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Ubisoft/Raymanzone Interviews with the developers of Rayman 3
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Developers • Enemies and super powers • Rythm platform and managementCharacters
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Enemies and super powers - Part I

What is a game designer and an info designer, and how do you work together?

Benjamin
A game designer defines the game rules. He creates the different elements that go to make up the game - how an enemy attacks the player, how an obstacle works, and so on. The info designer translates what the game designer created into computer programming.

Yann
But, in practice, this process is much more empirical and incremental than that, because an idea that looks great on paper may turn out to be boring to play, or it could be far too specific to be usable in a lot of situations.

That's why, as soon as a game element has been programmed , we test it on a real level, we take note of all the problems we came up against, then we review the design accordingly and reprogram the character. We go through this operation again and again until we start getting behavior that's both fun and likely to be used in plenty of situations. During production, some characters are reprogrammed 5 or 6 times in this way.

Benjamin
Conversely, the ideas can come from graphic designers or programmers. For example, some characters were so appealing from a graphic point of view that we pulled out all the stops to get them into the game system.

Yann
At one time, we were looking for a platform gameplay which would push the player to really forge ahead, like we had in Rayman 2. With this end in view, I programmed balloon platforms which explode and throw Rayman up into the air. I presented them to the level designers. The component was adopted and we based several levels on this principle.

Benjamin
In short, the game design's 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration! What makes for good game design isn't just writing up the original Bible on which it's based. Mostly, it's all the little decisions that are made throughout the production of the game.

Why did you decide to develop the gameplay around the enemies in Rayman 3?

Benjamin
When we began working on the project, we wondered about the things that were missing from Rayman 2. We found that there wasn't a great variety of enemies and this point needed to be improved.

What's more, one of the great novelties in Rayman 3 is the acquisition of new offensive powers. So we had to develop swarms of enemies to exploit these new powers to the full.

Yann
I must also admit that, at the start of the project, Half-Life was still fresh in my mind. In this game, the enemies seem highly intelligent, whereas the programming principles aren't very complicated. I really wanted to pick up on this principle, all the more so because it was likely to make for a richer gameplay and a sense of immersion unlike anything in previous platform games.

How did you go about creating all the enemies?

Benjamin
At the outset, we began by doing research into the enemy principles. We flew off in all kinds of directions. We had enemies that attack on contact, others that attack from a distance, offensive enemies, defensive enemies, and enemies who neutralize Rayman's fists and turn them back on himself. Broadly speaking, we had to produce between 25 and 30 different enemy principles. At the same time, Stéphane Zinetti created the graphic universe, using a fair number of our ideas.

Yann
Then came the difficult time to do the programming. Quite a few of our enemies were too complicated and didn't fit the technical specifications. Others didn't work all that well in the end when we showed them to the focus group. And then there was a small number that really worked well. At that time, we were really disillusioned.

So we adopted a somewhat Darwinian strategy. We ditched all the characters who really didn't work at all, and we simplified the others. To begin with, for example, the Hoodoo had three main actions:
- He protected another Hoodlum, by creating a protective screen.
- He sent out fireballs.
- He caught Rayman's fist and blocked it temporarily.
Having a character who attacks the player, neutralizes him and, at the same time, defends other enemies, was rather unclear. So we decided to make him a purely defensive character by keeping only the first action.

Benjamin
Fortunately, Stéphane and Stanislas, our lead animator, came to our aid. They both managed to come up with attitudes for certain enemies which made them fun to fight, and which gave us new ideas.

For example, we found the Hoodstormer game principle pretty good, but it wasn't revolutionary. So we were prepared to abandon it. Basically, this flying character could avoid straight shots but not curved shots. Stéphane had the idea of creating an ultra-fast character with a flush cannon. Stanislas's animation made him very lively and comic. Nicolas, an info designer, completely reprogrammed him and the character now works wonderfully well.

Yann
At one time, we were looking for a platform gameplay which would push the player to really forge ahead, like we had in Rayman 2. With this end in view, I programmed balloon platforms which explode and throw Rayman up into the air. I presented them to the level designers. The component was adopted and we based several levels on this principle.

Benjamin
In short, the game design's 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration! What makes for good game design isn't just writing up the original Bible on which it's based. Mostly, it's all the little decisions that are made throughout the production of the game.

Why did you decide to develop the gameplay around the enemies in Rayman 3?

Benjamin
When we began working on the project, we wondered about the things that were missing from Rayman 2. We found that there wasn't a great variety of enemies and this point needed to be improved.

What's more, one of the great novelties in Rayman 3 is the acquisition of new offensive powers. So we had to develop swarms of enemies to exploit these new powers to the full.

Yann
I must also admit that, at the start of the project, Half-Life was still fresh in my mind. In this game, the enemies seem highly intelligent, whereas the programming principles aren't very complicated. I really wanted to pick up on this principle, all the more so because it was likely to make for a richer gameplay and a sense of immersion unlike anything in previous platform games.




Enemies and super powers - Part II

What specific artificial intelligence did you create for the Hoodlums?

Yann
In fact, to start with we fell flat on our faces, developing very complex artificial intelligence principles only to come to a very simple conclusion: what's much more important than developing "Artificial Intelligence" is not creating "Artificial Stupidity".

The thing is, if the player only comes across one enemy who behaves in a stupid or incomprehensible way, he's going to think the AI's useless - even if it isn't! And three years of our work then goes down the drain. ?

So, in the first place, we tried to create characters that were very simple to use and debug, even if it meant giving up on interesting functions.

With that starting-point, our aim was no longer for the enemies to seem intelligent because they are intelligent, but rather because they're used by the level designers in intelligent ways.

Benjamin
To give you an example, there's nothing particularly smart about an enemy who jumps between two positions. But if this same enemy crouches down in a hole, then jumps behind a box to avoid Rayman's fists, the player thinks he's dealing with a real GI, though - strictly speaking - the AI may be identical.

Yann
So, rather than create an AI proper, I spent half my time producing information to explain to the level designers what the enemies could do and, most of all, what they couldn't do, to prepare demonstration levels and, of course, to simplify to a maximum the way enemies are used.

And how did you then create the scripted events?

Yann
Technically speaking, each enemy has a fairly simple autonomous behavior based on the automata in their finished state. So, for example, once an enemy's placed in the environment, he can detect Rayman, shoot at him, avoid his fists and move towards a suitable position. This behavior alone is quite enough to provide the player with a challenge.

In addition to that, each enemy can receive messages which take control of his autonomous behavior. You can order him to go to a particular position, for example, or to play a particular animation, and so on. In this way, the level designers script some scenes in much finer detail and strengthen the impression of intelligence. So an enemy who has just detected Rayman can, for instance, operate a mechanism to open a door, call for reinforcements and, lastly, escape with a balloon.

Finally, we were able to develop game situations in which the player confronts enemies who seem to be highly organized. For example, on the moor, Rayman fights the first horde of Hoodlums. Two Fantasnips are on the ground and a third takes refuge on top of a rock where he's difficult to reach. Then, when the player thinks he's finished with them, reinforcements arrive by balloon. If the player runs off, some Hoodlums even start chasing after him. When the player has eliminated them all, he gets the Lock Jaw Superpower and can reach the balloon platforms. But a Hoodstormer turns up and deliberately shoots at the balloons to stop Rayman from going by. So the player has to do battle with the Hoodstormer to be able to continue. Here we have a combat situation with sudden new developments and specific enemy reactions to which you constantly have to adapt.



Enemies and super powers - Part III

How did you come up with the idea for the Superpowers?

Benjamin
Up to now, in the Rayman games, the hero received powers as he went along in the story, and he kept them once and for all. At the start of the project, we wanted to retain the same system. It had the advantage of providing novelties for the player throughout the game. At the same time, it was quite risky because certain powers, which were sometimes greatly appreciated by the players, only cropped up at the end of the game.

We decided it would be better to get all the powers early on, but it would become difficult to be able to use all of them at any time. So we worked on the basis of temporary use at certain levels. Then, we used the Pick-up and temporary power system to put the player under pressure and oblige him to act quickly.

Next, we had the idea of creating visual skins for the Superpowers and we adapted the gameplay for certain powers to suit their graphic skins.

And what changes did you make to the Superpowers once you'd seen their graphic appearance?

Benjamin
For the Lock Jaw, Stéphane and Stanislas came up with the idea of using a chain with a metal jaw, like a mantrap. In theory, when the jaw closes it doesn't release its prey. Well, we integrated this idea into the gameplay. When Rayman gets this Superpower, he fights by throwing his mantrap at an enemy, and the enemy gets stuck in it. The trap keeps its grip on the enemy, wounding him every 3 seconds, until the player shoots again. When he does shoot again, the trap frees itself and goes off after another enemy.

How many Superpowers did you integrate into the game?

There are 5 Superpowers that the player can use when he finds the Pick-up.

There's the mantrap Lock Jaw I just told you about, with which you can fight and move along like Tarzan, swinging from one fixed point to another.

With the Throttle Copter, the helicopter can take you up in the air, but it's no longer used to glide down. Rayman wears a yellow costume with a big helmet and a real helicopter propeller comes out of it.

The Heavy Metal Fist is a metal fist which does a lot more damage and can even break objects such as doors.

The Vortex is quite an amusing idea. Basically, you can use this fist to make Meadowscrews whirl round. When you make them turn, the mushrooms sink into the ground and transform into platforms that the player can reach. We then extended this principle to other objects and characters in the game. It's fun, because - when fighting - you can make your opponent twirl round. For a few seconds, he can't attack the player and, when he stops spinning, he may end up with his back to the player, making him even more vulnerable.

Lastly, we exploited Rayman's modularity with the Shock Rocket. This is a torpedo built into Rayman's fist. The player can launch and steer it in first-person view. This enables the player to reach enemies or objects that are a long way away.

Listening to you, I get the feeling that a lot of game elements were designed which, in the end, weren't integrated into the final game.

Yann
It's true that, if we consider everything we designed at the start of the project, only about a third remained at the end. In itself, that's perfectly normal. It's only when you try things out that you see whether they work or not. That's why there's a lot of loss along the way. Sometimes, it's a bit frustrating, but - in the end - only the best of the best gets into the final game. It's the "best of"! And - who knows - perhaps one day we'll create a level to present all those extinct species. ?

Source: Ubisoft/Raymanzone

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