Assassin's Creed Flashcards
INDUSTRY AND AUDIENCE
What are stress tests?
When testers deliberately try to ‘break’ the game to identify potential problem areas.
What is meant by alpha testing ?
Once the game becomes ‘playable’ the developers may release an ‘alpha’ version to a small consumer audience to gather vital data about game play and explore other flaws.
What is meant by beta testing?
A more ‘finished’ version than alpha releases, beta versions of a game tend to be basically complete with minimal bugs or errors.
(access to beta as a pre-order perk is a growing trend)
What is meant by a pitch?
A short summary document that presents the games selling points and why the concept should be developed further (often includes a short summary of the narrative ideas)
What is a concept?
Rough prototypes of game play or characters, alongside artist sketches that can provide a sense of he visual look and feel of the game content.
What is an AAA game?
A title developed by large studio, funded by a massive budget
What is an indie game?
A game produced by an independent games developer
- often quirk and simple due to budget constraints
What does DLC mean?
Downloadable content
- extras that can be downloaded in online games
What is Assassin’s Creed’s plot?
Set in a fictional history of real world events, follows the century old struggle between Assassins, who fight for peace and free will, and the Templars, who desire peace through control
Who developed Assassin’s Creed?
Ubisoft Montreal
Who published Assassin’s Creed?
Ubisoft
How is Ubisoft vertically integrated and how does this help the company?
- Ubisoft is also vertically integrated, meaning that it controls several stages down through the production process. In this case, game production (making the game) and game marketing.
- As a large international company, Ubisoft has a big marketing department and this has the advantage of allowing the marketing team to work with the games designers right from the early stages of production. The marketing team has a lot of experience of the entire franchise and the gaming audience and is able to produce innovative campaigns. Again, because Ubisoft is a global company, the marketing department has the knowledge of how to attract local audiences and key gaming markets of North America, Europe and Japan with different campaigns. Ubisoft’s campaign for Assassin’s Creed III was an example of this.
How is Ubisoft horizontally integrated and how does this help the company?
- It is horizontally integrated because it owns many companies across the production stage, such as Red Storm Entertainment, Blue Mammoth, Massive Entertainment and many Ubisoft studios in different countries.
- Horizontal integration allows Ubisoft to increase the amount of games it can make and specialise. For instance, Rem Storm specialises in first person shooter games.
- It also means that different studios can work together to produce the big triple A titles. For Instance, Assassin’s Creed III Liberation was produced by three Ubisoft studios, Montreal, Milan and Sofia.
- Horizontal integration also gives Ubisoft a global reach and this is important in allowing it to reach the key gaining markets in North America, Europe and Japan.
What aspects of the Assassin’s Creed franchise are there?
- Assassin’s Creed III Liberation forms a small part of the Assassin’s Creed franchise.
- A video games franchise involves not only a series of games, but also a range of related products, such as merchandise, books and graphic novels.
- Assassin’s Creed also has a film starring Michael Fassbender, produced by Ubisoft motion pictures.
- Part of the video games franchise is also the downloadable content (DLC), giving players the opportunity to download additional weapons, characters and skins. Because the PS Vita has WIFI functionality, Ubisoft created promotional DLC, a ‘Mysteries of the Bayou Pack’, that came with pre-orders of the game.
What is synergy?
Synergy is when two companies work together to benefit each other.
