Ubisoft has released some Assassin’s Creed concept art created during the early days of the first game.

The art is the work of Khai Nguyen, and dates back to when the development team was looking at the game as a Prince of Persia spin-off, with the assassins guarding a young prince. We’re certainly glad that they chose to move away from that idea and go with the conflict against the Templars, as it makes for a much more interesting game.

The team also looked at making a female assassin lead and including co-op in the game. Sadly both of these ideas have been off the table ever since. It’s a shame considering these are two of the most requested features since the series first launched. Who wouldn’t want to bring a friend into the world of Assassin’s Creed, imagine the possibilities.

This art looks simply beautiful, and shows a simpler time before the series became a huge success. You can see the thought processes that the team was going through while trying to decide how to approach the game. In the end they obviously made the right choices, but it would have been nice to see a few of these ideas make it past concept.

Would you like to see a female lead and co-op implemented in the future? Let us know in the comments below.