Assassin's Creed Odyssey: Legacy of the First Blade DLC
Product Designer (Quest Designer)
I contributed to this 3-part DLC for Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, where the challenge lay in crafting compelling quests within the constraints of an existing world that could not be significantly altered. My role involved designing engaging experiences, collaborating across disciplines, and finding innovative ways to tell immersive stories.
Here are some key highlights:
In Summary
Key Contributions:
- Designed and executed high-stakes narrative-driven quests, blending stealth, combat, and exploration elements.
- Streamlined quest creation workflows and leveraged on procedural tools to meet tight production schedules without sacrificing quality.
- Balanced player agency with strong storytelling by incorporating meaningful narrative choices.
- Coordinated with cross-functional teams to maintain consistency in design vision and lore.
Quest & Design Highlights • Additional Contributions
Quests & Design Highlights
Persian Puppetry Quest: Crafting Exposition Through Engaging Gameplay
Key Contributions:
- Cinematic Collaboration: Worked closely with narrative and cinematic designers to craft impactful cutscenes, aligning with leads and handling backend setup for smooth transitions.
- Background Storytelling: Placed strategic NPCs along the player’s path to provide passive exposition without disrupting gameplay.
- Interactive Investigation: Designed a streamlined investigation objective where players interrogate key shipyard workers to learn about The Tempest. Careful placement minimized frustration and maintained narrative focus.
- Subtle Foreshadowing: Introduced NPC spies subtly tracking the player during the investigation, providing a rewarding detail for attentive players who engage with them.
This quest introduced The Tempest, the central antagonist of Part 2, and focused on delivering exposition in creative ways to keep players engaged.
Knives in the Dark Quest: Leveraging Systems for Unique Encounters
Key Contributions:
- Systemic Mercenaries: Integrated custom mercenaries with tailored fighting styles and behavior, distinct from the typical bounty system.
- Strategic Challenge: Crafted mercenaries with complementary combat roles—a brute and a poison-wielding rogue—to offer varied tactical encounters.
- Stealth and Combat Options: Designed opportunities for silent takedowns or an all-out fight, catering to different player styles.
This quest utilized procedural systems combined with handcrafted elements to create a fresh gameplay experience. By combining existing systems with custom elements, we delivered memorable gameplay moments that felt fresh and challenging.
Additional Contributions:
- Onboarded new team members, sharing best practices in quest and level design.
- Wrote flavor text and contributed to brainstorming narrative beats for quests.
This project was a rewarding opportunity to deepen my quest design expertise while leveraging my level design background, ultimately contributing to a rich and immersive player experience.
Legacy of the First Blade is a downloadable content expansion pack for Assassin's Creed: Odyssey which was released on December 4, 2018. It is the first out of two expansion packs for the game, alongside The Fate of Atlantis.
A three-part episodic story arc, it is comprised of the memory sequences Hunted, Shadow Heritage, and Bloodline, with each episode being released roughly every six weeks from December 4, onward.
The expansion introduces players to the first person to ever use the Hidden Blade and will reveal more about the history that ultimately led to the formation of the Assassins.