Assassins Creed - Architecture and Environment Study

Whilst on the hunt for material to research, I was suggested by a colleague to look into the Assassins Creed series in order to find some non-western visual design in current video games. Specifically, I have chosen to research the first Assassins Creed game. I chose this game out of the other in the series mainly due to my own knowledge of it, as it's the one I've played the most! This is a personal favourite of mine, as it was one of the first "open world" games I experienced, and was immediately immersed in.

Assassins Creed is an open world, historical, stealth exploration game. By this I mean, there is a lot to do in the game. AC was developed by Ubisoft Montreal in 2007 for Playstation 3 and Xbox 360.
Throughout most of the game, you play as protagonist assassin Altair Ibn-La'Ahad as you scurry and parkour your way across the rooftops and through the alleyways of the Holy Land, an area which would be more familiarly considered Israel, Palestine, Syria, Jordan and Lebanon.
The environments are highly immersive, each building detailed with middle-eastern architectural designs. Each bustling street corner decorated with textures and brought to life with authentic characters.

The narrative takes Altair to the sky, as the character must climb and navigate rooftops and various historical buildings to complete missions and story objectives. This allows the player to experience the environment in it's fullest. Taking advantage of a long field of view, the player can see the vast span of buildings and architecture, made even prettier through use of cinematic lighting, This is physically implemented in AC, as in order to expand the in-game map, the player must scale particularly high structures and activate a "Sync zone".

A viewpoint in Damascus, Altair atop a Minaret.

Middle Eastern Architecture

The sprawling cities and asymmetry of the Holy Land is historically the result of a different style of building laws. Whilst western countries have strict land and building laws, resulting in organised, huge structures in a linear design, middle eastern countries at this time did not. Land was not owned in the same way, and people built structures that suited their own needs. People would decide to live somewhere, and would build structures wherever suited and would fit. This resulted in the cobbled-together, layered look that Assassins Creed recreates.

Motif elements of middle eastern architectural are as follows;

• Attached housing, often with little to no spacing between
• Flat rooftops, permeated with simplistic dome shapes
• Mosques - Religion was predominantly Islamic
• Minarets (Arabic for "Beacon") - These are tall, slim towers usually attached to a Mosque.
• Stone/Sand materials
• Beams connecting adjacent buildings
• Framed windows
• Tight streets broken up by courtyards and small market areas 

Above is a simple depiction as to how these motif's work

Above: Line/Paint studies on the structure and design of these common middle-eastern buildings.

Cultural Relevance

The minaret is a tower in which a Muezzin (the person who leads prayer and worship) call the faithful to pray and pay respect 5 times a day. Before modern technology like speakers and amplifiers, the Muezzin would have climb large towers like these in order to make themselves heard to the faithful. This is nodded at in AC as Altair scales the Minaret's in order to scan the city. This then expands the players in-game map, allowing more locations and missions to be found.

Although technology has since advanced, many cities from Delhi to Saudi Arabia still feature the tall towers. These are cultural symbols, kept to honour the past.

The houses and buildings are tightly packed together, reflecting the traditional conditions in which middle eastern houses are generally kept. Between courtyards, churches and mosques stretch miles of winding passages, shaded alleyways and short bridges. Traditionally, doors were built specifically not to face one another, as it would mean seeing directly into each other's houses and would be a breach of privacy. The use of these structures and buildings add both cultural immersion and gameplay aspects.



Gameplay Function

The use of traditional middle eastern pattern and architecture has a direct and purposeful impact on gameplay. As Altair, the player finds themselves sprinting through alleyways, able to grab and climb from almost any object attached to a house or building. The use of narrow passageways, courtyards and tightly packed architecture not only immerses the player in an accurate middle-eastern setting, but also benefits gameplay through the free-running/parkour mechanic.
The rooftops are mostly flat, of varying heights and connected to most of the adjacent buildings through the previously mentioned beams and frame structures. Not only is this accurate to how traditional middle-eastern living conditions, but it again allows the player to further explore and traverse the land easily and at a running pace.