Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag is a large departure from the series, adding an emphasis on pirates and naval combat. When we saw this new take on the franchise, we naturally had plenty of questions--and Ubisoft was more than happy to answer them.

Why did it decide to go with a new title? What will keep the open sea from being boring? Who is even making this game? Ubisoft got Black Flag producer Martin Schelling and mission director Ash Ismail to answer these questions and more. Take a look!

Ubisoft: We started the project in Summer 2011, and at that point we knew we were going to be making a pirate game.

The way we see it, a pirate game is not just every little kid’s dream—it is also every dev team’s dream. When we saw the early tech demos of the naval sequences in AC3, we knew right away that we had something special in our hands. It instantly opened up a new era that was previously unthinkable for our franchise: Piracy.

There is just so much richness to the real history of pirates. When we first started researching the era, we realized that what actually happened during the Golden Age of Pirates was so crazy, so unique, that we had all we needed in these true historical events to tell an explosive story, and to give players the opportunity to be a true pirate from that era.

And of course, we feel that we are the perfect franchise to treat this genre in a mature, edgy, and gritty manner like it has never been done before. We aren’t Disney, and pirates aren’t only a children’s fantasy. We are bringing you a mature, HBO-style take on pirates, the one that this genre deserves.

Ubisoft: Because the game is so radically different from the one that came before it. It’s not just about having a new setting and a new hero, although that helps. It’s about the scope, the open-world gameplay being so different from the previous game. The game is just a completely new, fresh beast of its own--it deserved its own number.

Ubisoft: We have put in place the team that we need to create a game of such a scope. For example, we’ve enlisted the help of 7 other internal Ubi studios to work on the different parts, and we have a very efficient international collaboration team that oversees and integrates all the work done by the different studios. The team is definitely as big as AC3’s team!

Ubisoft: We do have a lot of upgrades for Edward himself. The arsenal of a Pirate is very varied and eclectic, so over the course of the game you will be able to upgrade to 4 flintlock pistols, dual-wielding melee weapons, and much more. Those tools will give you flexibility in how you want to approach targets.

But the meat of the gameplay progression comes in the form of the Jackdaw: Edward’s ship. The Caribbean is a big, mysterious place filled with dangers. So much so, that you won’t be able to access every part of it, or beat everyone in a naval battle, with the un-upgraded Jackdaw.

So you will need to explore the map, find loot, plunder ships, in order to upgrade the Jackdaw and become stronger, or more robust. These upgrades will allow you to experience more of the game’s content, which will in turn allow you to upgrade your ship even more.

In terms of example, we have many different enemy archetypes at sea that all behave in vastly different ways; they will require you to have different upgrades to deal with them, to adapt and use a different strategy. One such enemy is the Chaser, an enemy that is weak on the broadside, but has a very strong battering ram at its prow. It is also faster than you! How you deal with this enemy is up to you, but one thing is certain: you can’t stand still and try to line up cannon shots as you would with a regular Brig facing you.

Ubisoft: Definitely! As we have said in the past, the Desmond story is over, but the plotline of the present day keeps going. Now, the player is the hero, and he or she is a new employee at Abstergo Entertainment. His/her first mandate is researching a famous pirate named Edward Kenway.

We took the opportunity presented to us by Desmond’s absence to bring the player one step closer to the Assassin. Instead of playing an avatar (Desmond) who, in turn, became the Assassin in the past, now you are actually logging into your own Animus station at Abstergo Entertainment and researching Edward Kenway. This brings the player closer to the fantasy!

Ubisoft: That would be telling! We can definitely confirm the game starts in 1715, at the start of the Golden Age of Piracy.

The Golden Age of Piracy started with The Golden Fleet. This fleet was composed of 11 ships that were loaded with gold and other precious treasure, and it sank on the coast of Florida in July 1715, sparking a gold rush of sorts. British sailors, who were abandoned by the Empire after the war ended a couple of years prior, flocked to the Golden Fleet to salvage the treasure.

Ubisoft: Without revealing too much about the story, Edward is definitely friends with most of the famous pirates of the era. He drinks in a tavern in Nassau with Blackbeard, sails alongside Benjamin Hornigold, raids plantations with Charles Vane and attacks smugglers with Calico Jack.

Those men, along with other pirates, built the Republic Of Pirates in Nassau, which was the first real attempt at a democratic society in the New World. For a while, they held the Caribbean hostage, and you have to remember that it was the most important trade route in the world at that time. The story revolves around the creation of this Republic, and explores how a band of criminals could possibly have built something like this.

Ubisoft: Definitely, we will interact with other historical figures that aren’t pirates. But we aren’t ready to lift the veil on those figures yet!

Ubisoft: We don’t see the game as a game focused solely on the ocean itself. It’s not set in the middle of the Atlantic, but rather in the Caribbean--a place with tons of opportunities on both land and sea, and completely seamless to boot. It’s the only way to do it for us, we can’t have 2 games (one on land, one on sea). It is one game that fuses classic AC gameplay (combat, free-running) with a completely new and fresh pirate fantasy.

Let’s take an example of an open-world event. You might be enjoying city gameplay, free running across the rooftops of Havana, and suddenly you fall upon a citizen being harassed by Spanish troops. Save him, and he will tell you of a stockpile of spice and herbs, hidden on a plantation off the shore of Kingston. You run to the Jackdaw and set sail towards the plantation. But that part was only the beginning.

On the way there, you might see a couple of merchant ships you want to loot, as they contain goods too valuable to pass up. Or you might see the rare White Whale on the horizon. You might spot a new island that you’ve never seen before, with its own secrets and content. You might see an ally being attacked by the Spanish, and need to defend him. You might have no choice but to navigate through a narrow passage that is guarded by a naval fort. You might even forget where you were headed to in the first place!

Basically, we are creating our open-world to constantly bring fresh, interesting and fun content to you. You never know what might happen at sea, no matter where you’re headed and if you’ve been there before. We want to keep surprising players no matter if they are on land or at sea--we are building an open-world game that includes both of these elements in over distinct 50 locations, and we are making it fun whether you’re on land or at sea.

Ubisoft: We don’t want to divulge too much about the Templar / Assassin conflict’s relationship to the Republic of Pirates just yet.

But we can definitely confirm that you will see an awful lot of moral ambiguity from our hero, Edward. He is, at heart, a pirate. And he’s not a “good” pirate like you see in children’s tales; he is a criminal with a taste for glory. Couple that with the fact that he is trained by the Assassins, and you can see that there is a lot to explore here. How does a criminal, who is looking out for himself, fit with the Creed?

The clash between these two ideologies within Edward is one of the most exciting things about him.

It's interesting to think about how much the Assassin's Creed series has grown. Just a few years ago we were climbing towers and stealing knives from enemies, and now we're riding a boat in an open-world pirate game. Are you excited for the change? Are you unsold on the name? Do you think the pirate-themed gameplay will be something special?

And if you're looking for more, check out everything we know about AC IV and the 100 most anticipated games of 2013.