Ubisoft’s Anno 117 Pax Romana is Historically Inspired Says Game Director

When Ubisoft announced Anno 117: Pax Romana, fans were immediately excited not only because of a new Anno title, but also because it revolves around the Roman Empire.

But while it’s easy to expect a history lesson from a game set during the height of the Roman Empire, it will be interesting to see how the setting incorporates into Anno’s core foundation. With one of Anno’s core foundations being built around islands, players will wonder how it will adapt to the setting, especially when Anno 1800, the previous Anno title, didn’t even have land combat.

I had the opportunity to interview Anno 117 Pax Romana’s Game Director, Manuel Reinher, and Creative Director, Stéphane Jankowski, to discuss the challenges of creating an accurate depiction of the Roman setting while remaining true to Anno’s game design.

Roman History Reimagined Through the Anno Franchise

“Anno games are never historically accurate,” “We are always historically inspired. That’s true not only for the stories, but also for the game design itself.” -Manuel Reinher

That statement defines Anno 117’s approach. Rather than recreating the past, the team aims to reimagine it — building a living, breathing version of the Roman Empire where authenticity fuels creativity, not constraint. This even brought about a massive change to Anno 117, where they added land battles and the Villa system instead of having purely naval battles and taking over islands through a port.

Even with this change, Anno still follows its own logic – a world built on islands, where resource management and trade define progress. It’s a setup that already deviates from real-world geography, but that’s precisely where the magic lies.

“One principle of Anno is that you play on islands, so space management is very important. That’s already a big clash with real history. But staying true to our DNA gives us the freedom to create something that feels authentic — something players can immerse themselves into.” -Manuel Reinher

With unique islands playing a big factor in game design, especially how you must deliberately choose among available islands for their unique resources, size, shape, and location, it’s already hard to imagine a scenario in the Roman Empire that played out like this.

However, the game focuses on crafting a world that captures the spirit of the era — its engineering marvels, cultural diversity, and political intrigue — while still letting players shape their own version of history.

Why Rome Was Chosen as the Next Anno Title

Every Anno fan knows that every new Anno title has its numbers add up to 9 (1 + 1 + 7), but you can maintain that numerical tradition with any setting. So, why Rome?

The decision to set the next Anno game in Ancient Rome wasn’t just about popularity — it was the culmination of both fan demand and creative vision.

“We knew that this setting was a fan favorite. We studied the different decades, but we also asked the team about what the players want. And an Anno game inspired by antiquity was always on the top notions there. But also, as a team, we were very keen on traveling back to ancient Roman Times and create an Anno there. So we felt it was a perfect fit. It also felt quite natural for Anno when you think about the game. It’s all about building, antiquity and, in particular, the Roman Empire stands for building something great that can last. And that’s a good fit for Anno.” -Manuel Reinher

Stéphane Jankowski, the Creative Director, adds:

“When we did the research about the game and about the Roman Empire, we found a lot of innovation – technological innovation that happened during that time – that was very revolutionary and lasted for centuries. It was really an age where building started to be something different – with different technology and different tools. It was immediately clear to us that Ancient is a good fit for an Anno game.

But we always try to find a new angle in terms of what kind of story we want to tell.. And once we learned about the time period of Pax Romana, combined with the different cultural backgrounds the Roman Empire united and the provinces that spanned across multiple continents, we found that this is a nice angle that we can tell like no other game before. So we were quite happy to find this unique take on the Roman Empire.”

With Anno 117: Pax Romana having two sides for the campaign, it’ll surely be enticing to see what story the team has concocted to unravel the story of Rome with their creative vision in mind.

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