Assassin’s Creed Mirage is the latest entry in the long-running franchise by Ubisoft. It’s slated to launch for the PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and PC on 5 October 2023. Recently, we were lucky enough to be given the opportunity to visit Ubisoft Singapore (which was involved in the development of the game) and interview Assassin’s Creed Mirage lead artist Syarah Mahmood.

This interview has been edited for clarity. You can head on over here for our full review of Assassin’s Creed Mirage.

You’ve previously worked on the beautiful European settings in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, and the islands of Greece in Odyssey. What was it like going from those to that of 9-century Baghdad in Mirage?

Syarah Madmood: Honestly, it’s a breath of fresh air because every title in the series usually, we would go or we would explore an iconic time period or setting and to be able to work on Baghdad in the 9th century, the golden age of Islam was really an amazing experience because it’s at the height of its time, like it’s one of the major centres of knowledge and they had really amazing architecture, so as an artist, it’s a really inspiring moment in time to try and recreate.

It does come with its challenges as well, because we know that Baghdad is a lost city, so we had to do research, talk with experts to study maps and the architecture around that time in order to recreate this. It’s always inspiring and challenging, I feel, to recreate this environment for players to enjoy.

Throughout this game’s development, what would you say has been the favourite thing you’ve worked on or the work you’re most proud of?

Syarah Mahmood: My proudest, I would say, because I’m a lead artist here in the Ubisoft Singapore studio, I work with a talented team of artists and developers. I think one of the challenges and the most fulfilling is the recreation of the landmarks that you see in the game. Somewhere in the Abbasiyah district, there are one or two iconic districts Ubisoft Singapore worked on, the other one being Karkh. We have landmarks like the House Of Wisdom, The Dome Of The Ass, The Bimaristan, a type of hospital, and also in the Karkh district, we have the great bazaar. So when we think of Baghdad in the Middle East back there, we think of the bazaars, the souks, where trade happens.

Those take a lot of deep dive into the history, a lot of love to really recreate in all its splendour as authentically and respectfully as possible. I would say, that’s my most favourite part, I’m most challenged by it but I think, together with the team, it’s a great payoff because when we see it in the game and when we see players play the game, it brings so much joy. I hope that players will enjoy it.

What else did you find challenging when you worked on the game?

Syarah Mahmood: It (9th-century Baghdad) no longer exists today, so it was a challenge to respectfully recreate it for players to enjoy. And maybe the second would be to find the balance between gameplay and recreating the authenticity of the history. At the end of the day, Assassin’s Creed is a work of fiction, right, but it draws heavily from history so we always have to balance the authenticity and the respectfulness of how we recreate those locations and the gameplay, people have fun and being able to parkour. That’s also a challenge and I hope with the hard work that the team has put in, that players can enjoy this balance of experiencing an immersive city.

How has the smaller scale of Assassin’s Creed Mirage helped you develop and improve the game?

Syarah Mahmood: Assassin’s Creed Mirage is a condensed game. It’s like a throwback to the first few ACs, very dense and vibrant cities, where we can bring the focus back on the main pillars of the game. Assassinations, parkour, stealth, so we work with that in mind and also to create a very dense and vibrant city to put the quality in as well.

Working with this timeline, it’s important that you put in the love where, for example, when I brought up the landmarks, we focused on the immersion so that it brings up the three pillars of the Assassin’s Creed franchise. A lot of dedication went into improvements for parkour, animations, as well as the features worked on by the Ubisoft Singapore team.

We really embraced that and try to ensure that players have a good experience playing the game.

What else did Ubisoft Singapore worked on in Assassin’s Creed Mirage?

Syarah Mahmood: There are also areas in the wilderness-like locations that we have worked on as part of the quest arc in Abasiyah, which brings players into the desert. Those locations have also been worked on by artists and developers at the studio.

What do you think is the biggest appeal of Assassin’s Creed Mirage, besides it’s unique setting?

Syarah Mahmood: Assassin’s Creed Mirage is a celebration of the 15th anniversary as a throwback to the first few Assassin’s Creed games. Besides also having a really immersive world, we have very narrative-based quests that we’ve seen before in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. It’s also a condensed version, there’s parkour, like a heavy emphasis on the assassinations, so hopefully that also gives variety to players who are used to the more RPG elements of the recent previous games. So, this does have lighter (RPG) elements as well.

What can you tell us about the process of using local muezzins (people whose job it is to recite Adhan, the Islamic call to prayer) in Assassin’s Creed Mirage?

Syarah Mahmood: It’s a collaboration, earlier on we wanted to have the call to prayer in the game, locally the audio team sourced for a muezzin to do the call to prayer. It’s interesting, because this muezzins, he’s actually certified to do, because different areas have different styles of call to prayers, so he was certified in the Middle East, so hence the authenticity.

They recorded him locally, and then it’s a collaborative effort, there’s the audio team in Singapore and the audio team at Ubisoft Bordeaux, they help together to put it into the game. At certain times, you can actually hear it playing.

Overall, it’s a collaboration, but the recording was done here at Ubisoft Singapore.