Assault Horizon Behind the Scenes
Markov

Probably the most asked about character in the run up to the release of Ace Combat Assault Horizon has been Markov, the enemy ace. Everyone, it seems, wants to know more about it.

Unfortunately, I can't give his backstory without giving away some of the plot of the game. Suffice to say he's every bit as good as Bishop is, maybe better. And he has reasons for what he does.

It may seem a little strange to non-writers, but to me, Markov was such a double for Bishop that for much of  the writing process I referred to him as only "the enemy ace" - he didn't have a name. It wasn't because he didn't have a personality or a backstory; he had both from the very beginning. But for me, he was as much a creation of Bishop's obsessions as a person in his own right. Giving him a name would have separated him too soon.

In some ways, the interest shown by players (or would-be players at this point) in Markov is exactly parallel to Bishop's own thoughts and actions, and exactly what I hoped would happen for the game. The characters you pit yourself against in the game - in any game - are as much your creation as that of the designers.

One way to have a game pattern itself after real life is to have the lead character go through a growth or development curve similar to what the player goes through. That could have happened in Assault Horizon if the player began as a newbie pilot - if, for example, he was a slightly younger version of Guts.

But the team didn't want to go in that direction. They wanted the top pilot to already be an ace. So I had to find different strategies to up the emotional ante, while still being realistic and true to the overall goals. And that's how Markov came about.