In the original version of the ga, the explorable area in Assassin's Creed I wasn't particularly large. Calculated on a 1:1 real-world scale, each map had a playable area of about 0.3 square kiloters.
But for the average player, that was already big enough.
For comparison, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Ti didn't offer much more in terms of map size.
However, Assassin's Creed had far more detailed environnts.
That was the advantage of a new-generation console—sothing older consoles simply couldn't achieve.
It was also the first ga to fully embrace the reuse of assets, minimizing repetitive developnt tasks while giving creators more room for imagination. This allowed developers to add more interactive elents to the open world.
The initial frawork for the ga was actually created by thousands of people during a classroom-style collaborative developnt session.
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The total developnt ti for that phase was just one week.
Afterward, Gastar Electronic Entertainnt's main task was to add smaller gaplay elents and polish the models and environnts. The final product ended up with visuals on par with Assassin's Creed III–IV.
In this version, Takayuki expanded the ga's map to nearly three tis the size of the original.
But just expanding the map wasn't technically impressive. Takayuki wasn't interested in doing just that—he wanted to make it rich and complex.
He kept familiar features like clearing enemy bases and question marks but simplified them to avoid overwhelming the player.
There was no need to clutter the map with too many icons that left players ntally exhausted.
In that regard, Red Dead Redemption and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild served as excellent examples.
They let players explore freely, never forcing you to find everything. You could ignore the side content—but if you chose to explore, you might stumble upon sothing fun or interesting. That desire to explore was deeply rewarding.
Still, everything had to serve the ga's core gaplay and narrative.
The main story followed the Assassin Brotherhood, working from the shadows for good, while the Templars represented a more righteous face on the surface—but were corrupt underneath.
The lore set up a conflict that had been going on for thousands of years.
The main storyline took place during the historical Crusades.
There was also a subplot: everything the player experienced in the past was actually being simulated through futuristic technology developed by a powerful corporation.
It looked so real, almost like a live-action simulation, and could easily make players lose themselves.
The ga opened with the sa CG from the trailers, but soon transitioned to a near-future setting.
A mysterious company kidnapped a bartender nad Desmond and began conducting secret experints on him.
Desmond appeared to have a hidden identity of his own.
That strong sense of realism made Davidson love the ga even more.
He was amazed that video gas could have this level of depth—he'd truly underestimated them.
Everything he saw in the ga felt so real, so detailed.
Of course, he wasn't an archaeologist—just soone with an interest in history.
So he really had nothing to complain about.
Once the main story started, he couldn't wait to run around the world.
11th-century Jerusalem, the despair in the citizens—it all felt incredibly imrsive, as if he had actually traveled to that ti.
He swore it was the most realistic ancient world he'd ever seen.
In movies and TV shows, you're only shown what the director allows within the fra.
But video gas? They build an entire world from scratch.
He also rembered so of the gas his coworkers had recomnded.
They'd said so of those ga worlds were incredibly beautiful and worth exploring.
Now he understood. He didn't want to miss out on sothing this amazing.
On the market, Assassin's Creed represented a breakthrough in ga design.
While it was built upon the foundation of earlier titles, its presentation was refreshing and exciting.
Recreating historical environnts with such accuracy had never really been done before.
To ensure historical credibility, Gastar Electronic Entertainnt hired several world-renowned historians who specialized in the Crusades.
Let the professionals do what they do best—and that gave the ga a special kind of authenticity.
Add to that the involvent of Takayuki, the so-called god of ga developnt.
According to various interviews, the project had a grander purpose.
The first installnt of Assassin's Creed was co-created with input from many people, and Takayuki made a public commitnt: aside from covering necessary production costs, all profits from the first ga would go into a ga developnt fund.
Future titles would follow the sa model.
That fund would be used to support developers who dared to innovate and indie ga creators.
Anyone with bold and creative ideas, once approved by Gastar and other respected developers, could receive funding from the profits of Assassin's Creed.
Everyone knew Takayuki wasn't just focused on growing his own company—he wanted the entire gaming industry to thrive.
With such a vision behind the ga, people felt it would be a real sha not to buy and experience it.
And so, in its first week, Assassin's Creed easily sold over one million copies.
Gastar soon announced that the ga would be coming to even more platforms in the future.
Whether on rival consoles or its own systems, they wanted as many people as possible to play the ga—no platform limitations.
This would also help grow the ga developnt fund to support future creators.
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