Developer: Assassin's Creed's 12 Month Development Time is "Ideal"

[Insideout Ink Demon]

each games been an improvement (massive improvement from 1 to 2) and i do enjoy the series, but i think the enemies need to be mixed up a bit.

as soon as i see a mob of enemy soldiers, i can tell by their armor how difficult they'll be.
is it difficult to add a few models for the same type of enemy and add a random generator?
i know that this is a problem with a lot of games, but since i'll be spending a good few hours with AssCredRev, it'd be nice if they did that now now now

EDIT:
can we have a crouch and a peek around corners ability like splintercell.
i'm an assassin, but it doesnt feel like i can sneak/hide when in an open area

 

[DanielBrown]

Not a fan of companies pumping out games each year like obsessed, but Assassins Creed hasn't let me down so far, so I'll probably enjoy Revelations.
They should have scrapped Ezio and gone to a different time era though.

 

[Casual Shinji]

These annual releases are giving me AC fatigue.

And I'm sorry, but the 1 year development cycle of AC: Brotherhood was just dripping off it. Just from the way the gameworld was constructed you could tell it was a hasty assembly line production.

This series is quickly turning into Dynasty Warriors. Too bad, considering what a revolution in gameplay and setting it was at the time.

 

[lordlillen]

i want to see a game with the russian assasin but still if the game is goodi have not a single problem with the development time AC1 was the only one i did'nt really like but 2 and brotherhood have been excelent games.

 

[Jungy 365]

This all makes sense, and having just seen the Extra Credits episode on being a games producer, I think this is a great approach. The issue I have (and it's quite a large one), is that, once you start releasing them so soon after each other, you start to not really get excited about the next instalment (from a consumer perspective), and the level of anticipation slowly seeps away until no one really gets surprised or joyous over a new game coming out in the series. Don't get me wrong, I thought that Brotherhood actually improved on a lot of the issues with ACII, and I think that Revelations will continue to improve, but I fear that we will soon view the series much like the Call of Duty series.

 

[Scrustle]

I don't think Assassin's Creed should be on a yearly cycle. Not because they are milking the franchise (it doesn't feel like they are too me) but in terms of evolution and innovation in game design. The look of the games and how they feel to play have barely changed since the start. The engine is starting to show it's age. If they don't changs things up soon the series will start to stagnate. They need to make it feel fresh and really show us something amazing. I was really disappointed when I heard that AC3 (I assume that it will be AC3) will come out in a year, I was really hoping they would take some time out to blow people away with the next game. And I really do hope the next game will be AC3. Although he's cool another game with Ezio will look really lazy, and it would make Ubisoft liars. They said ACR would be the last of Ezio and Altair, I want something new now.

 

[Ulquiorra4sama]

Seeing a lot of hate for Ezio for some reason. Perhaps the dev team just figured that renaissance Italy had the best architecture for all the climbing around you'll have to do

OT: Eh, so long as the games are good i don't care how long it took to make them, and the same goes for bad games. Tell me you put 20 years into developing a game and i still won't play it if i don't think it's any good.

 

[honestdiscussioner]

Assassin's Creed 2 was posssibly the largest jump in quality I've ever seen from one sequel to the next. However the improvement from Assassin's Creed 2 to Brotherhood is arguable. Brotherhood was a great game, don't get me wrong, but I can see some argument for preferring it's predecessor. AC2 had a far greater variability in locations, a more epic story of transformation, a more shadowy antagonist, a more epic storyline that spanned decades rather than a few years. Again, Brotherhood was great, but to say that it was objectively better than AC2 is a bit of a stretch.

 

[ViciousTide]

Since they have mastered their Game Creation Content Pipeline, the CEO's get million dollar bonuses and sell 5000 shares of stock every week, while the real shackled developers "might" get only $10k/ each per million units sold.

 

[ViciousTide]

I just beat Assasin's 2, and have bought but not played Brotherhood yet. I am so backlogged, but tired of same old same old content. Pre-ordered BF3 and Skyrim which i know i will play right out of package and forget about Assasin's creed, even with their 4th installment coming out, It's cheaper to play/ buy it when on your terms any way, cause it may now be 10 months+ before i get to it. By then it will be worth $20 or less used.

 

[GeorgW]

I'll have to completely disagree. Every developer interview I've ever seen have said that the time period between the release of the last game and pre-production on the next one is the most giving one, that gives the most creative input. From what I could tell from this article, that time is completely lost as they go into production immediately.

The games are different and improved each time, yes, but the core mechanics are more expanded than they are improved. This is the price you pay when you do a one year cycle.

I for one don't like AC's development cycle. I don't care enough to play a new AC game every year, I've waited for them to get cheaper and for me to miss the game, and still haven't played brotherhood.

Still, as far as one year developments go,the AC series has the best one.

 

[Seventh Actuality]

Citing only the industry's biggest pants shittings isn't really on when the long development cycle was a symptom, not a cause in every one of those games.

This is just straight-up spin. Nobody is going to convince me that a short development cycle is a good idea after Dragon Age 2.

 

[BonGookKumBop]

This is an extremely coarse solution to problem that could be solved with just better planning.

SPOILER ALERT:
This post alludes to a plot point that was part of the ending of Assassins' Creed II
SPOILER ALERT

I was going to say that we should be more lenient since they have to wrap up the whole story by the end of next year (I mean how seriously are you going to take a "The World Ends in 2012" plot in 2013, or 2014?), but you have a good point here. I haven't played Brotherhood, so I don't know how instrumental it is to the plot; when it came out, however, I remember thinking that the producers were pushing themselves into a corner if they kept delaying the big rush to save the world before it ends in 2012. As it is, releasing the game a month before your near future apocalypse is supposed to occur kind of ruins the suspension of disbelief and the immersion your audience feels, especially when you consider the time required to play through the game and that not everyone will buy it the day it comes out. I mean, what if George Orwell had named his book 1950?

 

[XT inc]

I hate to say it, but it's been more of the same since the first game. Two felt cookie cutter, but still drew you in. I am playing 3 atm and it just feels so samey, it's like CoD being cranked out every year, had it not been 14 bucks on steam I would have passed and waited for this years.

Annualizing games this size is the definition of cookie cutter game design. It isn't even a labor of love anymore is it? Slip a script to the Ubi team, let the gears turn for 11 months and whizzam you just slapped a number and subtitle to your game.

How many more times do I need to find a tower to scan the area? listing on a bench? stab one dude?

it's been done to death, by your own team. Graah it was silly enough when games oversaturated their own genres i.e. WW2 shooters, fighters or what have you.

But now Dev studios are doing it to themselves, Almost as bad as those .Hack games I loved as a kid until I realized it was like buying a final fantasy game, and having to pay for each separate disc.

 

[FreakSheet]

Valve wants to have a word with you...

 

[hwarang]

Hey, I don't mind what happens on the development side so much, as long as the games are good.

HOWEVER

My initial thought is that some good content that they can't quite develop in time for the deadline just gets given the "oh well. We'll just work on it later and make it DLC" line.

If this were the case it would anger me. Muchly.

 

[The Lunatic]

Eh, I'm willing to give the game a go, but, I can't help but think they're really scraping the barrel with this one.

Once again, same characters, likely still remarkably unresolved storylines, only for the game to end on some sort of cliff hanger.

A trilogy would have wrapped the game up nicely. Rather feels like we're in TV-series now, with the plot lines filled with nothing but fluff and filler and some of the unluckiest people in the world.


I suppose it's easy to fit a game into a 12 month production when you don't have to make any new assets for your game world though.

 

[GameMaNiAC]

While COD may have a one year release, at least they have two seperate games so each gets a two year development cycle... my god did I just praise COD?

Yes, yes you did. No, there's nothing wrong with that. Believe it or not, there are people who like CoD and aren't screaming 12-year-olds. Yes, I am one of them.

OT: Huh, I always felt the series went downhill with each release. I don't know, but the first AC was original and was very fun. The newer ones just add some flashy stuff. Still getting Revelations, tho'.

 

[Strazdas]

it doesnt make team more foused, it makes the tema to cut corners, so we have tons of bugs to fix ourselves becuase your team is already being murdered for another deadline. there is NO benefit of a timeline if your team know what it wants from the game. and if it doesnt, time to get new people on the project. this sounds like an excuse to do the NFS model of milking people for crap, because theres always somone hoping that "if the last 10 were bad maybe 11th will be good" i mean jut look at nintendo, they keep beating same dead horse and they still come out on top.