Assassin’s Creed Odyssey’s Scott Bingham on its branching paths

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is a full-fledged RPG that wants to make the experience a personal odyssey for each player. With that in mind, we asked Ubisoft Montreal’s Scott Bingham, Script Writer on Odyssey, if his job was infinitely more complex than past writers of the franchise.

“Yes,” Bingham said with a chuckle. “I mean, writing is always hard.

“When you’re writing dialogue you think there is the best way to say something. In a game where there’s branching dialogue and multiple options, there isn’t necessarily the best way to say things.”

Bingham said Ubisoft Montreal was careful in planning Odyssey’s branching options.

“You have to keep track of everything. What you said back in quest two because it’ll effect quest four. You need flow charts and road maps to keep track of it all.

“The trickiest part was trying to figure out where to insert those choices and where good spots would be to branch off. And then, what type of branching would we like to do? And then, how to bring it all back. How to have it make a cohesive conversation. So, yeah — I don’t know if it was harder, but it was complex. Definitely more complex.”

Bingham approached the writing of the character of Alexios or Kassandra – essentially the same character with a skin of a male or female gender, in a very specific manner.

“Some days I felt like Alexios when I was writing, and other days I felt like Kassandra,” he said. “It really gave me an opportunity to write as both characters. I like to personally put myself in those situations — method acting, I like to think of myself as a method writer, so I try to imagine how I would react to many of these situations and conversations and put myself in either of their shoes.”

You’ll be able to place yourself in the shoes of either Alexios or Kassandra – because once you make the decision, you can’t change it – when Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey launches on Windows PC, Xbox One and PS4. Expect the game from 5 October.