immediately know that they were working on a representative of an entirely new brand. The game, which turned into a best-selling series, was initially created as a spin-off of another, at the time equally notable series.
Assassin's Creed fans are well aware that the series originated from the Prince of Persia franchise. The first installment was developed as a spin-off of the Prince of Persia adventures, designed to harness the capabilities of the then-new generation consoles: PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. However, what did the backstage of its game look like, and what led to the decision to make this project a fully independent IP? The release of Assassin’s Creed: Shadows is a good opportunity to take a look behind the scenes of the industry and see what led to the birth of Altair Ibn-La’Ahad.
Equation with only unknowns
It was the end of 2003. The new Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time was released and achieved success. Patrice Desilets, who was the creative director for this project, returned to work at Ubisoft Montreal following a well-earned break. Since Desilets and his team have demonstrated their remarkable potential, Ubisoft chose to capitalize on it. At the beginning of 2004, they were entrusted with the task of creating a true "next-gen" adventure of the Prince of Persia.
This quest wasn't an easy one. The publisher wanted to "redefine the genre of adventure action games for new generation platforms." The issue was complicated by the fact that in January 2004, the PlayStation 3 was mostly in the realm of speculation, and no one had yet heard of the Xbox 360. Developers had to "read tea leaves" in a way, speculating about the technological capabilities of these mysterious platforms at the time, and thus - what they could potentially achieve.
Prince of Persia in an open world
As mentioned in the article published by Polygon, which is a treasure trove of information about the project being discussed, the idea of creating a Prince of Persia game with an open world and a parkour system, known from The Sands of Time, quickly took shape in the minds of the creators. Why did the developers plan to abandon the levels and offer us an open map? As Desilets recalled:
It was the golden years of GTA where GTA was telling us as game designers that freedom and openness is a good thing. So I said, OK, let’s combine what’s really hot these days.
The entire concept was intended to look more "mature" and "cinematic" than The Sands of Time, while also enabling us to embody a character that would seamlessly fit into an action game. The Prince of Persia wasn't necessarily such a protagonist. Let's give the floor back to Desilets:
I wanted the prince to have a different job than just being there waiting for mom and dad to die and take their place. So I wanted to have an action character — something that in his title, it was a job where you could actually see action right away. And so I looked around and I stumbled upon a book about secret societies that I read in college.
In that book, the dev found information about a brotherhood of killers living in the mountains. A thought quickly flashed through his head that the player could be "number two" in this organization. Since the Prince of Persia didn't fit the role of an assassin very well, it was decided that the player would not play as him, but as his bodyguard. The action of the game was supposed to take place in Jerusalem.
The idea of blending into the crowd, a mechanic crucial in many games of this type, appeared just as quickly. From week to week and from month to month, the new Prince of Persia increasingly resembled the game it was ultimately meant to become.
Technological leap
The developers' ambitious plans extended beyond just implementing an open world and changing the narrative tone. Even though the creators initially lacked an engine to implement their ideas, Desilets and his team aimed to accomplish in this project "everything they wanted to achieve in The Sands of Time, but couldn't" because of technological limitations.
The list began with actual crowds that were intended to appear in The Sands of Time, but in the end, the devs had to restrict themselves to just a few people visible on the screen simultaneously. Besides, at some point, the Prince and Farah were supposed to reach a village with an open structure and jump on its roofs, but ultimately, the developers were forced to remove this element, as the PS2 and the other consoles couldn't handle it.
Given that PoP: Assassins was developed with new platforms in mind, the creators were able to let their imaginations run wild, making the open world a real city (as a result, giving us more than one such map) and presenting real crowds.
Problematic Assassins
When Ubisoft Montreal first shared its plans for the new project with its superiors, the higher-ups were reportedly surprised by such a turn of events. Although the publisher anticipated a new Prince of Persia from this studio, its members were determined to focus only on the assassins from the fortress of Alamut.
Despite this, as Desilets recalled, "for the first two years the game was called Prince of Persia: Assassins." What's interesting, he initially didn't anticipate that his new creation would start a different brand.
I never suggested a new franchise (...). I kept telling them all the time: This is a game from the Prince of Persia series, where you are an assassin.
The "enlightenment" likely occurred at GDC 2006 when Ubisoft's marketing team came up with the name Assassin's Creed for the project being discussed. The rest is history. The creation gained its own identity and became independent from the Prince of Persia brand. The first game from this franchise launched a best-selling series that, despite experiencing various highs and lows over the years, undeniably achieved both artistic and commercial success and impacted the entire video game industry.
As for the Prince of Persia brand, although it has not completely fallen into oblivion, it gradually ceased to be the apple of Ubisoft's eye after the release of Assassin's Creed.
In conclusion, unlike many other projects that have been canceled or transformed into completely different games, Prince of Persia: Assassins doesn't speak to us solely through the memories of the people who created it. On the internet, you can find both the concept arts from this project, which were used to illustrate this text, and its conceptual trailer.
