In December 2010, Ubisoft created a video that represented its ambitions for Assassin's Creed III

Loading

“ For a while we took the bow out of the game

Loading

Philadelphia was prototyped for Assassin's Creed III, but ultimately cut because "it just wasn't very much fun." Hutchinson said Philadelphia is "very, very flat, it's very, very rigid. The streets were too wide." It also would have represented the first "planned city" in the series -- Philadelphia was built on a grid, unlike the more unpredictable nature of past settings. Instead, Philly is a town you'll visit in cutscenes rather than suffer through in gameplay.When it came to creating a main character, Hutchinson wanted a hero that could hang with Altair and Ezio. "I believe, even as someone who didn't work on [Assassin's Creed II], that Ezio is one of the best characters in games." Connor, therefore, had to be as iconic as Ezio and Altair. He was always intended to be Native American -- "We didn't want to make Mel Gibson from The Patriot fighting for America, nor did we want someone fighting for king and country -- but he wasn't always the guy we know now.Early concepts deliberately went to artistic extremes. The "full on eagle outfit was never going to fly," Hutchinson said. In that particular image, Connor was decked out in wide-spreading feathers and had an an animal head for a hat. Ubisoft concepted him in all sorts of animal skins as well as minimalist robes before ultimately settling on subtle cultural twists on a classic white robe.

Mitch Dyer is an Associate Editor for IGN's Xbox 360 team. He’s also quite Canadian. Read his ramblings on Twitter and follow him on IGN