Sometimes playing Anno feels like being a bird parent trying to fulfil the needs of the ever-demanding offspring: Your citizens want clothes, they want sausages, beer, carpets, pasta and energy drinks. Let’s also not forget the marketplace, tavern, laboratory or the concert hall.

Granted, your citizens pay taxes (usually) to make up for the hassle, but they really make you work for that.

In short: needs are a core aspect of Anno gameplay loop, you fulfil them to make money, to make your people happy and to level up residences in order to progress through the game.

Needs in general

This hasn’t changed much in Anno 117: Pax Romana, on first glance: We still separate needs into two types: consumption needs and service needs.

The former require the player to produce goods (e.g. Porridge) in certain quantities which are then consumed by the residence. As long as enough goods are produced, the n...

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Hey Anno Community,

As you might have seen from our social post last Friday, we announced a couple of things happening in the upcoming weeks.

Back in February, during our IGN Fan Fest segment, we mentioned we would show more of the game in April… well, we got the months mixed up. The full gameplay reveal will happen during the week of 19th May.

...

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Salvete, Anno community!

My name is Björn Frechenhäuser and I am a Senior Level Artist working on Anno 117: Pax Romana. I have been at Ubisoft Mainz for 12 years and after Anno 2205 and Anno 1800, this is the third Anno game I have the pleasure of working on. If you’d like to see some of my work on previous installments, you can check out my Artstation profile.

Level Art can mean a lot of different things, very dependent on which company, which studio and which project you work for. It can be more centric around the creation of 3D assets and textures or the visual development and dressing of levels or storytelling in the world and its locations. So, what does it mean for Anno? In short: all of the above (and more). But either w...

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Not long ago we gave you a first look at how we’re handling roads in Anno 117: Pax Romana and how we improved the grid with additional functionality by allowing for diagonal building of roads and buildings. If you missed it, catch up by following this link.

In today’s blog, we’ll be looking at the challenges the team faced when making the game work with these new options and how they resolved them.

We’ll also cover a few further implications of these changes, since roads aren’t the only thing you’ll build in Anno 117: Pax Romana, of course.

A quick recap

For Anno 117: Pax Romana, we upgraded the building grid with additional ...

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Hello Anno Community,

As you might have guessed from the title, today’s DevBlog will focus on modular ships in Anno 117: Pax Romana. If you watched our segment at IGN FanFest, you have probably heard Manuel Reinher, Creative Director, talk about this new feature; therefore, let’s have a closer look at modular ships!

Anno & ships: a 27 yearlong cruise (and counting)

Since 1998, ships have always played a key role in Anno games: whether you were transporting tools after desperately buying the whole stock from the travelling merchants in Anno 1602 or efficiently coordinating trade routes in Anno 1800, you certainly ha...

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Hey Anno Community,

We have a packed Union Update with news for you today, so, grab some coffee or some posca and read on.

First: As some of you noticed, we currently have some issues here on the website with the login and comment feature specifically. We’re working on a resolution and hope to soon discuss Anno with you in the comment section again.

Beta sign-up and playtests

A few weeks ago we announced that we’ll be having beta tests later this year and opened registrations. You can still sign up for those playtests by following this link .

Since we have received some questions since: No, don’t worry, invites haven’t been sent yet. These beta playtests still lie a bit further in the future – you ...

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“The Road goes ever on and on,
Down from the door where it began.”

– Bilbo Baggins, The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

Very few things in an Anno game would function without roads: they connect all the player’s buildings on an island, starting at the harbour and connecting lonely woodcutters, houses in the towns and every other little production outpost.

They enable the transportation of goods and visualize the delivery time and distance of said goods via transportation feedback units with carts or wagons. They play a key role in the city planning for players and help organize the different parts of an island.

And, lastly, all kinds of other feedback units (i.e. pedestrians, animals, etc.) spawn on them as well and make the world look livelier and more believable.

 

Importantly: They are sticking to the grid like everything else in...

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Hey Anno Community,

It’s time for the last phase of our third and final Community Contest dedicated to Anno 117: Pax Romana – voting for your favourite island design!

Back in January, we challenged you to design your very own Latium island and submit your creation for a chance of your design becoming an actual island in Anno 117: Pax Romana. Well, you clearly understood the assignment and sent us SO MANY amazing designs!

We would like to take this moment to thank each and one of you who submitted an entry for the contest, your creativity and attention to details always amazes us. We had an incre...

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Hey Anno Community,

let us quickly update you on two recent pieces of news!

Register now for beta tests

You can now officially sign up for upcoming beta tests later this year via this website!

We’ll have more information on the exact dates of these tests in the coming months. From all registered players we will randomly draw a certain number of people based on the goals of the tests.

These tests serve to both collect your feedback on the game and its features as well as test performance and stability on all platforms and different kinds of hardware configuration.

The Anno 117: Pax Romana Collectors Edition

Just last week we confirmed...

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Hey Anno Community,

While we’re in denial that January is already coming to an end – we’re still finishing up all the chocolate stockpiled during the holidays – we thought to have a small recap of the latest news in this Union Update.

Island design contest

Our third and last contest is up and running, Annoholics! Have you always dreamed to have your very own island design for an Anno game? Well, this is the perfect opportunity for you. In this contest, we challenge you to design an island for the Latium region, in Anno 117: Pax Romana. If you would like to submit your entry for a chance to see your island in the game, check the full rules ...

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Hello Anno Community,

It is time for the third and final Community quest dedicated to Anno 117: Pax Romana – where we ask you to use your creativity and imagination to create something that will make its way into the game.

Your third and final quest

From statue designing to quest writing, you have had quite some fun in the past few months! And we have loved seeing your creativity and imagination being applied to Anno 117: Pax Romana. This time, we challenge you to design an island for Latium, one of the twin provinces under your stewardship. Latium is close to the heart of the empire, a place of luxury and tranquility, covered in wheat and lavender fields. Cypress trees adorn paths and provide much-needed shade during the warm summers. With its beaches, open fields and breathtaking views, this province makes the perfect retreat for the wealthy.

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Hey Anno Community,

What a year it has been!

Unbeknownst to you, we were all nervously preparing for the announcement of our new project – Anno 117: Pax Romana! Are we good at keeping secrets? YES. Prior to the reveal, whenever we noticed comments in chat during livestreams or full discussions on Discord or Reddit about a “Roman Anno”, we would secretly cheer inside. So, how often do WE think about the Roman Empire? Every. Single. Day.

It was a proud moment for us to see Anno 117: Pax Romana on the big Ubisoft Forward screen back in June, but seeing your reaction felt even more special.

Immortalising your omnipresent hope for a Roman Anno throughout the years, was also a big highlight for us – together with the help of the beloved Town Crier!

Not too long after the reveal, we jumped into the Community Conte...

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Hey Anno Community!

Last week we released the “End of an Era” Pack, and we didn’t choose the name as a joke: With this Cosmetic DLC ends the postlaunch phase for Anno 1800 – about five and a half years after the initial release in April 2019.

What a ride it has been!

Announced in August 2017, Anno 1800 was at the center of everything we were doing for many years: from the big exciting announcement and the launch of the Anno Union over many, many DevBlogs, fan meetings at gamescom, playtests and livestreams to the release, over four seasons of postlaunch gameplay DLC and then two more years of support with Cosmetic DLC and updates. It’s certainly been quite a journey!

We were also happy to ultimately add mod support to the game (and see the modding community flourish), successfully launch Anno 1800 on consoles and celebrate both the Anno s...

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It’s the End of an Era! – The release day of the “End of an Era” Pack that is. Our newest Cosmetic DLC is available now!

As the name very subtly hints at: This is the very last Cosmetic DLC for Anno 1800, and the very last piece of content we have planned for the game.

Accordingly, the “End of an Era” Pack is all about celebrating Anno 1800, its citizens and you and your achievements: decorate houses with colourful lights, hold festivals of light on your public plazas and invite your people to a show they have never seen before.

Oh, and don’t forget the fireworks!

If you want to have a closer look at the contents of this final Cosmetic DLC, check out last week’s Twitch livestream...

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Hello Anno Community,

As you might have seen in our latest teasers on social media or yesterday’s  livestream, we will soon release a brand new Cosmetic DLC, the “End of an Era” Pack!

To be totally honest with you all, when first approaching this DevBlog, we struggled to find the right words to talk about it and give this Pack full justice – both because of its grandiosity and the fact that it marks, for real, the end of an era. If you don’t know this already, this CDLC will be the last piece of content developed for Anno 1800, after an amazing journey that lasted 5 years, with 16 beautiful Cosmetic DLC – not to mention the post-launch game content released over the years.

… *Nervously clears throat* … But let’s not get emotional now, we haven’t even started talking about the Pack! So, without further ado, let’s join the festival.

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Hey Anno Community,

Not too long ago we’ve released a DevBlog on the first months of our work on Anno 117: Pax Romana, how we tackled starting a new Anno project and creating the vision. If you missed it, you can find the blog here.

 

But how are things looking like on Anno 117: Pax Romana right now, development-wise?

While – as communicated before – you will have to be a little bit more patient until we show you our “baby” in action, we nevertheless want to give you an update on the current stat...

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Hello Anno Community,

It’s November, going outside is becoming increasingly uncomfortable and 2024 is slooowly nearing its end. Before that, however, here are some updates and announcements from us for the end of the year: Let’s talk about the two previous Community Contests and the upcoming livestream.

Quest Design Contest

We’re excited to announce the winner of the second Community Contest.

You have spoken, and with a small but decisive lead, the “Weapons from the Stars” quest concept (link) took first place! (30% of the votes, followed by In Vino, Veritas with 24%) Clearly, the hunt for special metals to forge something unique for the peo...

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Hello Anno Community,

Here we are, at the end of October, ready to launch the final phase of our second Community Contest: the voting!

Back in September, we challenged you to write a little in-game quest for Anno 117: Pax Romana – tied to the region of Albion and featuring buildings, people and themes of this region.

 

We ended up receiving so many entries that we had to adjust our internal timeline for the start of the voting. It took us longer than planned to settle on our five favourites from the far over one hundred quests that we received.

A huge THANK YOU to everyone who submitted thei...

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How are we creating the vision for a new Anno game? Which challenges do we need to face when working on the concept of a new game? Let’s dive into the topic of designing an Anno game together with our Game Director Jan Dungel!

 

For this blog, we’ll first go a bit back in time to the beginnings of Anno 117: Pax Romana. Then we talk about the roles of Game Director and Creative Director in our team and about our overall approach to Game Design.

This is the first of two blogs on this subject: the second blog will go a bit more into the day-to-day work of the Game Design team on Anno 117.

First Steps

So, a little while ago, Anno 1800’s postlaunch was still ongoing and we started working on the console version, a small group of the team here in Mainz started brainstorming on the next project. Clearly, we wanted (and needed) a new project to follow after Anno 1800 – but what ki...

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Hey Anno Community,

It’s been a week since the release of the Pirrrate Cove Pack for Anno 1800 – we couldn’t resist the urge to release it on “Talk Like A Pirate Day”. We hope you’re having a great time bringing some pirate-spirit into your settlements!

We have one more, one last, Cosmetic DLC releasing at the end of this year. It’s the end of an era for us – and we’ll have more information on this last cosmetic pack in the coming months.

Community Contest: Quest

The submission phase for our latest Community Contest ended last Sunday and we were blown away by the number of emails we received. Clearly, we struck a chord with this quest design contest!

Right now, we’re in the middle of going through all the quests we received and picking our favourites. We’ll update you, when the voting is about to start.

Thank you to everyone who participated. Amongst the ones we already went through...

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