The lead developer opens up about early access, gameplay, and what it means to be a witch.
At Gamescom 2026, I got to sit down and talk with Patrice Desilets, the creator of the Assassin’s Creed franchise and the lead developer on his new game, 1666: Amsterdam. We talked about a wide variety of topics regarding the game: its approach to gameplay through a roguelike system of randomness, historicity, and what players can expect in terms of optimization.
And he opened up the conversation by saying that “randomness is one of the core elements” of 1666: Amsterdam. “It surprises you, and no two runs are the same,” he told me, adding that the mechanic is grounded in the lore since Cleo, the modern-day protagonist, is deciphering a book about Noah and what’s happening in the game but still does not understand it.
And so, the randomness comes out of Cleo’s “guesses” of the translation and the book’s contents, which then translates into the gameplay.
“It’s just to let the player experience the game in different ways. But you can always pick the same [perk],” Desilets said. He further explained that players can tailor the experience to their own style, selecting perks and abilities that best fit their idea of how the game should unfold. Between Esbat, players will be given the chance to lock down one ability that they particularly liked, Desilets said, so not everything has to be randomized.
The game can also change when you lose your abilities and have to roll the dice again, forcing you to adapt to your current situation.
“It feels like it’s really, oh, because I had this in random, I have to change my mindset and play differently, instead of just going through ability trees that we’ve made for you.
Balancing everything out and reaching the desired level is difficult, said Desilets, and that is what makes early access the “perfect” way to approach developing a game like this.
سەرچاوەی فەرمی بە زمانی ئینگلیزی: https://www.destructoid.com/1666-amsterdam-interview/
