Do the more artistic skills - graphics, animation, sound - also play an important role in developing a specific gameplay?

Michael Janod
Even though game design and info design represent an enormous workload, there are obviously lots of other elements which are taken into consideration to make a specific gameplay fun. We were lucky enough to have a fairly zany game universe. The graphic designers and animators can also come up with very amusing or intriguing situations which instantly whet the player's appetite to try them out.

For example, we had the idea of shrinking Rayman and making him drive a tiny little car. We thought this was a pretty original brainwave. The player has to drive a vehicle and revisit a whole level on a microscopic scale. This was something really new, compared to the rest of the game. Another amusing idea came in on top of that one. We replaced the car with one of Rayman's own shoes. This was much funnier, and more striking for the player. What's more, it gave us an idea to improve the gameplay. Rather than drive along in a traditional way, as in many other gameplays, we thought it would be cool if Rayman chased after his other shoe - which he has to stop by hitting it. This had the added advantage of fitting in perfectly with the bumper-car appearance of the vehicle, and it didn't make the controls any more complicated. The player soon understands how to drive his shoe!

Benjamin Haddad
Generally speaking, when you change the game system, you also often change the technical constraints. Sometimes this gives the artistic teams an opportunity to let themselves go. For example, in the skating levels on the musical highways, Rayman has to jump from one stave to another over empty space. This type of gameplay crops up 3 times in the course of the game, so we had to find a different graphical appearance each time the gameplay returns. The idea of the staves inspired the graphic designer and the team to create themes. So the first highway only uses psychedelic elements - big hearts, or peace symbols with disco music. The second one uses more colors, and motifs from the 1980s. These elements are very vivid for the player. He has a good laugh when he lands up in these slightly screwball universes!

Another important feature of gameplay variety seems to be the bosses. Why did you put such strong emphasis on developing this feature of the gameplay?

Benjamin Haddad
First of all, this element wasn't played up enough in the previous episode in the series. So we wanted to make up for lost time.

Secondly, the bosses allow you create particularly impressive combat situations - in a word, exactly what we wanted for Rayman 3!

Are there also certain principles to respect when you develop a level with a boss?

Benjamin Haddad
When the player finds himself up against a generic enemy, he's on equal or superior terms with that enemy. Confronting a boss, the opposite's true, because the boss has to represent a genuine challenge. He's a real threat to the player, so the latter has to concentrate more on this particular sequence than he does on the rest of the game.

So we work hard on the gameplay level, where our approach is similar to that for creating a specific gameplay. And we work hard on directing the dramatic situation, setting the boss up as a unique, ultra-powerful enemy. In short, a good boss is a boss we've managed to give a real personality, using impressive staging techniques and a frenzied gameplay requiring both shrewdness and skill.

And how did you bring out this sense of threat?

Michael Janod
We wanted a graduated scale for the bosses' threatening side.

At the beginning, the bosses are pretty dangerous, because they're completely hysterical. They've got great comic potential because, above all, they're ridiculous. The further you get into the game, the more powerful, threatening and dangerous the bosses become.

For example, the player encounters Razoff in the first third of the game. He's a totally megalomaniac hunter. The level takes place in Razoff's house, where everything you see is to his greater glory: there are statues and portraits of him everywhere, statues of his finest catches, and so on. In himself, the character's really hilarious. He isn't the brightest kid on the block and he walks in an affected way, but he's dangerous. He shoots with a long gun and, when you hit him with your fists, he machine-guns hysterically in all directions.

Benjamin Haddad
At the end of the game, on the other hand, it's totally apocalyptic! The player fights an enemy who's much bigger than him and who uses a magical, ultra-powerful scepter to trigger devastating attacks. As he goes along, he destroys the whole level and Rayman has to jump on whatever's still standing - always on the verge of falling!

What changes did you make to the fights when the bosses are on the scene?

Benjamin Haddad
If we go back to the example of Razoff, we played a cat-and-mouse game. Generally speaking, you rarely see enemies leave or run away from a fight. This is even truer for a boss who is normally fought in an arena, a clearly delimited place that no-one can escape from. Here, we had fun doing completely the opposite. The level's a chase between Razoff and Rayman, going through the whole house. Razoff hides in strategic places to snipe at Rayman, or he pops out at a bend in a corridor to take him by surprise. Rayman can shoot at him, then starts haring after him through the corridors.

How did you manage all these different elements while keeping the game varied and rhythmic?

Michael Janod
As a matter of fact, the main aim was to keep a sustained rhythm, while using surprises sparingly and following a curve of increasing difficulty. On that basis, you can create heaps of more or less effective theories. For our part, we were very pragmatic. We laid down a few very simple principles: from the moment he moves forward, the player can't remain 15 seconds without acting - so there are no long, empty corridors - and he should be obliged to combine all of Rayman's movements and powers. From there, we tested and figured out what was missing or what didn't work. After a test, we realize that the gameplay is too repetitive, or not intense enough, and we change it accordingly. Then we test again, and continue the procedure, until the level of intensity's just right.

Benjamin Haddad
For the surprises, we relied a good deal on the scenario. Since the story and the sense of immersion in the game made it possible to set up genuine surprise developments, we fooled around a little by taking the player from the rear. The bosses, for example, are normally always at the end of each part of a game. You go through a whole universe and, at the end, you have the final boss who allows you to move on to the next universe. Here, we had fun putting bosses where the player least expected them - smack in the middle of a universe, or even at the entrance!

Why did you create a scoring system in the game?

The score's there to encourage good players to play even better. A player who finds the going tough is happy just to get to the end of the game. A good player's sure to get to the end, but - in addition - he'll have kept tab of his score, which is a very important element of comparison. In RM2, players could try to reach a final goal, which was to finish the game 100%, picking up all the yellow Lums. Here, we've created a kind of open competition in which anyone can beat the previous record, a bit like the Olympic Games. These scores are rewarding for the players, because they increase your prestige and unlock secret game elements. Since the goal's fixed, the score's managed in such a way as to make the player think. That's the tactical side of the game. The order in which you do things, and the virtuosity with which you do them, can change the score radically - and, in general, the more the player performs prestigious, colorful tasks, the more points he wins. If he flunks part of the game, he can do it again to try and improve his score, but he doesn't have to re-play the whole game.

In the end, there seem to be an enormous number of different things in the game. Weren't you afraid that the player might get a little lost?

On the contrary! In fact, using the same game system, we provide a wide variety of different forms, so the player never replays exactly the same thing. For the player, that's the best present we could give!

Source: Ubisoft/Raymanzone


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