Let me tell you about this game
Project description
Assassin’s Creed: Incursion is a mobile game designed to make learning history more engaging through interactive gameplay. The game combines historical exploration with strategic card game mechanics, allowing players to discover real world locations while collecting and using character cards inspired by the past. Its core goal is to make history more interesting and accessible for a broad audience by blending education with gaming.
The experience uses a location based play style similar to Pokémon GO, encouraging players to explore their surroundings and learn about historical landmarks in an immersive way. By merging game design, education, and augmented exploration, the project demonstrates how interactive media can transform learning into play. The game combines exploration, strategic card battles, and narrative-driven
How might we turn history into an interactive experience using gamefication that encourages active learning?
![03aac7c9-43f1-4424-847f-166117286f50 [Omgezet]-01.png](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/913f29_b139482f689642bf9f03e7cd7168d76c~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_280,h_279,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/03aac7c9-43f1-4424-847f-166117286f50%20%5BOmgezet%5D-01.png)
History is often experienced as passive information, making it difficult for learners to stay engaged or remember key events. Many educational tools lack interactivity, context, and motivation. This project explores the question above.
The story follows an enemy faction attempting to alter the timeline by travelling into the past and creating alternate realities. The player’s mission is to stop this group by defeating them in card battles while uncovering historical events and knowledge.
Players explore the real world, where physical locations trigger historical encounters. Each encounter is part of a larger narrative:
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A card-based battle against enemy agents
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Unlock historical information linked to the location
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Narrative progression through the timeline conflict
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Player explores real-world locations. A location triggers a historical encounter.
Gameplay
The player battles enemy agents using their card deck.
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Winning unlocks historical information and timeline fragments.
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After defeating enough enemies, a Boss Tower becomes available.
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The player challenges the tower and battles a powerful boss character.
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Defeating the boss unlocks major historical content.
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A boss battle begins once the boss is found.​
The player enters a 360° reconstruction of the location in the past
Design Process
This is the design proces I had to use during this schoolproject
C
onnect
C
oncept
C
reate
The project started with understanding the target audience and identifying opportunities to make history more engaging and accessible. ​To gather insights, I conducted desk research, interviews, and surveys. Through these methods, I explored users' interests in history, gaming habits, learning preferences, and motivations for exploring new places. I also analyzed existing educational and location-based games to identify successful mechanics and uncover opportunities for innovation.​The most valuable findings were translated into Insight Cards, helping me identify recurring user needs and design opportunities. These insights formed the foundation for the concept development phase.
One of the most valuable insight was the fact that the people that don't history didn't have a great experience with it during middle/high school. The right teacher can make anything interesting.
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After the Connect phase, I presented my research findings to both my teachers and classmates using a Pecha Kucha presentation and a research poster. Prior to this presentation, I quickly translated the insights into two initial design directions to communicate possible solution spaces.
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Based on the feedback from the presentation, I refined and expanded these into six clear design directions. These directions served as the foundation for further concept development and prototyping.
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To explore and validate these ideas, I developed two low to mid-fidelity prototypes:
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A 360° YouTube-based experience set in World War II
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A simple RPG-style game combining history with exploration and quest-based mechanics
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These prototypes were tested during a prototype party with both peers and teachers. During this phase, I also learned how to create VR-based and interactive experiences through a workshop in the VR Lab, which supported the development of the prototypes.
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Based on the feedback and test results, I further refined the design directions into a final version (version 3), which formed the foundation for the final concept direction of the project.of helpen met de Create fase zodat alles dezelfde stijl houdt
To explore the user experience and gameplay flow, I created an initial set of wireframes. During this phase, I connected the concept to the Assassin's Creed universe, drawing inspiration from Assassin's Creed Rebellion and positioning the project as a potential spin-off game focused on historical exploration and learning.
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Based on this direction, I developed a second set of wireframes that further defined the user journey, progression system, and core gameplay interactions.
​Next, I designed the game's mechanics, combining location-based exploration, historical discovery, and strategic card battles. For the card battle system, I took inspiration from Dragon Ball Z: Harukanaru Densetsu, adapting its mechanics to fit the educational and historical goals of the project.
​The concept was translated into a playable prototype, allowing the gameplay loop and key features to be tested and refined. After evaluating the prototype, I developed a second iteration that incorporated improvements to both the user experience and gameplay mechanics.​The project concluded with a final presentation supported by explanatory posters and visual materials, which were used to communicate the concept, design decisions, and development process to teachers and stakeholders.
