They were originally intended her to play a much bigger role in AC Origins as the wife of our protagonist – but in the end, the plans failed to materialize.

AC Origins writer Jana Sloan van Geest brought her pain to Twitter, where she also described that unfortunately she failed to do what she originally wanted to do with her deuteragonist, Aya, also knows as Bayek, the protagonist’s wife.

After Jason Schreier wrote a bombastic revealing article for Bloomberg, virtually destroying Ubisoft with all its dirty, racist, homophobic, sexist affairs, and the company’s accepted “women can’t sell video games” slogan, the writer of a recent Assassin’s Creed episode couldn’t contain her frustration either, and decided to respond to Twitter comments that began to be speculated about the suspiciously small role of protagonist Bayek’s wife, Aya.

As it turns out, the company’s toxic corporate culture has already begun to influence game development: even though it has always emphasized to the outside world that Ubisoft is a believer in diversity, unfortunately the company didn’t give female protagonists a chance.

“Assassin’s Creed Origins, released in 2017, was originally going to injure or kill off its male hero, Bayek, early in the story and give the player control of his wife, Aya, according to two people who worked on it”, the report from Bloomberg reads. “But Aya’s role gradually shrank over the course of development”

According to the writer, it is a shame that they could not present Aya better, and her role had to be reworked and narrowed down. According to Van Geest, Aya wasn’t developed well enough and so the team couldn’t show all the sides of the character during the game. If they could give her more time in the game, with the right emotional context, people would probably have liked the figure much better.

“The director who hired me told me I would play a big part in defining Aya’s character”, the writer wrote on Twitter. “Then he went on sick leave, and I… didn’t end up doing that.”

Of course, but given a bit more emotional context, those traits would less likely be assigned to her.

— Jana Sloan van Geest (@janamakesgames) July 21, 2020

Van Geest later added,“it hurt so badly to hear AC fans calling Aya “cold” or “bitchy” or “ruthless.” The word you’re looking for is “underdeveloped”. I love Bayek and always will. Aya deserved better.”

“Thank you to everyone who didn’t find her underdeveloped. What I’m saying is we weren’t able to show every side of her we wanted to. More time with her would have made that easier.”

What do you think about Aya’s role in Origins? Would you have been happy for her if Aya played a bigger role in the game? Aya or Bayek?

Source: WCCFTech

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