Assassin's Creed's developers and Hampshire Cultural Trust team up to bring Anglo-Saxon Winchester to life in new attraction - 878AD | Big Read

But these are just some of the things you are invited to do in a pioneering new visitor attraction – virtually, at least.

Hampshire Cultural Trust has teamed up with Ubisoft, the video games developer behind the blockbuster Assassin’s Creed series, to create 878AD, which takes you back to a key point in English history, The Battle of Edington. A battle where King Alfred defeated the Viking hordes, it was a pivotal moment – not only turning the tide against the invaders, but also signaling the emergence of the England we know today.

Set on the eve the battle, 878AD combines a museum packed with cutting-edge interactive exhibits before members of the public head out on to the streets of Winchester and immerse themselves in Anglo-Saxon life using an augmented reality app on their phones. The app, developed by Sugar Creative, uses technology created for Assassin’s Creed Valhalla – the 12th instalment in the hugely successful video game series, which is partly set in Winchester.

The first part of the experience, inside The Brooks Shopping Centre in Winchester, allows visitors to step back nearly 1,200 years with interactive exhibits showing what life was like, along with reenactors bringing characters to life in front of them. Objects from the trust’s collection are also on display, including the exquisite Winchester Reliquary, the only known Anglo-Saxon reliquary – a container for holy relics – to have been found in England. A faithful recreation of the reliquary appears in the video game. As you exit this part of the experience – after hearing the outcome of the battle – you can head out on to the streets with the app. Downloading the app on your phone will let you take part in challenges and tasks while wandering around the city centre.

‘A brilliant synergy’

The ambitious project’s origins came about after Ubisoft contacted Ryan Lavelle, professor of early medieval history at the University of Winchester to act as an advisor on the latest Assassin’s Creed title – what would become Valhalla, and its non-violent educational counterpart, Discovery Tour: Viking Age.

Prof Lavelle, who also works with the trust, saw an opportunity and put the two in touch...

CEO of the trust, Paul Sapwell says: ‘Having met the guys at Ubisoft, we thought they were kindred spirits. But we thought, we can do better than just putting some of our objects into the game – as exciting as that is, and together we started talking about an experience. We wanted an experience out in the streets of Winchester, but we also wanted something immersive using the fantastic assets Ubisoft have in terms of their digital imagery.’

The trust also saw a way of updating the traditional museum experience of simply looking at objects behind glass and reading panels – and potentially reaching a new audience.

‘Yes,’ says Paul, ‘that’s massively important to us. The traditional museum experience, if you can find a traditional experience, I guess, is possibly not as appealing to everyone from the younger generation and this gives us a route to increasing our audiences and reach people who aren't interested in museums. We feel that it's really important to then blend that with the real-life objects that take you back to the period. It's a new way of interpreting things, really.’

When it comes to the Anglo-Saxon era, the ancient capital is uniquely placed to tell the period’s history: ‘Winchester has such a key role in the history of England – there's no better place to tell the story of the Anglo-Saxon birth of England than Winchester, here in the heart of Wessex. Ubisoft agreed – the final gameplay is played in Winchester against Alfred, so there's this brilliant synergy between what we're doing and what they were doing. It was too good to not make a big thing of!

‘Millions of people play Assassin’s Creed, so it's really exciting for us to be able to engage with that market. I hope it's the beginning of a really exciting journey for us with this kind of collaboration and this kind of tech. Ubisoft really care about history and accuracy, and we're really excited about technology here at Hampshire Cultural Trust. We're a young trust, we were set up to think differently and think big, and we pride ourselves on that.’

Historical authenticity

Having been involved from early on, Prof Lavelle is thrilled with how the project has turned out: ‘It's very exciting for me as someone who's been in Winchester for two decades. I've always been aware of the deep historical past, 1,000 years ago, on the streets of the city, but that sort of visual sense of the past isn't always apparent from the city beyond the layout and position of the buildings. I'm aware of the ghosts of the past, if you like, but it's exciting for me to be able to bring these places alive. We can place buildings, through augmented reality, where they could have been, and present a believable version of the Anglo-Saxon period.

‘There's a lot of good work that's gone into this, and a lot of really good archaeology on the city. In a way, what people are doing with the app is imagining their own versions of Winchester as they go around, and then hopefully that will give some people the opportunity to delve deeper into the reading of that historical past.’

The Assassin’s Creed developers pride themselves on the historical accuracy of the content their games – it is also used in their educational versions of the games, the Discovery Tours, which are often used in schools.

Amy Jenkins Le Guerroué, strategic partnership director for Ubisoft says: ‘It starts from our desire to be as authentic as possible in our games and therefore when we were creating Winchester for Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and Discovery Tour: Viking Age, Thierry (Noel, senior inspirational content manager for Ubisoft) was looking for experts in that period of time. He got in touch with Ryan Lavelle, who helped us on both projects. Ryan was aware of a big, ambitious project already moving forward slowly with HCT to create an attraction about Anglo-Saxon life, and he suggested we get in touch. It was really a co-creation because it was quite a loose idea at the time. Fast forward to today, it really evolved along the way – seeing what assets we could provide, what ideas they had - the original plans were nothing like this.

Thierry adds: ‘In the case of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, historical authenticity is one of the main pillars of the game, it has to be fun – it's a game of adventure – but a crucial element is authenticity. Our audience is expecting a high level of authenticity from us. Thanks to the technology we can reproduce the city life and every day life in amazing quality.

Talking about 878AD, Amy adds: ‘It feels like you're almost in it – it's like you're travelling in time. It's fantastic – this is a primary example of how video games can contribute to culture and education – it's a flagship in that respect. We're just really excited to see the public come in and go round it. This is a very ambitious project, but we have teachers who use our content, particularly the Discovery Tours. We work with lots of cultural institutions, providing a more immersive experience – a learning experience which is much more impactful because you have the visuals and the videos and you really feel like you're walking the historic streets of Winchester. We think the Assassin’s Creed fans are going to love the experience as well.’

How you can step back to 878AD

The 878AD experience is in two parts. It starts inside The Brooks Shopping Centre, Winchester, with an interactive attraction featuring live performances, before heading outside, using the augmented reality app, 878AD: Winchester Revealed.

The app is available for iPhones and Android handsets – but is not compatible with some older handsets. However, the team say some 86 per cent of phones in circulation can use the software.

Adult tickets cost £15, children (five-15) are £9. For more information go to 878ad.co.uk.