Rebuilding Rome for a game

Detailed historical research, field trips, ancient maps and study of 16th century Renaissance art – a lot more goes into the creation of videogame art than you may think, writes Joe Griffin

DEPENDING ON who you listen to, videogames are either a thrilling young art form or an exploitative, shallow diversion. Both parties, however, may not appreciate how much work goes into a game’s appearance. Game designers are almost as varied as games themselves, with backgrounds in graphic design, TV, cinema, various disciplines of art (from comic artists to more conventional painters) and even industrial design and architecture.

The Assassin’s Creed series, in particular, is strikingly attractive and cinematic, and development of these games demands research, travel, innovation, craft and graft.

Maxime Pelletier, art director assistant on Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, says the games begin with plot, and not with concept art.

“We base ourselves on the first draft of the story – then we research references, photos for characters, location, and landmarks. Then, we work closely with a historian to be as faithful as possible to the chosen period.” Faced with a blank screen, the research phase is invaluable for designers, and while games are often influenced by movies or previous games, this series gets its inspiration from less conventional sources.

“On Brotherhood, our references were mostly old paintings from the period,” says Pelletier. “Then we do our concept art, inspired by paintings and photos. Next we are ready to start some research and development by doing some prototypes. Afterward, we work by iteration on the city layout with level designers and, based on what we want to achieve visually and technically, we do some 3D models of characters, houses, and props. We have to work also on the ambience, the lighting and the atmosphere linked to the art direction.”

Most games, even ones with no fantastical elements, take place in fictitious locations, but Assassin’s Creed and its sequels are based on real places (albeit with some minor artistic liberties taken). Previous instalments have taken place in Jerusalem, Damascus and Florence. The latest chapter, Brotherhood, takes place in Rome.

In fact, the model for the city’s appearance in the game was Leonardo Bufalini’s 16th century map of Rome.

Genevieve Dufour, the game’s production manager says: “At the beginning of the production of Assassin’s Creed 2, we did a lot of research on the Italian Renaissance and the 16th century in general. We studied the period through various media such as books, TV series and movies. Yet, I think we were most surprised with how the internet was a wonderful source of information as we found a lot of pictures, paintings, drawings and maps that helped us understand and capture the feel and the history of the period.

“Also, a few members of the team went to Italy to scout the cities such as Venice, Florence and, of course, Rome.

“Most of the details used in the production of Brotherhood come from pictures taken by the team during their initial trip in Italy,” she says. “We actually went to the minutia of importing Bufalini’s map into our engine and then scaling it until the size felt right.”

Luckily for the developers, there’s even more information about ancient Rome than you might think. “Rome was not flat like it is today,” Dufour explains, “so, in order to get the topology right, we used as a reference tool an ancient Rome Google Earth application that was surprisingly accurate. Using this we were able to create the legendary Seven Hills of Rome to a high level of accuracy. At the same time, it enabled us to quickly implement the Tiber River throughout the city.” Following the research, the game’s designers create a spare, vectored image, then colour it in and pepper it with previously designed details.

Pelletier says: “We add game-play, crowd, guards and mission elements. We also add visuals such as vegetation, props, roof [features] and we detail all the ground. We add special and atmospheric effects like fog and dust. In parallel, we adjust the sky and lighting to give the mood that we want to give to the player.” Pelletier says that the greatest challenge was “doing more with less”.

With every game they make, developers learn to get better graphics and game-play from within a console or computer’s limitations, but with sequels, there’s a demand to make them better-looking, more complex and sometimes longer than their predecessors. “Our main challenge is to do the most fun and the most beautiful game, respecting all the technical constraint. On Brotherhood, Rome is the largest city ever made of any Assassin’s Creed games. It was a great challenge to achieve.”

Assassin's Creed Brotherhoodis out now