Assassin's Creed: Revelations Developer Talks About Constantinople Design

Ubisoft has talked about the design process in the upcoming Assassin's Creed: Revelations title and how the team tried to create a unique location with Constantinople, recreating all of its iconic landmarks that existed in the 16th century, while emphasizing the different cultures that clashed in that older version of current-day Istanbul.

Revelations is set to bring an end to the adventures of master assassin Ezio Auditore, while answering questions about his predecessor, Altair from the first game, and continuing the narrative of their modern day ancestor, Desmond.

A big part in Revelations will be played by the city of Constantinople, where Ezio is forced to flee after a very unsuccessful meeting with the Templar knights in the old fortress of Masyaf, as seen in quite a few trailers for the game up until now.

Talking with CVG, Ubisoft creative director Alexandre Amancio has described how the team tried to replicate the diversity of the city, both in its design and in its inhabitants.

"As Constantinople is the crossroads of the world and the center of the spice trade, we used this as an opportunity to create a very diversified setting," he said. "The city is cosmopolitan, filled with people from Europe, Asia and the middle east. This was a great opportunity to design a crowd with a lot of variations in the designs and colors."

"The city is also littered with monuments built during the Byzantine Empire and Ottoman Empire, we exploited this to create a nice contrast and diversity in the look of our landmarks and main districts of the game. Our setting is now rich from its historical legacy."

Amancio also confirmed that famous landmarks are also included in the virtual city, but those built after the 16th centruy, like the Blue Mosque, aren't present.

"Assassin's Creed Revelations includes all the famous landmark of Istanbul that were built at that time. Thus locations such as Hagia Sophia, Topkapi Palace Galata Tower and many more are present (Blue Mosque is not, as it was built in the 17th century and ACR happens in the 16th)."

Most of these locations will be home to secret Assassin's Dens, with Amancio promising to deliver great adventures to those that want to explore them.

Assassin's Creed: Revelations is out on November 15, for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, and in December for the PC.