Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood of Venice – July Interview
Topic: Playtests with the Community

ATA Team, July 31th, 2019

1) Having the game showcased during events such as SPIEL 2018 and Montreal ComicCon 2019, what was the most interesting feedback that you got from the fans?

We definitely run tons of playtests during conventions since the game was ready to test about 2 years ago. What's most interesting is that these conventions were the best places for us to confirm that the game we are making is appealing to both Assassin's Creed fans and board game lovers. According to people who came to us and tried it out, Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood of Venice is true to Ubisoft's universe and all players appreciate the game mechanics (mostly based on V-Commandos', and then improved) and the quality of the game materials. Of course, we also received some feedback about things to improve or add to the game, which we corrected when it made sense for us.

2) Which are the major feedback elements that you have received from the fans that have tested the game? Which are the areas that they felt that worked already and which ones needed to be fine-tuned?

Quality Assurance playtests have been part of the video game development, and we work the same way. Like I said, we get lots of positive feedback and the fans of the licence tell us that they do find the spirit of the Assassin’s Creed® video games. This is great for us, but what we are looking for, most of all, are all the feedback allowing us to improve the game by any way (cards, icons, rules, etc.). Indeed, we have very high expectations in terms of quality and quantity since we want to create a collector game. Having spoken a lot with the community on conventions, during dedicated playtests and on social media, we could not resist adding some new features or improve some assets for the game… We also decided to rework some of the assets shown during the Kickstarter campaign, such as the tiles which were entirely redesigned after players comments at Essen Spiel 2018, or Dariâ’s miniature. See the pictures, they speak for themselves. :)

3) Are you planning more community playtests in the future? Can you mention when?

In the next months, we will run playests here in Montreal but also blind playtests in France and other countries (list still under discussion). We will not attend international game conventions before 2020 to stay focused on the game development.