In a recent interview with the Boston Herald, Maxime Durand, the historical researcher for the video game Assassin's Creed III, talked about setting a video game in one of the oldest cities in the United States.
"(We) always try to take a period that's either not very well-known or known only for a couple of major reasons," said Durand, "And Boston has rarely been featured in games, particularly that era."
Boston was the site of numerous key incidents and historical events during the American Revolution, including the Boston Massacre, the Boston Tea Party. The city also hosted several conflicts of the war including the Battle of Bunker Hill and the Siege of Boston.
According to Marc-Antoine Lussier, the game's technical director, Boston was chosen because Ubisoft could contrive and improvise some of the area's history during the Revolution.
"We like to choose moments in history where there's enough of a gray area where we can improvise a bit while being true to history," said Lussier."It's better than taking something everybody knows by heart and not having any room in the story. Also, Boston was kind of mandatory for that setting because so many things happened there and so many people lived there."
According to the article the Ubisoft researchers studied period maps and documents to recreate the shape and size of the city and include recognizable attractions like the Old State House and the Old North Church.
"The landmarks' positioning, the street layouts, every-thing has been respected and verified by the available maps," Lussier said. "We always make sure the proper people are at the proper place within our fictional narrative."
For the makers of the Assassin's Creed games, the best things in history are the blank spots. Lussier told the Boston Herald that if a person in history died under unusually circumstances, Ubisoft can then manipulate the details to have their assassin be involved in the person's disappearance. This is technique that the developer has used in all of its Assassin's Creed games.Read the full interview at the Boston Herald.
In a video of Assassin's Creed III's Boston Demo, Alex Hutchinson, the Creative Director of the game said that the developer recreated the city of Boston based on historical maps that they discovered from the 18th century. You check out the demo's video below.
Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed III releases on Oct. 30 for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. A PC release will follow on Nov. 20, while a Wii U version will be available at the consoles launch on Nov. 18.
Read about the historical events that didn't make the game here. Learn about Assassin's Creed III's multiplayer mode here. Check out our list of five cool features found in the new game here. Check out our story on how Assassin's Creed III's protagonist Connor could be getting two more games here and watch the trailer revealing his story here. Have you seen the AC3 weapons trailer? Check it out here. Read about the planned George Washington DLC here. Read about how Ubisoft Montreal recreated Colonial America here.
