Hello everyone!

A Plague Tale: Innocence takes you on an adventure through medieval, war torn, and plague-ridden France with siblings Amicia and Hugo. Our new gameplay trailer showcases world-first footage of a brand new level, showing off a little more of what the game has to offer - careful use of the environment, puzzle-solving, and how light, darkness, and the rats are friend and foe in tandem.

Amicia must make it to the University, past the Inquisition’s worst and through a town racked with chaos - all to find a glimmer of safety in this dark, brutal world.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2w-k5iScmdw
This is just a taste of everything that awaits in the full game, where your wits, your ability to explore, Amicia’s crafting skills, and her partnership with Hugo are all that will keep you alive. Hugo is not your only companion on this adventure - as those orphaned by war and sickness band together to survive - will everyone see the light of day once again?



A Plague Tale: Innocence is a labour of love from Asobo studio with combined decades of experience in game development. It is an emotional tale packed with mystery, intrigue, and swarming, as ever, with rats.

We can’t wait to get A Plague Tale: Innocence into your hands on May 14, on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/752590/A_Plague_Tale_Innocence/

All good stories need a good soundtrack. A Plague Tale: Innocence brings haunting, beautiful brilliance to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC on May 14 with the incredible adventure of Amicia, her brother Hugo, the deadly Inquisition, and the endless plague of rats. To match, Olivier Deriviere the creator behind some of the most amazing video game soundtracks such as Vampyr, Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag - Freedom Cry, Remember Me, and Alone In The Dark, has done an incredible work on A Plague Tale: Innocence, composing dark themes with his signature instruments to create an unforgettable experience for everyone that plays.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVsHfouxedo
Two pieces are included in today’s video, which features the work of art director Olivier Ponsonnet, a speed painting of Amicia, ready for anything, and the rats, covering everything as they do throughout the game. Ponsonnet was featured in the Behind The Scenes series, discussing his approach to designing and creating the dark world of 14th century France - plague, death, warts, and all.



A 12-track Sound Selection from the game is also available on vinyl as part of pre-orders of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions at some retailers. More of Deriviere’s work is available on Spotify and Twitter. We look forward to sharing it alongside the game itself on May 14.

A Plague Tale: Innocence releases May 14 on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/752590/A_Plague_Tale_Innocence/

Hello everyone!

For the first time, the press has been hands on with A Plague Tale: Innocence and the response is clear: they love it. From the emotional journey of Hugo and Amicia to the incredible landscapes of medieval France, A Plague Tale has impressed on every level.

Get a look at just how wide-ranging and positive the feedback has been in our new Preview Accolades Trailer!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEu7k4OeyPM
“Full of promise” with “everything it takes to be a good game,” A Plague Tale: Innocence is “impeccably polished,” “distinctive and terrifying” with expectations from some of a “game of the year contender.” Doing an “exceptional job at portraying raw, emotional storytelling”, the game also features “haunting art direction” and there’s “a lot more to the gameplay and story than first meets the eye.” Regularly compared favourably to the genre’s best titles, journalists “came away from this preview absolutely desperate for more.”

We can’t wait to read and hear your feedback as well when A Plague Tale: Innocence arrives May 14 on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One!

See you soon in a new blog,

A Plague Tale: Innocence Team

https://store.steampowered.com/app/752590/A_Plague_Tale_Innocence/

Welcome back to our devblog series where we unveil a wealth of details about the making of A Plague Tale: Innocence, Asobo Studio’s upcoming adventure game coming 2019 to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. Today, we’re excited to continue to share more info about our main protagonists: Amicia and Hugo!


In this first part, we dive into the creative process behind the main characters: Amicia and Hugo.

A glance at video game history makes it clear that a strong character can carry a story and game world alone. With that in mind, how did we create Amicia and Hugo for A Plague Tale: Innocence?

We discussed with Sébastien Renard, Narrative Designer, about the story and characters of the game. Deciding who Amicia and Hugo had to be was relatively quick, but they’ve undergone many changes and iterations throughout the production process.



The story comes from ancient tales. The team worked for a long time on old classical texts, from authors such as Perrault, Grimm and Andersen. Sébastien naturally chose to tell the tale of Amicia and Hugo the same way these authors did: by contrasting the naivety and innocence of children with a dangerous and dark world.

A Plague Tale: Innocence was born from this juxtaposition of the adults’ and childrens’ worlds, between innocence and corruption. In medieval folklore, it’s common to find the idea of purity in youth facing the trickery of the rest of the world.



This background is perfect for telling a strong, intriguing story. It’s taken a year to reach the current result. Narration is always complicated, and you must iterate a lot and make tough choices to cover all the specificities of a video game, such as level design or gameplay.

Amicia and Hugo were born together on paper, making them inseparable for the team. This unique and strong link makes them realistic. They echo with the child that everyone has been.



It’s been a huge task to ensure they have a goal, desires, and doubts coherent with their lives, building their psyche, and making sure their reactions throughout the game are coherent with their emotional background. Creating Amicia and Hugo’s physiques was also a challenge, because a child doesn’t move, react or speak like an adult, and the team had to stick to the historical period while reflecting their personalities.

The result is two innocent children facing a brutal and ruthless world, in which millions of rats ravage the Kingdom of France - already beset by war and the Black Death.


Next, we'll be talking about the reasons for why Hugo and Amicia's bond together is so tight, beyond that of regular siblings.

Forced out of their home and on the run from the Inquisition, Amicia and Hugo travel through the devastated South-West of France to find shelter. The brother and sister barely know each other at the very beginning of our story, but they must learn to live and grow together in order to survive the countless threats surrounding them.



Sébastien Renard, Narrative Designer, recalls the origin of the De Rune siblings: “We wanted a heroine out of the ordinary. A partner gives us the opportunity to develop a growing bond between the player and the characters. We want players to gradually consider Hugo as a living and precious character that you want to protect.”

Caring about each other is a core idea for the team. Inspired by the poetic masterpiece Ico, one of the best examples of a game that highlights this idea in story and gameplay, Asobo has worked hard to convey this emotional link in the game mechanics.



It’s a narrative gamble to make Amicia and Hugo initially strangers to one another, despite being siblings. However, it has the benefit of meaning they’ll learn about each other through the story, as the player also learns gameplay mechanics. Narration and gameplay are always tied together.

An example of this is in how Hugo is vital to overcoming many situations, as his small size gives him access to areas Amicia can’t enter. On the other hand, he can’t stay alone for too long, or he may panic and flee or worse…



In the 14th century, fifteen-year-old Amicia is already seen as an adult, but keeps rejecting responsibilities in favor of a playful childishness. Thrust into a brutal and ruthless world where she’s forced to take care of her little brother, she must now take on responsibilities that any adult would find almost impossible to endure.

Five-year-old Hugo is torn between fear and excitement when discovering the world - he is the last link with a life of innocence that Amicia always cherished. “Hugo sees the last remaining scrap of beauty in a ruthless world,” explains Sébastien Renard. “He brings a bit of stability to Amicia, who is his shield against the raw violence unleashed on them.”


Finally, let’s zoom on the look of our young heroes, Amicia and Hugo.

You must always first consider how the shape of character will appear from afar. Will it strike an imposing figure, strong and massive, or be smaller, frail, and weak? Will there be a scar, or a specific, recognizable hair color? Sometimes, the story creates these physical characteristics, while otherwise it comes purely from the imagination of the team.



Sébastien Renard, Narrative Designer, explains that setting a face and an expression for a character takes most of the work. You can’t neglect any details as the player will spend hours with the heroes. Amicia must be in good shape, but not too athletic: she is a child from a noble family who never had to fight to survive. As for the story and psychology of the characters, coherence is key for the team. Hair, face, and expressions are the results of meticulous research into their historical and ethnological backgrounds.



Olivier Ponsonnet, Art Director, wanted to convey two main elements:

• The physical bond linking two children of the same family, translated by the constant proximity and Amicia’s will to protect her brother. They have to be as one against a hostile world.
  
• The historical details anchoring the game in the medieval era. Haircuts and clothes ensure the player is immersed in 14th century France. Amicia’s braids went through a lot of iteration in development, but now make her a unique and identifiable character. Reproducing it in-game was also a big technical challenge.

The team’s inspirations for young, lively Amicia and cunning-but-fragile Hugo also come from cinema. Movies that showcase frail young characters like Artificial Intelligence, The Sixth Sense, The Shining, or the works of Studio Ghibli were all in mind throughout development.



Finally, the look of our heroes is also linked to the gameplay. As a young teenager, Amicia can’t rush head down into battle. She must think and choose the option that is less risky for her brother. The lack of brute force to overcome enemies is reflected in the character model and forces players to be careful and crafty with the resources they have.

See you soon for more behind-the-scenes information and anecdotes about the creative process behind A Plague Tale: Innocence!

A Plague Tale: Innocence releases May 14th on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/752590/A_Plague_Tale_Innocence/

A Plague Tale: Innocence is a moving story of adventure and bonding through the darkest hours of history. In today’s Story Trailer, get a glimpse of the heartbreaking tale of young Amicia and her brother Hugo, on the run from the Black Death, a plague of rats, the Inquisition, and worse besides. Today also marks the beginning of pre-orders on all platforms.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKwTUEbcti0
The story begins in the Kingdom of France, as the Hundred Years’ War and emergence of the plague start to take a toll on the population. The De Rune family lives a still-peaceful, sheltered life in their castle and surrounding lands, but it can’t last...

Amicia and Hugo's journey will take them to incredible places, some indescribably horrifying, others hauntingly beautiful, and many a mix of the two. The people they meet, and their fates, will shape their story - and it is unlikely either sibling would survive without the other. As they grow closer, the world gets harsher, and that bond becomes ever more vital.



Pre-orders are now available for digital and retail on consoles, and digital PC. Digital pre-orders come with extra coats of arms for Amicia and Hugo, while retail ones have additional benefits depending on region - please check local listings for full details.

A Plague Tale: Innocence releases May 14 on PC, PS4, and Xbox One. Pre-orders are available now.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/752590/A_Plague_Tale_Innocence/

Welcome back to our devblog series where we unveil a wealth of details about the making of A Plague Tale: Innocence, Asobo Studio’s upcoming adventure game coming 2019 to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. Today, we’re excited to continue to share more info about a “protagonist" that you will have to face in our game: The Inquisition!

Let’s welcome our Game Director Kevin Choteau who will continue our discussion about the creation of the Inquisition in A Plague Tale: Innocence, started with Narrative Designer Sébastien Renard last week.




The Inquisition seemed like a logical choice for an antagonist once we decided on setting the story during the Great Plague. We were also aware of the already existing mythology surrounding them. There’s a wide set of narratives (such as witch hunts and burnings at the stake) depicting them as the bad guys. Their disproportionately threatening presence beside two children made them a natural choice as an antagonist.

What was also interesting about this time period for us was that by then the Inquisition was almost at an end, as a result of the general and gradual decay of organized institutions. Everything was falling to pieces. Some factions of the Inquisition were deeply aware of it as they desperately tried to hold on to their power. In A Plague Tale, we meet a stronger Inquisition led by the Great Inquisitor Vitalis. Actively looking for a way to end the plague, Vitalis is also hunting Amicia and Hugo for unknown reasons.


Kevin Choteau

It was quite tricky to research the Inquisition since there aren’t a lot of sources documenting their armed forces. You will find way more information on the Crusades than on the Inquisition, so we supplemented the already existing imagery around the Inquisition with our research into the Crusades and knights from the era. This melting pot of influences results in knights wearing bulky and very heavy armour. This directly influenced our gameplay as the Inquisition members are not as nimble as Amicia and Hugo, and can have trouble catching them. This aspect of gameplay directly helps Amicia and the player.

One of the coolest aspects about developing the Inquisition was creating great contrasts within the Inquisition. They project a confident and strong image, yet when the rats threaten them, even the most charismatic Inquisition members can succumb to terror. As soon as they notice the rodents, they lose all their charm.

The Inquisition has its own ways of fighting off the rats. The story is set only a few months after the beginning of the pandemic. At this point the Inquisition is trying to resist its spread the best it can since it hasn’t found the a great solution yet. The guards add spikes to their leg guards to stop the rats from climbing them, and safe spaces are created by lighting torches near their chariots. All the while, their alchemists work on developing new tools to make the Inquisition stronger than the rats.


A Plague Tale is not a historical game, so don’t expect to see historical figures. As you have probably gathered by now, while A Plague Tale gets a lot of inspiration from real life, it is a fictional tale at heart.



The Inquisition that was present in Bordeaux at the time isn’t remembered as very violent or even aggressive. Once we noticed that Bordeaux didn’t suffer a lot from the Inquisition’s presence, we got turned to the English and the Spanish Inquisition for inspiration, due to their far more brutal ways.

We also pondered how to present religion since the Inquisition is historically linked to it. It does come up in the game since we wanted to portray how the Pope and the Church react to the excesses of the Inquisition and the Great Inquisitor Vitalis himself. After all, at the time, several Inquisition members were excommunicated because they went too far. But history isn’t what we want to recreate through our game: it’s only a setting.

See you soon for more behind-the-scenes information and anecdotes about the creative process behind A Plague Tale: Innocence!

A Plague Tale: Innocence releases May 14th on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/752590/A_Plague_Tale_Innocence/

Welcome back to A Plague Tale Webseries. We’re happy and thankful that many of you appreciate the work of our team. Plunge today into the creative process behind A Plague Tale: Innocence in our third and final episode, Children of the Plague!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Edqt7ounzWk
With the first and second episodes introducing you to the characters and the unforgiving world they share, episode 3, Children of the Plague, focuses on their nemeses: the unnatural rat plague that swarms across medieval France and the Inquisition relentlessly hunting Hugo and his sister Amicia.



Death and disease follow in the wake of the plague rats, and not one person - clergy, persecutor, royalty, or peasant - is safe. While for Asobo Studio, rats were second to the main characters and the narrative focus, they became an integral part to the game’s structure and a core part of the experience, influencing every aspect of the design. The inquisition has begun to fight back, and their equipment is tailored towards stopping the plague, using modified armor and light to keep the rats at bay.

A Plague Tale: Innocence releases May 14, 2019 on PS4, Xbox One, and PC.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/752590/A_Plague_Tale_Innocence/

Welcome back to our devblog series where we unveil a wealth of details about the making of A Plague Tale: Innocence, Asobo Studio’s upcoming adventure game coming 2019 to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. Today, we’re excited to share more info about a “protagonist" that you will have to face in our game: The Inquisition!

Let’s welcome our Narrative Designer Sébastien Renard who will cover the creation of the Inquisition in A Plague Tale: Innocence, as well as the many challenges the team faced during development.


The Inquisition you encounter in the game is a combination of historical research and our own idea of the medieval organization. In A Plague Tale: Innocence, they are trying to stop the rats and ultimately the plague from spreading, so you could say that their goal is rather noble. Their methods, on the other hand, are extremely harsh and cruel. The inquisition wasn’t known for caring for the common people.



A Plague Tale’s version of the Inquisition is a progressive one. Driven by a particular and personal faith, the leader of the Inquisition, Vitalis, sees beyond contemporary dogmas. While his army is combating the spread of the Black Death, he attempts to find an answer through alchemy. Vitalis is convinced that he is working for the common good, and is prepared to commit the most heinous acts in its name.


We wanted to depict our Inquisition as having its own identity (made possible thanks to the art direction). The Inquisition was very powerful at the time, and we show this partly through how they continuously develop new technology to deal with the rats. We also wanted to show the great discrepancies between the Inquisition and the Church. The Inquisition is visionary: it understands the new danger faster than the Church, which is too busy hiding. Vitalis himself is at odds with the Church and wants no ties to it.

You will quickly come to realize that the Inquisition has a veritable army at its disposal. This is a good way to convey their power at a mere glance. It’s also a direct reference to how the Inquisition used to seize goods from nobles who had supposedly run foul of the law. By these practices, they grew as a direct rival to the Church.

Sébastien Renard

During the Great Plague, the Church was ready to dismantle the Inquisition. However, in A Plague Tale, we chose to portray an Inquisition that is managing to dodge the Church’s attacks. It’s far more powerful under the Great Inquisitor Vitalis, and as a result, it’s also the only force able to fight the plague.

To counter the animalistic danger represented by the rats, we needed a great human threat. We first thought of other figures, such as heretics, but the Inquisition felt like the right choice. What was incredibly useful about the Inquisition was that we could give it a proper visual identity thanks to their armour and banners. These are symbols of the era and reminders of how religion influenced every aspect of society. The Inquisition therefore brings something new to the table: a human opponent with deeply human behaviour. It also helps to shine a light on the constant clash between innocent children and corrupted adults.

The stealth gameplay comes through as a result of The Inquisition forcing Hugo and Amicia to be wary and stay out of sight as they travel. Amicia can fight the Inquisition, but in order to do so, she must develop her skills over time. At the start of our story, our protagonists are cautious, but gradually, they learn to use the rats in their favour. For both Amicia and the players, the main goal is to understand the Inquisition’s new “technology”, and to either choose to stop it or use it to fight back.


The Inquisition is a rather grim symbol of the Middle Ages, and best known for the terrible Spanish Inquisition, which was far more violent than the one present in Bordeaux at the time. There, the Inquisition seemed quite reluctant to severely punish people, with the exception of state criminals.



To create the Inquisition, we were particularly influenced by various works in popular culture. Movies such as The Name of the Rose and Black Death, TV-shows like Inquisitio (a french show) and even the manga Berserk (mostly due to its dark aspects).

See you soon for more behind-the-scenes information and anecdotes about the creative process behind A Plague Tale: Innocence!

A Plague Tale: Innocence releases May 14th on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/752590/A_Plague_Tale_Innocence/

Welcome back to A Plague Tale Webseries. We’re happy and thankful that many of you appreciate the work of our team.With this webserires, plunge into the darkest hours of history, and discover the creative process behind the game!

The second episode: Dark Ages is now available!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y13VeD0fzJQ
After a first episode which mainly focused on the young sibling protagonists Amicia and Hugo, Episode 2: Dark Ages takes us to the Middle Ages. Discover the process that went into forging a grounded, realistic world, set in one of the darkest hours of human history.

The creative team at Asobo Studio explains their inspiration for the world they built - from visiting real French villages whose layouts, streets and buildings find their roots in medieval times, to taking cues from famous painters to craft the game’s naturalistic lighting. The carefully crafted world serves to enrich the story and the characters, and contributes to creating this moving, emotional experience.



Stay tuned for the third episode, available Thursday next week.

A Plague Tale: Innocence releases May 14, 2019 on PS4, Xbox One, and PC.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/752590/A_Plague_Tale_Innocence/