The Hidden Blade Assassin's Creed in Depth

The Art of Assassin's Creed 2

Firstly, Let me explain why I decide to make videos. I love gaming, it has been my passion since I was 8 years old. To me, gaming is an art form, just like movies and music, so in my videos I try to show that side of gaming. I decided to make my first video for Oblivion because I thought that user created mods made the game even better, so I decided to showcase them. I recieved great feedback so since then I have made a further 15 videos highlighting the best parts of games but with a twist. I will only do a video if I get an idea, instead of just putting out gameplay videos. I generally take the same approach to all my videos, so I'll describe how my video for Assassin's Creed 2 came about.

The Music:
As with all my videos, I start with the music (believe it or not). The Assassin's Creed series has a religious overtone to it. So almost immediately I knew I was going to use the music of Enigma. I used 'Mea Culpa' for the first and 'sadeness' for the second. You can see this pattern in my other videos such as 'Kissed by a Rose' for Batman Arkham Asylum, traditional Irish music for Oblivion (has a medieval feel to it), Star Trek music for Mass Effect and so on. If there are lyrics in the song that I have chosen, I sometimes match the scene to the lyrics. For example, the lyrics 'Fire and Rain' match a meteor shower in Dead Space, or 'turn off the light' for my Assassin's Creed 1 video.

The Gameplay:
I then choose the core gameplay mechanics such as fighting and climbing and compile a montage picking out the best of each. I also add in 'special' scenes such as the tombs, the flying machine and some cut scenes that got my attention.

The Twist:
At this point I think about what I can do differently and try to give my video a theme. For example, for GTA4, seen as it was New York, I did a 'Sex and the City' theme complete with intro and for Bioshock I did it in black and white with 50s music. While I was playing Assassin's Creed 2, I came across an art dealer and thought seen as this was the renaissance, I'd show some scenes as a renaissance painting complete with frames. I got inspiration from such paintings as the 'Mona Lisa' and 'Napolean on his horse' paintings.

That's pretty much it. The process usually takes 3-4 weeks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fO-iARS5g0E

Please note that I was asked to do this, I'm not one for blowing my own trumpet!