Prince of Persia

10 Oct 2008 at 17:12:03 by

IncGamers caught up with Ubisoft's Montreal team as it readies the latest Prince of Persia game for release. Simply titled Prince of Persia, could this be the definitive game in the series? Ubisoft's Thomas Delbuguet explains why it's all change for the Prince.

The last Prince of Persia game seemed to complete the ongoing storyline. What was the idea behind the new game?

TD: Basically, we were given a mandate to rejuvenate the brand for the next generation of console. We knew we were going to start a new project and we wanted to do something new. We looked at a lot of the things that worked and didn’t work in the previous games and focused on the elements that define the Prince of Persia brand. We realised that it was the dynamic and choreographed acrobatics with an open and deep combat system that gave you flexibility about how you wanted to fight. So we took these elements and started developing a new direction. We said “let’s bring in new characters, a new prince and a new world.” We looked at the acrobatics and thought “let’s take it further, let’s add the ‘extreme’ label.”

What prompted the decision to introduce a more active female companion this time around?

TD: We quickly realised it was actually her story; it wasn’t really about the Prince. We really wanted to bring back some of the magic of 1001 Nights. A lot of the elements we put into the game are inspired directly by that. But we didn’t really know what we should do with these new characters. It took us a while to realise that it was going to be Elika  – it was going to be the support character – that was going to be the story. This quest that we have going with the adventurer – we call him a prince, but he’s not a prince yet – is his ascension towards becoming a prince. He discovers the values of this character, Elika, and her world which are pretty alien to him. He starts embracing these values and evolves as the story progresses. He’s always going to the joker, but he does start to change.

So why did you decide to make this ‘Prince’ so different?

TD: We wanted players to relate to him. This is the character that you are going to play, right? So we decided “sure, we could make him a prince, we could make him this , we could make him that.” But we thought “if we don’t make him much, then people will invent their own stories.” He does have a backstory, but not all of it is going to be exposed to every player out there. There’s going to be a lot of room for mystery and imagination. Your own interpretation will add to the character.

Will each gamer take a different path through the game? Will each player have a unique experience?

TD: The story will unfold, although not in a linear kind of way. You will still get the majority of the story in the same way as anyone else who plays the game. But we realised that people don’t always agree about story. Some think there’s too much, some think there’s too little. One of our strategies in dealing with this was to give you a choice. Rather than shoving story down your throat, we decided to give you a button to dive deeper into the story. Depending on where you are in the world, and what you’ve done previously, you have the choice to get a little bit more of the story at the touch of a button. You’ll learn more about the relationship between the Prince and Elika, about her history and what she’s been through.

Did you take on board criticism of the previous games in the series when designing Prince of Persia? For example, the camera system.

TD: Absolutely. We made a lot of improvements to the camera system going from Warrior Within to Two Thrones, but obviously when we started this one our goal was not only to continue improving it, but also add more to it. We wanted to add a more cinematic feel to it. I think we’ve done a pretty good job of incorporating this aim into the new system. For a lot of the sequences we were taking the camera into account right from day one, and that’s important to note. For example, combat. We wanted to take more liberties with the camera, so our DOP (Director of Photography) experimented with a lot of strategies and systems to make the camera work. We pretty much settled on what worked best globally, but so many key portions of our game design were designed considering camera. Now the camera gives cues to the player. For example, every time you deflect an enemy attack, the camera actually resets and moves into a more 2D panel. It’s discrete, but it also adds something dynamic to what you’re seeing.

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