Q&A With Sebastien Morin Game Director on Rayman Origins.
QA – Sebastien Morin, Game Director
Game Rayman Origins
Platform PS3, Xbox360
Release Date Tbc
Rayman is making his comeback and Sebastien Morin was on hand to answer some questions regarding it.
– How many different worlds and environments will we be able to get
around?
There are 5 universes and 10 different worlds to discover. Additionally, we
have the Land of the Livid Dead, which is a bit hard to reach but is a whole
new universe as well.
At the beginning, each world is introduced one after the other. In each,
you will gain a new ability and master how to use them.
Then after you complete the first set of worlds, you’ve grown enough to be
dropped in the wild. Just like that a whole new set of worlds are revealed
and you have a lot of places to discover at your disposal.
– Will all these actions be available from the start, or will some
of them be powers you unlock along the way?
At any moment, we give you enough abilities to explore exhaustively each
world. So if you feel like playing a level again and again to discover
every nook and cranny, it’s up to you.
However, you won’t have all your abilities right away. At the beginning of
the game, Rayman and his gang are still incomplete heroes. They’ll need to
find and help the fairies to get all their powers back.
– Will running be an unlockable power too?
As a Game Designer, an important question is “how do you make gameplay
better?”. In Rayman, it could be answered by “chain a bunch of acrobatic
moves together faster and faster”.
So it was natural to give this ability right away, for all the players that
dare to run in a minefield.
– Will there be different “flight modes” as in previous Rayman
games? (like the power to fly up?)
The best way to fly in the game would probably be riding on a mosquito.
However, you’ll also learn quickly to glide. The glide ability allows you
to fly in a number of different ways. At first it’s a very helpful tactic
to extend a jump and land out of harm’s way. But we also put a lot of wind
in the game, which can extend a glide to more of a flying action. But
that’s not always a good thing. Winds are there to help or hinder you, push
you to safety or towards a spikey death. Also, some enemies use the wind as
traps and it should be noted that you’re not the only one who can fly!
– So many different moves must require a lot of different
animations, how many are there in Origins compared to the first opus?
Way more! Rayman and his gang have a lot of new abilities, so there’s a lot
more animation. Besides having all the animations for the abilities, you
have to create more animations for combinations and transitions between
those abilities you have. So each playable character has more than 250
animations! I can’t even begin to count the animations of the evil
characters, because they can be defeated in a lot of funny ways.
