Post by Tuism on Apr 23, 2012 14:19:26 GMT -5
Hi guys! It's with great pleasure that I share with you: Interview with an Assassin! Kind of. Interview with Marc Hernandez, the head Game Director of Assassin's Creed: Recollection. There's some real gems in here, so without further ado...
Unofficial: Hi Marc! First of all thanks very much for everything that you’ve done for the Assassin’s Creed: Recollection community! Not only have you guys made a fantastic game, you’ve also engaged with the players in a way that’s almost incomparable to any developers, and we love you for that! Thanks for taking this interview with the community, we really appreciate your time!
Marc: First of all : Hello to everyone and thanks for your interest in Assassin’s Creed Recollection.
The whole community and this forum in particular is our best incentive to keep on pushing this game! And we intend to do it for a long time!
Unofficial: What is the vision for the future of Assassin’s Creed Recollection? Is the team planning to ever grow the game to take on the likes of Magic: The Gathering? Many in the community are Magic veterans, and feel that Recollection has the potential to be the leader of the pack for a long time to come. For that to be possible, even more important than expansions and new cards, the game will need a competitive structure and a way to facilitate and incentivise playing at different levels, levels beyond random match-ups and high scores like an arcade game. We’ll need tournament structures/features, ELO rankings, our own server (not Game Center and its current resident 19 digit top scorer
) regular events, etc. How much of that is in the pipelines, and can you share that vision with us?
Marc: That’s a long question
We are certainly planning on developing the game as much as we can (I’m not sure about topping Magic though but why not
). The whole team is really proud of what we have accomplished so far and we know that there is a long road ahead.
Developing the organized play (tournaments, ranking, pairing system, activities…) is one of our primary goal at the moment and we are investigating the best solutions. Obviously, having our own server is the first step as Game Center does not offer enough functionality and flexibility.
From there we want to build a structure that will satisfy any kind of player from casual to hardcore competitive.
Unofficial: The Market was a massive milestone for the game (we even added a milestone to our facebook timeline page), and we’re looking forward to even more with bated breath. How far ahead have the team planned for the game? What of that plan can you share with us? With dates?
Marc: Right now, we are working on the new expansion based on Revelations. It will include 144 new Memories, a new story chapter and more challenges.
This should be ready by June (the latest).
Our following milestones are the multiplayer upgrade and the PC version. It’s a bit too early to give you tentative dates but we will keep you updated as soon as we can.
Unofficial: From day one we all noticed that the Revelations expansion is coming, which is awesome since we all love new cards. How many expansions have been planned, beyond Revelations? I’m gonna venture and ask if you guys have any thoughts on AC3?
Marc: Obviously, Assassin’s Creed 3 will be the next expansion after Revelations. Our goal is to build on the Assassin’s Creed universe and we wouldn’t miss such a great development as what’s coming in AC3!
On the same page, we could certainly go back to Altair for an AC1 expansion but it’s not in the planning for now.
Unofficial: Can we get a bit of a sneak preview of memories in the upcoming set?
Marc: Well, the set is still in conception so we have all the visuals and the names of the Memories yet but I can still share some information:
Unofficial: Can you share with us some of the rejected memories that didn’t make the cut? In terms of art and mechanic, if possible.
Marc: To be honest, I do not keep a black file with all rejected ideas.
It’s all part of a long iterative process of Memory balancing and scripting.
Most Memories that have been rejected were too complicated to script or too specific. But we were able to include some of them in the new set so my lips are sealed!
About the art, we just had to change the visual of two Agent because they were a little too “explicit”… and we wanted to have a family friendly app.
Unofficial: We’ve all been really grateful for the interaction during the balancing updates that were made to the memories. What is the future policy with balancing of memories? Are there any guidelines and methods that you can share with us?
Marc: The goal is to keep the metagame as open as possible.
If we feel that some Memories are overpower or damaging the metagame in any way, we will alter them as slightly as possible while keeping the rest of the game balanced.
For the moment, we have not seen the need of a detailed process / planning but if it becomes too frequent, we will announce a clearer policy.
Unofficial: How big is the Recollection dev team? Can we get a bit of an introduction to the team? And what TCG/CCG background does everyone have? Brontobeuf mentioned that he remembers playing you many years back in MtG, says you were quite the genius!
Marc: Ubisoft Montreal is one of the biggest development studio in the world, but our team is relatively small, yet quite experienced. We are approximately 16 full-time on the project (1 producer, 5 developers, 1 artist, 2 designers, 1 dev tester, 6 testers).
I have an extensive background in Collectible Card Games.
I designed 3 CCG before, played competitively at Magic: the Gathering (French champion, vice World champion…), judge / organized international tournaments / manage the community for Wizards of the Coast and Upperdeck. I have been in the CCG community for more than 15 years and a game designer for 10 years.
Unofficial: How did such a off-the-beaten-path and unmainstream game concept get approved for such a popular franchise? Was it a hard project to start? How did the topper brasses come to approve it? Was there an epic story behind it?
Marc: It has certainly not been an easy ride. The project started as a RPG in the Assassin’s Creed universe. It evolved in the current design based on my background and a few crazy ideas. Finally, it ended on iPad after we figured out it would be the perfect device for this genre and the business model.
We certainly had to do a lot of convincing but ultimately, it’s the gameplay that won it all.
Ubisoft loves to try innovative ideas when they have potential. And I think everyone is happy with the end result so far.
Unofficial: An enthusiastic forum member wanted to know whether there will be a Antonio Maffei card coming, and whether his character was based on your dashing looks:
Marc: That could certainly be arranged!
(And no, he is certainly not based on me)
Unofficial: Needless to say, we all love Recollection. From its launch till today, so much has happened, and so much more will, I’m sure. What would you like to tell the community? And as a community, we would like to ask you - what can we do to help going forward?
Marc: You are our best evangelists!
We are really glad that you love the game and the best thing you can do for the community and for us is to spread the good words.
Talk about it with your friends, on other forums, on facebook…
This game is based on its community so the bigger it gets, the happier we are. And the happier we are, the better the next updates will be
Well, thanks once more to Marc Hernandez for indulging us, for all the hard work the team has put in - and all the hard work they will still put in!
(P.S. Oh bugger I forgot to ask for a picture of your Tattoo, at the risk of sounding stalkerish on MrSuperb's behalf, if you have one lying around that'd be fun to see!)
Unofficial: Hi Marc! First of all thanks very much for everything that you’ve done for the Assassin’s Creed: Recollection community! Not only have you guys made a fantastic game, you’ve also engaged with the players in a way that’s almost incomparable to any developers, and we love you for that! Thanks for taking this interview with the community, we really appreciate your time!
Marc: First of all : Hello to everyone and thanks for your interest in Assassin’s Creed Recollection.
The whole community and this forum in particular is our best incentive to keep on pushing this game! And we intend to do it for a long time!
Unofficial: What is the vision for the future of Assassin’s Creed Recollection? Is the team planning to ever grow the game to take on the likes of Magic: The Gathering? Many in the community are Magic veterans, and feel that Recollection has the potential to be the leader of the pack for a long time to come. For that to be possible, even more important than expansions and new cards, the game will need a competitive structure and a way to facilitate and incentivise playing at different levels, levels beyond random match-ups and high scores like an arcade game. We’ll need tournament structures/features, ELO rankings, our own server (not Game Center and its current resident 19 digit top scorer
) regular events, etc. How much of that is in the pipelines, and can you share that vision with us?Marc: That’s a long question
We are certainly planning on developing the game as much as we can (I’m not sure about topping Magic though but why not
). The whole team is really proud of what we have accomplished so far and we know that there is a long road ahead.Developing the organized play (tournaments, ranking, pairing system, activities…) is one of our primary goal at the moment and we are investigating the best solutions. Obviously, having our own server is the first step as Game Center does not offer enough functionality and flexibility.
From there we want to build a structure that will satisfy any kind of player from casual to hardcore competitive.
Unofficial: The Market was a massive milestone for the game (we even added a milestone to our facebook timeline page
), and we’re looking forward to even more with bated breath. How far ahead have the team planned for the game? What of that plan can you share with us? With dates?Marc: Right now, we are working on the new expansion based on Revelations. It will include 144 new Memories, a new story chapter and more challenges.
This should be ready by June (the latest).
Our following milestones are the multiplayer upgrade and the PC version. It’s a bit too early to give you tentative dates but we will keep you updated as soon as we can.
Unofficial: From day one we all noticed that the Revelations expansion is coming, which is awesome since we all love new cards. How many expansions have been planned, beyond Revelations? I’m gonna venture and ask if you guys have any thoughts on AC3?
Marc: Obviously, Assassin’s Creed 3 will be the next expansion after Revelations. Our goal is to build on the Assassin’s Creed universe and we wouldn’t miss such a great development as what’s coming in AC3!
On the same page, we could certainly go back to Altair for an AC1 expansion but it’s not in the planning for now.
Unofficial: Can we get a bit of a sneak preview of memories in the upcoming set?
Marc: Well, the set is still in conception so we have all the visuals and the names of the Memories yet but I can still share some information:
- There will be three new abilities.
- One of them is called DOMINANT...
- ...It can go on an Agent.
- ...Or a Site.
- ...Or even on an Action.
- ...Ok, ok. Here is the description: “When scoring, Opponent loses as much points on the Region”
- There is a series of 6 Sites that cost 10.
- There are a few Agent that resolve as Surprises.
- And even some Sites.
Unofficial: Can you share with us some of the rejected memories that didn’t make the cut? In terms of art and mechanic, if possible.
Marc: To be honest, I do not keep a black file with all rejected ideas.
It’s all part of a long iterative process of Memory balancing and scripting.
Most Memories that have been rejected were too complicated to script or too specific. But we were able to include some of them in the new set so my lips are sealed!
About the art, we just had to change the visual of two Agent because they were a little too “explicit”… and we wanted to have a family friendly app.
Unofficial: We’ve all been really grateful for the interaction during the balancing updates that were made to the memories. What is the future policy with balancing of memories? Are there any guidelines and methods that you can share with us?
Marc: The goal is to keep the metagame as open as possible.
If we feel that some Memories are overpower or damaging the metagame in any way, we will alter them as slightly as possible while keeping the rest of the game balanced.
For the moment, we have not seen the need of a detailed process / planning but if it becomes too frequent, we will announce a clearer policy.
Unofficial: How big is the Recollection dev team? Can we get a bit of an introduction to the team? And what TCG/CCG background does everyone have? Brontobeuf mentioned that he remembers playing you many years back in MtG, says you were quite the genius!
Marc: Ubisoft Montreal is one of the biggest development studio in the world, but our team is relatively small, yet quite experienced. We are approximately 16 full-time on the project (1 producer, 5 developers, 1 artist, 2 designers, 1 dev tester, 6 testers).
I have an extensive background in Collectible Card Games.
I designed 3 CCG before, played competitively at Magic: the Gathering (French champion, vice World champion…), judge / organized international tournaments / manage the community for Wizards of the Coast and Upperdeck. I have been in the CCG community for more than 15 years and a game designer for 10 years.
Unofficial: How did such a off-the-beaten-path and unmainstream game concept get approved for such a popular franchise? Was it a hard project to start? How did the topper brasses come to approve it? Was there an epic story behind it?
Marc: It has certainly not been an easy ride. The project started as a RPG in the Assassin’s Creed universe. It evolved in the current design based on my background and a few crazy ideas. Finally, it ended on iPad after we figured out it would be the perfect device for this genre and the business model.
We certainly had to do a lot of convincing but ultimately, it’s the gameplay that won it all.
Ubisoft loves to try innovative ideas when they have potential. And I think everyone is happy with the end result so far.
Unofficial: An enthusiastic forum member wanted to know whether there will be a Antonio Maffei card coming, and whether his character was based on your dashing looks:
Marc: That could certainly be arranged!
(And no, he is certainly not based on me)
Unofficial: Needless to say, we all love Recollection. From its launch till today, so much has happened, and so much more will, I’m sure. What would you like to tell the community? And as a community, we would like to ask you - what can we do to help going forward?
Marc: You are our best evangelists!
We are really glad that you love the game and the best thing you can do for the community and for us is to spread the good words.
Talk about it with your friends, on other forums, on facebook…
This game is based on its community so the bigger it gets, the happier we are. And the happier we are, the better the next updates will be
Well, thanks once more to Marc Hernandez for indulging us, for all the hard work the team has put in - and all the hard work they will still put in!
(P.S. Oh bugger I forgot to ask for a picture of your Tattoo, at the risk of sounding stalkerish on MrSuperb's behalf, if you have one lying around that'd be fun to see!)
