Rayman Legends: The Design Process Within the UbiArt Framework
Resumo
TLDRThe session at GDC discusses the challenges and solutions in game design, particularly focusing on the balance between artistic vision and gameplay direction. The speaker, a game designer at Ubisoft Montpellier, shares insights drawn from their experience with the Rayman Legends game, highlighting the development of the UB art framework which facilitates rapid prototyping and iteration. Key philosophies such as "no idea is sacred" and "rapid iterative failure" are emphasized, encouraging designers to adapt and discard ideas quickly to refine gameplay. The presentation underscores the importance of integrating art and design processes seamlessly through tools that are intuitive and flexible, supporting innovation without compromising the efficiency of production.
Conclusรตes
- ๐จ No idea is sacred - Be willing to discard ideas quickly.
- ๐ Rapid iterative failure fosters creativity and refinement.
- ๐ UB art framework allows fast and intuitive game prototyping.
- ๐ฅ Seamless collaboration between artists and designers is crucial.
- ๐๏ธ Designing with the artist in mind leads to harmonious gameplay.
- โฑ๏ธ Live editing helps in testing and refining game levels efficiently.
- โ ๏ธ Avoiding over-reliance on sacred ideas prevents project stagnation.
- ๐ฎ Balancing artistic constraints can lead to more innovative designs.
- ๐งฐ Effective tools make the development process smooth and productive.
- ๐ค Fail often but fail wisely to find the best design solutions.
Linha do tempo
- 00:00:00 - 00:05:00
The speaker introduces themselves, mentioning it's their first time speaking at GDC and expressing gratitude that people are attending. The central topic is the challenge of harmonizing artistic vision and gameplay direction in game development, specifically within Ubisoft Montpellier's workflow for creating Rayman Legends. They mention a tool, UV art framework, developed to streamline the process, allowing for rapid, intuitive, and flexible production.
- 00:05:00 - 00:10:00
The speaker shares their background as a game and level designer at Ubisoft Montpellier, working primarily with the UV art framework to build Rayman titles. They outline the plan to discuss their design process, the technology used, and specific tools and systems from Rayman Legends, ending with a sharing of insights from post-mortem analysis and a sneak peek into other games using the framework.
- 00:10:00 - 00:15:00
Key design philosophy: 'rapid iterative failure,' where failing quickly and often is part of the process to eventually achieve a successful idea. They emphasize that no idea is sacred, suggesting a culture of flexibility and adaptability in design. The idea is to quickly prototype, prove or disprove concepts, and only then involve more team resources if necessary.
- 00:15:00 - 00:20:00
Workflow involves simultaneous but separate collaboration between artists and designers, with each handling different aspects (level design layer vs. art layer). The approach allows for continuous work without significant downtime as updates are seamlessly integrated. Emphasizes designing with the artist in mind, adapting gameplay to fit aesthetic constraints which promotes creativity and harmony in the design.
- 00:20:00 - 00:25:00
The process to design artistic and gameplay elements in Rayman involves creating solid gameplay toplogies with artistic considerations. The speaker showcases how certain levels were conceived, integrating concept art into level design without artist-driven concepts initially. They stress the importance of iterative prototyping and flexible tools in allowing rapid creativity and problem solving.
- 00:25:00 - 00:30:00
Rapid prototyping leveraging the UV art framework, which allows for easy asset integration and manipulation. The tools enable designers and artists to build complex elements quickly, use visually complete geometry for level design, and make adjustments in real-time, enhancing efficiency and reducing the cost of discarded ideas. Highlighted the ability to sketch and iterate directly within the engine.
- 00:30:00 - 00:35:00
The talk highlights the use of specialized tools within the UV art framework, such as the ability to quickly manipulate 'freezes' or level geometry, and Lua scripting for more customizable gameplay prototyping. These tools support the philosophy of rapid prototyping and flexible design, leading to efficient development cycles.
- 00:35:00 - 00:40:00
Case studies demonstrate the application of the UV art framework in Rayman Legends production, showing how rapid iterative testing and prototyping using the engineโs tools led to successful gameplay innovations. These include stealth levels maintaining flow and experimenting with combining gameplay mechanics.
- 00:40:00 - 00:45:00
Details technology advancements and tool use, such as the development of the UB art framework for Rayman Origins and its evolution. The tool's adaptability is showcased through video examples demonstrating speed and efficiency in level design and prototyping. Some challenges and solutions in maintaining the tool's functionality across titles are also discussed.
- 00:45:00 - 00:50:00
The speaker recollects the development process, highlighting successes and areas for improvement. While rapid iteration enabled creativity and prototyping, clear documentation and communication presented challenges. They emphasize the small team structure that allows for efficient problem-solving and knowledge sharing.
- 00:50:00 - 00:58:23
The speaker wraps up by discussing the broader application of the UB art framework in various genres by other Ubisoft projects, noting its adaptability beyond Rayman games. They invite attendees to further explore these tools at the conference and emphasize learning from failures, embracing artistic constraints, and valuing others' time in collaborative creative processes.
Mapa mental
Vรญdeo de perguntas e respostas
What is the key philosophy behind the design process at Ubisoft Montpellier?
The key philosophy is 'rapid iterative failure,' which emphasizes quick prototyping, frequent testing, and the agile adaptation and discard of ideas to refine and perfect gameplay.
How does the UB art framework support game development?
The UB art framework is an intuitive tool that allows for fast prototyping and live editing, helping integrate art and gameplay seamlessly, which speeds up production and enhances creative exploration.
Why is collaboration important in the game development process?
Collaboration ensures that artistic and gameplay elements harmonize smoothly, allowing designers and artists to work together efficiently and iterate on ideas without compromising workflow efficiency.
What role does flexibility play in game design at Ubisoft?
Flexibility enables designers to quickly adapt and discard non-working ideas, encouraging creative exploration and ensuring that the best designs emerge through rapid iteration.
How can artistic constraints benefit game design?
Artistic constraints can inspire creativity by forcing designers to think beyond conventional solutions, leading to innovative and engaging gameplay experiences.
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- 00:00:02[Music]
- 00:00:04okay hello hey I'm supposed to tell you
- 00:00:09to turn off your cell phones and things
- 00:00:10like that so please do that and I'm
- 00:00:12supposed to also tell you just sort of
- 00:00:13like scoot in and make room for more
- 00:00:15people but I see that's not really
- 00:00:16necessary so good job okay I really
- 00:00:22appreciate you guys all being here this
- 00:00:23is actually my first time talking at GDC
- 00:00:25so the fact that any of you are here at
- 00:00:27all really means something to me thanks
- 00:00:30so I'm guessing there are a lot of
- 00:00:34artists and designers in the room that's
- 00:00:35kind of what I put on the you know
- 00:00:36schedule so I hope you are and if you're
- 00:00:40anything like the people I've worked
- 00:00:41with or me for example there are times
- 00:00:45when you're working on a project and it
- 00:00:47becomes difficult to sort of mesh a
- 00:00:49clear artistic vision with sort of a
- 00:00:51gameplay direction and combine them into
- 00:00:54something that works for everybody and
- 00:00:56make sort of a harmonious whole for the
- 00:00:58game and there can be a little bit of a
- 00:01:00clash between artists and designers and
- 00:01:01one thing that we've done with our
- 00:01:04workflow to create the game rayman
- 00:01:05legends' is build a tool and sort of a
- 00:01:08pipeline in a way of working that tries
- 00:01:11to sort of mitigate this issue a little
- 00:01:12bit and make the process smoother for
- 00:01:14everybody but also make it really fast
- 00:01:17intuitive and flexible so that we can
- 00:01:19produce a lot and produce quality a lot
- 00:01:21faster than normal so Who am I why am I
- 00:01:26here talking to you why do you care I'm
- 00:01:29a game and level designer at Ubisoft
- 00:01:31Montpellier in southern France I've had
- 00:01:33the pleasure of working with them for
- 00:01:34about three years now I've been working
- 00:01:37exclusively on Rayman titles in the UV
- 00:01:39art framework which is our tool that we
- 00:01:40used to build them so I've got quite a
- 00:01:42bit of experience using this tool pretty
- 00:01:44much exclusively from my career so I
- 00:01:47have a lot of experience that I'd like
- 00:01:48to share with you guys and hopefully
- 00:01:50you'll take something interesting away
- 00:01:51from it what's the plan I'm gonna start
- 00:01:56by just giving you a little bit of a
- 00:01:57rundown of our design process in a
- 00:01:59nutshell so you can sort of see why it's
- 00:02:02an interesting process or maybe why it's
- 00:02:04a little bit different from the ones
- 00:02:05that you're familiar with then of course
- 00:02:07what's the tech why do we use this tool
- 00:02:11what have we built to use
- 00:02:13and how does it help us follow this
- 00:02:15process that we set for ourselves and
- 00:02:19then of course I'm going to talk about
- 00:02:21Raymond it's my only frame of reference
- 00:02:24so I'm going to talk about some useful
- 00:02:26systems and tools that we have case
- 00:02:28studies from the actual production of
- 00:02:29the game and a little bit of a
- 00:02:31post-mortem to give you some insight
- 00:02:33into things that we know went right and
- 00:02:34things that we know could have gone a
- 00:02:36little bit better and I'm going to end
- 00:02:39the presentation by giving you a little
- 00:02:41bit of information about a couple of
- 00:02:43other games that are being made in the
- 00:02:44framework that aren't exactly Raymond so
- 00:02:49I'm gonna let you guys in on a little
- 00:02:50secret okay
- 00:02:52the secret to designing Raymond is
- 00:02:54actually quite similar to the secret of
- 00:02:56playing Raymond which is rapid iterative
- 00:03:00failure so basically what I mean by that
- 00:03:05is with our tool with our process we can
- 00:03:09design so quickly we can try a bunch of
- 00:03:10different things so fast that we can
- 00:03:12fail so much more often it sounds
- 00:03:15awesome right you fail about 40 times a
- 00:03:17day but then you get one win before you
- 00:03:19go home for the night and that's enough
- 00:03:20because tomorrow you have something to
- 00:03:22work from and it's really great to be
- 00:03:24able to put all these ideas in front of
- 00:03:25somebody and prove concepts and disprove
- 00:03:28concepts really fast and know that
- 00:03:30you're moving in the right direction so
- 00:03:34one of these core philosophies we have
- 00:03:36to work from is no idea is sacred I've
- 00:03:39seen a lot of people I still see a lot
- 00:03:41of people do this and I still do this
- 00:03:42myself sometimes that people hold on to
- 00:03:45an idea it's like no no but trust me
- 00:03:46this is the best thing we need this it's
- 00:03:49gonna make or break the game and they
- 00:03:50just put like little bandages you know
- 00:03:52it's like your arm just got cut off but
- 00:03:53you're putting a bandaid on it it's not
- 00:03:55really gonna change much it's already
- 00:03:56messed up it's not gonna happen so why
- 00:03:58are you trying to fix it and so
- 00:04:00sometimes it's just about learning when
- 00:04:01to let go of an idea and move on to
- 00:04:04something more promising and that's
- 00:04:06usually what happens for us is we're
- 00:04:07able to create so many different little
- 00:04:09ideas and different executions of the
- 00:04:11same idea that we learn to let go a lot
- 00:04:14quicker and move on in the right
- 00:04:15direction without too much fuss
- 00:04:20I don't want to waste anybody's time
- 00:04:23except for my own because I mean I know
- 00:04:25why I'm wasting it I have an idea I want
- 00:04:27to see if it works so I'm okay spending
- 00:04:29a bit of extra time to prove or disprove
- 00:04:31it but I don't like the idea of briefing
- 00:04:34two programmers in an artist on an idea
- 00:04:37of mine and then telling them hey invest
- 00:04:39two weeks of your time to make a
- 00:04:40prototype to prove or disprove whether
- 00:04:42or not this is a great idea
- 00:04:44because then after two weeks it sucks
- 00:04:45and it's all my fault and I wasted their
- 00:04:47time when they could be doing something
- 00:04:48more important
- 00:04:49so I'm perfectly happy to spend a little
- 00:04:52bit of extra time doing a bit of art
- 00:04:54doing a bit of scripting and some sort
- 00:04:58of messy combination in our engine to
- 00:05:00make something that works or doesn't
- 00:05:02work rather than actually having to go
- 00:05:04to someone that doesn't need to be
- 00:05:05involved yet that allows the programmers
- 00:05:07in the artists to actually be
- 00:05:08investigating things that we know are
- 00:05:10going to be in the game later larger
- 00:05:12systems things that are really important
- 00:05:13to investigate in the long term and only
- 00:05:16when I've proven my concept to a
- 00:05:17creative director or somebody else
- 00:05:19that's important do we actually invest
- 00:05:21the time to make it we also tend to work
- 00:05:26together but separately at the same time
- 00:05:29what we basically do is because you know
- 00:05:32when you're making a level right you you
- 00:05:34build a level design layer and then it's
- 00:05:36time for the artist the artist to start
- 00:05:38doing is art Pass and it's like okay
- 00:05:39give me a level it's my term to work on
- 00:05:41it's okay fine but then you're kind of
- 00:05:43got some downtime and every time you
- 00:05:45want to work on it you have to sort of
- 00:05:46like pass it back and forth unless
- 00:05:48you're working in a more structured way
- 00:05:49I'm at least that's how I've done it in
- 00:05:51the past which is a shame so what we do
- 00:05:53is we basically say this is the level
- 00:05:56design layer right this is where I'm
- 00:05:58building my level all the gameplay
- 00:05:59elements in the game plane no
- 00:06:03just the stuff that I need right then
- 00:06:05there's the art layer it's in the exact
- 00:06:07same level but it's only the art
- 00:06:09elements that complement the visual
- 00:06:11aspect of what I've created and that's
- 00:06:13inside of the root file of course so you
- 00:06:16have one seam which is the entire level
- 00:06:18and then you have sub scenes that are
- 00:06:20manipulable individually by different
- 00:06:22people and when they send their update
- 00:06:25and I cannot I can get the new data and
- 00:06:27open it when I open the whole file their
- 00:06:30part is updated and I'm still working on
- 00:06:32my thing so nobody has slowed down
- 00:06:33the process and that's extremely
- 00:06:35important because that means that once I
- 00:06:37stumble upon that little gem where it's
- 00:06:40like ah this is the idea that's working
- 00:06:41let's move on from there and everybody
- 00:06:43approves it the artists can start
- 00:06:45working on that already
- 00:06:46while I'm continuing to flesh it out and
- 00:06:48work on new things and also we need to
- 00:06:51remain flexible because later when
- 00:06:53you're debugging or when you're sort of
- 00:06:54re-evaluating work you've already done a
- 00:06:56while ago you want to reserve the right
- 00:06:58to be able to adjust things without
- 00:07:00having to adjust all the artwork to on
- 00:07:05Raymond it's especially important for us
- 00:07:07design with the artist in mind we can't
- 00:07:10just make something that we think plays
- 00:07:11cool oh it looks a lot fun whatever no
- 00:07:14but trust me the inputs are great and
- 00:07:16I'm teaching the player exactly what I
- 00:07:17need to so it's gonna be great and then
- 00:07:19the artist has to go in there and say oh
- 00:07:21but how am I supposed to decorate this
- 00:07:22it just doesn't work it looks like crap
- 00:07:24what are you doing it's like yeah but
- 00:07:25trust me it's important for the game
- 00:07:26it's like they're not your mom they
- 00:07:28don't just come in and clean up your
- 00:07:29mess because you're the designer and
- 00:07:31you're all-powerful and you say what you
- 00:07:32want and it has to go and so we try to
- 00:07:35design with the artist in mind what they
- 00:07:38do is they create art kits I mean we've
- 00:07:39got art this beautiful do you really
- 00:07:42want to mess it up or do you want to
- 00:07:44compliment and make the whole game feel
- 00:07:45better so they give us an art kit
- 00:07:48something like this for example this is
- 00:07:50a concept but they can actually extract
- 00:07:52the artwork from it and make a kit out
- 00:07:54of it so in this case it's a nice you
- 00:07:57know flat ground some little hills with
- 00:07:59flowers on it and you say oh I want to
- 00:08:01make a right angle because I want to
- 00:08:02have a wall jump it just doesn't work it
- 00:08:05looks ugly it doesn't make any sense and
- 00:08:07so we have to do is think do we need
- 00:08:09this wall jump or can I think of an
- 00:08:11interesting alternative or a totally
- 00:08:14different idea altogether that
- 00:08:15complements the kit that I've been given
- 00:08:17and that's one of the cores of the
- 00:08:19production on the design side of rayman
- 00:08:21legends and rayman origins that we're
- 00:08:23constantly thinking about the rules and
- 00:08:25the constraints that the artists have
- 00:08:26given us with the artwork they've
- 00:08:28created and trying to use it to our
- 00:08:30advantage rather than seeing it as
- 00:08:32something that's holding us back this is
- 00:08:36an example when I was doing
- 00:08:37pre-production for one of the worlds in
- 00:08:39the game it was supposed to be an
- 00:08:40underwater base and I didn't really know
- 00:08:43what the topology should be like and
- 00:08:45there wasn't any concept which was rare
- 00:08:47for us
- 00:08:47normally the artists do concepts and we
- 00:08:49build on top of those but here we didn't
- 00:08:51have the time and I had to investigate
- 00:08:53before they could actually draw
- 00:08:55something so I was thinking about what
- 00:08:57could I do to make interesting topology
- 00:09:00that would fit with the the see just the
- 00:09:03setting that I already knew but it had
- 00:09:06to be solid and artistic and so you can
- 00:09:08see that for example the larger pipes
- 00:09:10are sort of the borders and the smaller
- 00:09:12pipes are connected things don't feel
- 00:09:14unbalanced it all sorted it's a solid
- 00:09:16and on top of that I had an interesting
- 00:09:19gameplay layer you know it's actually a
- 00:09:21fun level to play so then I passed that
- 00:09:23to the concept artist and he paints over
- 00:09:25it and then of course it looks good I
- 00:09:28mean it's a rough concept but it says
- 00:09:30hey that layout actually works not bad
- 00:09:33so then we go through the process of
- 00:09:35approving things and one thing leads to
- 00:09:36another the artists make the final
- 00:09:38assets we integrated into the level the
- 00:09:41level design didn't change I defined the
- 00:09:43topology and at the same time the artist
- 00:09:46had what they needed to be able to make
- 00:09:48something beautiful but it's because I
- 00:09:50designed with the artist in mind from
- 00:09:51the beginning so how is this magical
- 00:09:57process done it's not necessarily the
- 00:09:59easiest thing in the world to say we
- 00:10:00make five million prototypes every week
- 00:10:02throw away four million of them we have
- 00:10:04one little gem and everyone's happy not
- 00:10:06everybody has that luxury of course we
- 00:10:09have a very talented team that's
- 00:10:10important we work well together but also
- 00:10:13we have an interesting piece of
- 00:10:14technology that we developed for Rayman
- 00:10:17Origins and have been constantly
- 00:10:18updating alongside the development of
- 00:10:20future titles so the magic tech is the
- 00:10:26UB art framework I'm going to show you a
- 00:10:29little video just to get you into the
- 00:10:30moon and then we'll continue from there
- 00:10:33and I'll give you some more details on
- 00:10:34why it's an interesting tool for me as a
- 00:10:36designer
- 00:10:43[Music]
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- 00:11:08[Music]
- 00:11:15[Music]
- 00:11:25[Music]
- 00:11:45[Music]
- 00:12:00[Music]
- 00:12:16kind of pretty right not bad so as it
- 00:12:20said the tool was designed for artists
- 00:12:22so it's it's it was a 2d game engine it
- 00:12:24always was so it was designed for it has
- 00:12:28full HD 60 frames per second all that
- 00:12:30technical nonsense but it's impressive I
- 00:12:32mean our games are very fast and fluid
- 00:12:35we can have a lot of detailed textures
- 00:12:36in there we have a lot of layers and it
- 00:12:38still runs very very smoothly and that
- 00:12:40was one of the key selling points for us
- 00:12:42when building this tech it needed to run
- 00:12:44well but its artist friendly at its core
- 00:12:48I mean what an artist has to do to get
- 00:12:52an asset from concept into the engine in
- 00:12:55the playable game all he has to do is
- 00:12:57paint a concept cut a piece out like a
- 00:13:00tree or a rock or something that he
- 00:13:02likes in the scenery save it out with an
- 00:13:04alpha Channel drag and drop and it's in
- 00:13:06the engine and they can just scale move
- 00:13:08it around whatever change the colors
- 00:13:10change the distance in the Z everything
- 00:13:12like that but it's that easy there are
- 00:13:14other more complicated methods of
- 00:13:17bringing art into the engine that I'm
- 00:13:18going to show you that helped me as a
- 00:13:20designer but it doesn't change the fact
- 00:13:22that it's extremely easy for artists and
- 00:13:24designers to create content in this
- 00:13:27engine because it was built with the
- 00:13:29artist in mind and it's fast intuitive
- 00:13:33and flexible in everything that it does
- 00:13:39so just a little bit of information on
- 00:13:42the Raymond series because that's where
- 00:13:44all the examples are gonna be coming
- 00:13:45from like I said I got the chance to
- 00:13:47work on origins and legends and back in
- 00:13:502011 when we released origins we had
- 00:13:53four player co-op a large number of
- 00:13:55levels HD 2d graphics 60 frames per
- 00:13:57second all that stuff I said right and
- 00:13:59of course when you're making a sequel
- 00:14:01you don't want to just make a direct
- 00:14:03sequel you want to actually make it
- 00:14:04meaningful make it something that people
- 00:14:06want to buy so we wanted to add new
- 00:14:09features make the engine more robust
- 00:14:11this is just a small list we have a lot
- 00:14:12of new additions that we made during the
- 00:14:14course of transitioning from origins to
- 00:14:16legends but some big changes we made
- 00:14:18were online functionality that we didn't
- 00:14:20have before a lighting system
- 00:14:22touchscreen gameplay 3d bosses we didn't
- 00:14:26have support for any 3d objects in the
- 00:14:28environment before and
- 00:14:29we added it for rayman legends and the
- 00:14:31game still runs the same so we wanted to
- 00:14:34make sure that we're constantly updating
- 00:14:35our technology to give us the capability
- 00:14:37to do more than we ever thought that we
- 00:14:39could with the tool and it also gives us
- 00:14:42a larger range of things that we can
- 00:14:44actually do to surprise the player so
- 00:14:49this is sort of like the the most
- 00:14:52impressive part of the talk I'm gonna be
- 00:14:54showing quite a few videos of the tools
- 00:14:55that we use and explaining sort of why
- 00:14:57they're interesting from the perspective
- 00:14:59a designer I think they're kind of gonna
- 00:15:00speak for themselves but I'll talk
- 00:15:02anyway because I like to do it so here's
- 00:15:05the biggest one it's our game play
- 00:15:08geometry and for some reason it's called
- 00:15:10freezes I think it's a French thing
- 00:15:11but I don't really know and basically
- 00:15:14you just double-click and you start
- 00:15:16dragging vertices around
- 00:15:18it's like manipulating something in a 3d
- 00:15:20modeling package in up on a plane but
- 00:15:23what's impressive is that it's
- 00:15:24graphically complete all the textures
- 00:15:26are already there as you move the P the
- 00:15:29vertices around the textures update
- 00:15:31depending on the angle that the the
- 00:15:33vertex is at for example so when you
- 00:15:35have a whole Berta chol face it changes
- 00:15:37to a cliffside if it's horizontal then
- 00:15:40you're going to get the grass and of
- 00:15:42course I can check and see where Ramon's
- 00:15:44been for the past few steps which allows
- 00:15:46me to quickly add new elements and
- 00:15:48improve my level or continue designing
- 00:15:51the level and working on so that thing
- 00:15:53was a little bit too high now I brought
- 00:15:55it down and it feels better and I can
- 00:15:57move on to the next step so I can bring
- 00:15:58a platform in and just this ease of use
- 00:16:03is really the key to making so many
- 00:16:05prototypes all day every day and being
- 00:16:08ok with throwing them away because if it
- 00:16:10takes you 5 minutes to make an entire
- 00:16:12screen sequence who cares if you have to
- 00:16:14throw it away that's business as usual
- 00:16:16but if you had to draw it out on paper
- 00:16:18and then convince somebody to help you
- 00:16:20build something so you can do your
- 00:16:21sequence and then it takes you 3 weeks
- 00:16:22and then it doesn't work you're not
- 00:16:25going to be happy throwing that away
- 00:16:26exactly I can actually pause while I'm
- 00:16:28playing too and I can place things or
- 00:16:31they need to be so I can sort of have
- 00:16:33real great precision on where my enemies
- 00:16:35are gonna be placed where my platforms
- 00:16:37are and then I just press P and I'm back
- 00:16:38to the game so the most important thing
- 00:16:40about all of this is
- 00:16:42the game is live while you're
- 00:16:44manipulating anything in the environment
- 00:16:46it's really really important for the
- 00:16:49speed of iteration for testing your
- 00:16:51sequences for knowing that what you're
- 00:16:52doing is actually working or not and
- 00:16:54everything that we have in this tool
- 00:16:56just helps to push that feeling of
- 00:16:59flexibility creativity and allowing
- 00:17:02someone to express themselves with
- 00:17:03minimal hassle and also it's interesting
- 00:17:05about this visually complete geometry is
- 00:17:08that just in the level design layer you
- 00:17:10already have a visually representative
- 00:17:12prototype of what the final thing might
- 00:17:15look like you know that it's cliffs and
- 00:17:17grass and you know when something
- 00:17:19doesn't look right it's easy for us to
- 00:17:21fall into the trap of just saying I'm
- 00:17:22gonna use white box make something that
- 00:17:24I think could look like a space station
- 00:17:27and then the artist looks at it and says
- 00:17:29how am I supposed to make a space
- 00:17:30station out of this this doesn't make
- 00:17:31any sense it's too organic it's too this
- 00:17:33it's too that and what this does is they
- 00:17:35say these are the things that you can
- 00:17:37use this is how they work work within
- 00:17:39those constraints and it changes the way
- 00:17:41that we have to think about our levels
- 00:17:42for the better so we have other types of
- 00:17:47freezes as though we have pipe freezes
- 00:17:49which are simpler to manipulate because
- 00:17:51you only need about two or three
- 00:17:52vertices and everything is already built
- 00:17:54around it the collision the shape the
- 00:17:57way that everything looks so it's
- 00:17:59extremely fast to just build a pipe
- 00:18:00Network connect things to one another
- 00:18:03what you're seeing here actually since
- 00:18:05we don't have perspective in the game we
- 00:18:07obviously have to fake it somehow to
- 00:18:09make the game look nice so we have the
- 00:18:12ability to add two extremity textures on
- 00:18:14the same area basically of the fries and
- 00:18:17we can switch between the two at any
- 00:18:18time so we just say okay Raymond needs
- 00:18:22to stand on top of this and perspective
- 00:18:24wise this looks wrong so you just right
- 00:18:26click switch texture and then it looks
- 00:18:30the way it's supposed to it's super fast
- 00:18:36we also have this thing called meta
- 00:18:37freezes this is something that we
- 00:18:39actually designed during the production
- 00:18:42of Rayman legends so it was an addition
- 00:18:44later because we realized yeah
- 00:18:46everything's live even the enemies dying
- 00:18:48we realized that we were sort of working
- 00:18:51backwards sometimes we were actually
- 00:18:53having three or four freezes we had to
- 00:18:55manipulate at the same time every time
- 00:18:57and that's not really something you want
- 00:18:59to do so we did is we combined multiple
- 00:19:01freezes in the background the playground
- 00:19:04the foreground of this platform into one
- 00:19:06manipulable object what that does is it
- 00:19:08preserves the flexibility of the tiling
- 00:19:10of each of the individual freezes
- 00:19:12without causing unnecessary stretching
- 00:19:15or compromising the visual quality and
- 00:19:17at the same time preserving the
- 00:19:18flexibility of manipulation which is
- 00:19:20extremely important for us these ones
- 00:19:28are really cool they look a bit like
- 00:19:31pipe freezes but they're nothing like
- 00:19:33pipe freezes they're busy a so they're
- 00:19:36spline controlled and the collision is
- 00:19:38dynamically generated based on the
- 00:19:40spline that you have it's updated in
- 00:19:42real time obviously and manipulation is
- 00:19:44extremely easy you can see it's also
- 00:19:46visually complete like all the other
- 00:19:48freezes it tiles properly stretches
- 00:19:51updates you're playing it it's live just
- 00:19:54like everything else and there are a lot
- 00:19:56of extra parameters on top of these
- 00:19:57things that make them even more
- 00:19:59interesting for prototyping one thing
- 00:20:01you can also see here is that we use the
- 00:20:04same system of manipulation for are
- 00:20:05collectibles now in Rayman Origins
- 00:20:08we actually placed every single loom the
- 00:20:10little collectible guys we used to place
- 00:20:12every single one by hand and now all we
- 00:20:15have to do is put a spline to say they
- 00:20:16start here they end there you trigger it
- 00:20:18and they just sort of fly to this at the
- 00:20:21end position so it just makes the whole
- 00:20:24level design process that little bit
- 00:20:26less tedious and that makes it fine if I
- 00:20:29throw it away it didn't take me ten
- 00:20:31minutes just to place 500 stupid looms
- 00:20:34it took me two seconds so I can delete
- 00:20:36them who cares
- 00:20:39we also have things like the ability to
- 00:20:42make them grow and retract just with a
- 00:20:44simple trigger and now of course if
- 00:20:46you're a designer you can imagine all
- 00:20:47kinds of interesting things you can do
- 00:20:49with this and that's not all but it's
- 00:20:51just one of the many little features
- 00:20:53that were added that just brings so much
- 00:20:55more to the table as designer to make
- 00:20:58creative levels and when it's integrated
- 00:21:00into a visually complete package there's
- 00:21:03no reason not to use it so here's just a
- 00:21:09little example of a combination of some
- 00:21:11traditional freezes some busy a freezes
- 00:21:13some animation and a coin and that's
- 00:21:18about it it's just a combination of a
- 00:21:20couple simple systems to build this it
- 00:21:22wouldn't take more than five minutes for
- 00:21:24us it's really really fast and I'm
- 00:21:27talking about visually speaking to the
- 00:21:28background foreground who cares but the
- 00:21:30stuff that you're playing on it looks
- 00:21:32like that when you build it there's no
- 00:21:33extra work necessary of course every
- 00:21:38level designer needs white box because
- 00:21:41there are some prototypes that you just
- 00:21:43need the freedom to do what you want
- 00:21:44exactly the way that you want it's cool
- 00:21:47to have these visually complete freezes
- 00:21:49but sometimes we don't know where we're
- 00:21:50going with the world or where the
- 00:21:51specific sequence fits into the grand
- 00:21:53scheme of the game as you can see it's
- 00:21:55still flexible like everything else it's
- 00:21:57very fast to work with this kind of
- 00:21:59stuff but what's really powerful for me
- 00:22:01personally about these white box freezes
- 00:22:03is what I can do with them when it comes
- 00:22:05to prototyping because I can combine
- 00:22:07them with other elements and I can make
- 00:22:10my own gameplay basically it's just a
- 00:22:14mixture of a couple different freezes a
- 00:22:16couple movement tweens and a trigger and
- 00:22:19what I've basically simulated is a
- 00:22:20button that gets pressed and it triggers
- 00:22:23the door to open and that's just the the
- 00:22:26speed at which I can make a gameplay
- 00:22:28element that would normally take an
- 00:22:29artist in some programmers some time to
- 00:22:31develop before it can prove that it
- 00:22:33works I've proven that it worked in
- 00:22:35about half a day of work and I can
- 00:22:37easily manipulate it to if the scale is
- 00:22:39wrong if the shape is a bit wrong or the
- 00:22:41color one thing I like to do too is
- 00:22:45white box sketching
- 00:22:51I'm sorry don't know what happened
- 00:23:00I'm gonna continue all this boots up I'm
- 00:23:03really really sorry I don't know why one
- 00:23:05thing I like to do is I really take this
- 00:23:07sort of white box geometry and I sketch
- 00:23:09what it is that I want it to look like
- 00:23:11because what I need to do is I have to
- 00:23:13convince the the artists and everybody
- 00:23:16of what my my vision is basically what I
- 00:23:19could do is I could simply make this
- 00:23:21object a red circle and say it's a
- 00:23:23dangerous object go and the artists okay
- 00:23:26well what do you want for this red
- 00:23:27circle and all that kind of stuff and
- 00:23:29they have to figure it out but for me I
- 00:23:31think it's important that it has spikes
- 00:23:33it needs to be clear why it's dangerous
- 00:23:35for the player because sightings and
- 00:23:36feedback are important right and so the
- 00:23:39ability for me to actually sketch that
- 00:23:41out makes it a lot more powerful for me
- 00:23:43to be able to pitch that idea to
- 00:23:45somebody and and what's interesting is
- 00:23:48when you look at the final art asset
- 00:23:50basically it looks relatively similar to
- 00:23:52what I was able to actually produce with
- 00:23:55the white box so it makes sense and
- 00:23:58actually this is one of the things that
- 00:24:00I do on a daily basis it's one of the
- 00:24:02things that is the strongest thing for
- 00:24:05me as a level designer in this engine is
- 00:24:07to be able to sketch things out like
- 00:24:09this so rapidly what you could say is
- 00:24:11you can just draw it out in Photoshop
- 00:24:12and drag and drop it into the engine
- 00:24:14okay why not that's fine that's what
- 00:24:16it's built for right but for someone
- 00:24:18like me I'm a hundred percent used to
- 00:24:21actually working in the engine
- 00:24:22these freezes they're like it's my Maya
- 00:24:24you know I don't need to leave the
- 00:24:26engine to do things and the fact that I
- 00:24:28can actually do it so fast like this it
- 00:24:31just makes my life that much easier and
- 00:24:33it makes more flexible for me to I don't
- 00:24:35actually have to open another package to
- 00:24:38make a small change resave reload no I
- 00:24:40just grabbed a vertex to drag it up does
- 00:24:42it work cool does it not work okay move
- 00:24:44it around again
- 00:24:49I'm very sorry about this I can juggle
- 00:24:57but basically I mean that's what it
- 00:24:59comes down to right is everything about
- 00:25:02this tool is about empowering us as
- 00:25:05designers and artists to do our job that
- 00:25:08much faster than we normally could and
- 00:25:11that's why all the systems are built
- 00:25:13that way and honestly working in it is a
- 00:25:16dream I've worked in other editors
- 00:25:17before in school for fun whatever but to
- 00:25:22be fair it just doesn't compare at all
- 00:25:25to the power that we have with UB our
- 00:25:26framework
- 00:25:56I'm very sorry I hope so on my first
- 00:26:02time - what are the chances
- 00:26:11I think we're back for now cross your
- 00:26:16fingers if not I'll just juggle so what
- 00:26:21I was talking about and then it turns
- 00:26:23into something like that when the artist
- 00:26:24gets their hands on it it's great it's
- 00:26:26awesome and it's cool that I was able to
- 00:26:28sort of inspire them in a certain
- 00:26:29direction even though I'm not an artist
- 00:26:31myself
- 00:26:33we have Lua scripting as well so there's
- 00:26:36a way that we can actually add a little
- 00:26:37bit more functionality to our visual
- 00:26:40prototypes it's not just all artsy
- 00:26:42fartsy but it's simple scripting it's
- 00:26:45nothing too complicated I picked this up
- 00:26:46very quickly and I'm not really a
- 00:26:48programmer so we have is we have simple
- 00:26:50chunks of behavior like a shake a
- 00:26:52movement ease-in ease-out things like
- 00:26:55that and you can just sort of stick one
- 00:26:57in front of the other it's a series of
- 00:26:58events and that's how we can do simple
- 00:27:00things like moving an object down the
- 00:27:02screen making a crusher that shakes and
- 00:27:04comes back we can pretty much prototype
- 00:27:06everything we need to using these tweens
- 00:27:08these movement tweens in Lua scripting
- 00:27:10plus all the tools that I've shown you
- 00:27:12already in the editor and one thing we
- 00:27:15also like to do on this side of things
- 00:27:17is separate templates and instances so
- 00:27:21basically for all of our gameplay
- 00:27:22elements we have templates which have a
- 00:27:24set series of behavior that is sort of
- 00:27:27like non-negotiable it has to be that
- 00:27:28way but there's always a couple of
- 00:27:30parameters that you can mess with a bit
- 00:27:31to do something different with it and
- 00:27:33those are in the instance file so that
- 00:27:35enables the designer to actually
- 00:27:37manipulate certain things in a way that
- 00:27:38fits his current situation without the
- 00:27:41game designer pulling his hair out that
- 00:27:42you're changing everything about the
- 00:27:43enemy basically we have a sequence
- 00:27:49editor - this is sort of our cutscene
- 00:27:51tool in the UB art framework what's
- 00:27:54really interesting is sometimes when you
- 00:27:56go exploring in areas of an engine that
- 00:27:58you're not supposed to touch you find
- 00:27:59out that it actually has something to
- 00:28:01bring to your job to and during Rayman
- 00:28:03Origins I was in charge of building a
- 00:28:05boss inside of the stomach of a dragon
- 00:28:07lucky for me there were no big animated
- 00:28:10characters that needed to be integrated
- 00:28:12with complex behavioral patterns and
- 00:28:14things like that so I could use what I
- 00:28:16had at my disposal as a level designer
- 00:28:17to build an interesting boss sequence so
- 00:28:20I took the sequence editor I took things
- 00:28:22like these fire patches and other in
- 00:28:24just in gameplay elements and I made a
- 00:28:26series of events so trigger flame
- 00:28:28trigger flame trigger the weak point hit
- 00:28:31the weak point
- 00:28:32if you don't restart if you do and go to
- 00:28:34the next sequence and I was able to
- 00:28:36prototype 10 20 different versions of
- 00:28:38this boss by myself without a programmer
- 00:28:41and in the end it's a hundred percent
- 00:28:42level design boss which is something
- 00:28:44interesting I wouldn't imagine I'd be
- 00:28:46able to do that but this tool that
- 00:28:47wasn't meant for it was powerful enough
- 00:28:49and integrated well into the engine and
- 00:28:51then other systems that allowed me to do
- 00:28:52it we also have a very interesting tool
- 00:28:57that I will not be able to explain to
- 00:29:00you it's our animation tool in the
- 00:29:02engine it's really really cool it allows
- 00:29:05us to hybridize hand animated keyframes
- 00:29:07with bone animation and actually there
- 00:29:10was a talk last year by two of my
- 00:29:11colleagues where they explain it
- 00:29:13everything there is to know about
- 00:29:14jananam
- 00:29:15so since you all have access to the
- 00:29:16vault I suggest you watch it when you
- 00:29:18get back to your Studios it's very
- 00:29:20interesting talk and it's definitely a
- 00:29:22cool tool worth checking out especially
- 00:29:23if you're on the more artsy side of
- 00:29:24things but I'm gonna push through in
- 00:29:28this period of level design with some
- 00:29:30case studies in the production of Rayman
- 00:29:32legends that you know greatly benefited
- 00:29:35from the the workflow that I'm talking
- 00:29:39about basically because of the tools we
- 00:29:40have in the engine so one of the things
- 00:29:43that I personally was tasked to do
- 00:29:44during the production was investigate
- 00:29:46stealth in Raymond Ramon's a happy flowy
- 00:29:49platformer II game is not usually
- 00:29:51something you want to slow down in but
- 00:29:53we wanted you to feel a bit like a spy
- 00:29:54and avoid detection but we had to
- 00:29:57preserve the flow because flow for us in
- 00:29:59Raymond is paramount it's something that
- 00:30:01we need to have all the time so how do
- 00:30:04you impose that on people we played
- 00:30:06around with systems we tested a lot we
- 00:30:08threw a lot away and we finally got to
- 00:30:10the thing that felt best what I'm going
- 00:30:13to show you now is a couple little
- 00:30:14prototype videos of the early shadow
- 00:30:16system and some interesting directions I
- 00:30:19took with developing new features so
- 00:30:24basically when I was first working with
- 00:30:27these shadows I realized that when
- 00:30:29there's something that's you know
- 00:30:30collidable like ground it would cast a
- 00:30:32shadow and when there was no ground it
- 00:30:34wouldn't cast a shadow that meant that
- 00:30:35all of my situations had sort of like an
- 00:30:38empty ville
- 00:30:38that you could fall into and that
- 00:30:40doesn't really challenge the shadow or
- 00:30:41light mechanic that just challenges
- 00:30:43avoiding falling through a pit so how am
- 00:30:45I going to use that in an interesting
- 00:30:47way to reinforce the mechanic and so I
- 00:30:49just took a template freeze I made it
- 00:30:51semi-transparent and blue and I didn't
- 00:30:53apply the shadow collision to it and
- 00:30:55that's it and all of a sudden now I
- 00:30:57invented a new type of freeze that we
- 00:30:59had to add to the kit that was integral
- 00:31:01to making this shadow gameplay work in
- 00:31:03the final world but before I could
- 00:31:06convince them I had to convince them so
- 00:31:08I had to make more prototypes that sort
- 00:31:11of stress tested or proved that it's
- 00:31:13really an interesting addition to the
- 00:31:15Arctic kit the art kit and the tool set
- 00:31:18as a level designer so I had to make a
- 00:31:20number of different prototypes that
- 00:31:21showed the use of the glass in different
- 00:31:23ways and eventually it got approved so
- 00:31:26then there are many different uses in
- 00:31:29the final game this is just one of them
- 00:31:31that's an interesting combination of the
- 00:31:33basics entry
- 00:31:34plus the glass another interesting
- 00:31:38example is these underwater snakes they
- 00:31:45are not normally meant to be used this
- 00:31:47way they didn't have this shadow
- 00:31:48functionality to begin with they were
- 00:31:50meant for something else but we thought
- 00:31:53well if they're already there why don't
- 00:31:55we just give them the shadow collision
- 00:31:57property and that's it so I just opened
- 00:32:00the script I changed the the material
- 00:32:01definition and suddenly it was casting
- 00:32:04shadows and it was a really interesting
- 00:32:05thing to use for the shadow game play
- 00:32:08easy peasy
- 00:32:09and here it's just a simple matter of
- 00:32:12putting a trigger that pauses and
- 00:32:14unpause is the light and that was it and
- 00:32:17it worked it really worked it was very
- 00:32:19fast and it made it into the final game
- 00:32:21one thing that was interesting for me
- 00:32:23though is I made sure to make the
- 00:32:27flicker when I was doing this because
- 00:32:29you need to have clear signs and
- 00:32:30feedback to tell the player okay the
- 00:32:33lights gonna turn on the lights gonna
- 00:32:34turn off and it was important even in
- 00:32:36the prototype to prove that so here we
- 00:32:40actually had to work on a little thing
- 00:32:41called the Wii U for a while and we have
- 00:32:43to make some prototypes for it so we had
- 00:32:46these elements you could pick up using
- 00:32:48the Wii U tablet you could drag them
- 00:32:50around and we had this shadow
- 00:32:52ding thing so I thought why not parent
- 00:32:55one to the other and see what happens
- 00:32:56and this happened and it worked so we
- 00:33:00ended up making a different version of
- 00:33:02the shy of the light casting thing we
- 00:33:04integrated the components of being able
- 00:33:05to carry it on the screen and we had a
- 00:33:07new gameplay element to use in different
- 00:33:08situations and it was sort of just like
- 00:33:10a happy experiment I act happy accident
- 00:33:12actually I just I thought why can't I
- 00:33:14combine these two things so I tried and
- 00:33:16they worked and that's really the
- 00:33:19biggest thing in this engine for me I
- 00:33:21think is it just like taking two things
- 00:33:23that don't really belong together and
- 00:33:26sort of thinking like well why not they
- 00:33:28could right and this is another example
- 00:33:31of that we have this thing in the game
- 00:33:34digging where basically on the touch
- 00:33:36screen you can touch these cakes and dig
- 00:33:39tunnels for your friends we wanted to
- 00:33:41reuse this mechanic for the rest of the
- 00:33:42the world to make it consistent but not
- 00:33:45every level needed to have the
- 00:33:46touchscreen gameplay we didn't want to
- 00:33:48force that on the player for every level
- 00:33:49so what we tried to do was separate the
- 00:33:52functionality and combine it with other
- 00:33:54things to give the same feeling but in a
- 00:33:57different way so I use the parenting
- 00:34:01system of course that we have we had a
- 00:34:03separate actor for the digging and
- 00:34:05allowed us to have flexibility and
- 00:34:07prototyping because we just said I think
- 00:34:10that this thing should be able to dig
- 00:34:11through cakes so you parent the object
- 00:34:13to it and you see what happens okay that
- 00:34:15doesn't work you try something else you
- 00:34:17move on if something starts to work okay
- 00:34:19cool you move on from there and do a
- 00:34:20number of different prototypes and
- 00:34:22eventually integrate the component into
- 00:34:25the gameplay element so every snake now
- 00:34:28has this digging component and when you
- 00:34:30put it in these sort of digging cakes
- 00:34:31they start to dig tunnels so here for
- 00:34:37example you've got this lovely dancing
- 00:34:39skeleton and this is how the digging
- 00:34:42works basically with the touch screen
- 00:34:45but what I'm going to grab over here is
- 00:34:47the actor that's separate and you can
- 00:34:50see it has the exact same functionality
- 00:34:52but it's not attached to the touchscreen
- 00:34:55gameplay so what I'm going to do is use
- 00:34:57our parenting system and you can
- 00:34:59actually see all the bones in the
- 00:35:02character and you can parent anything to
- 00:35:03any of the bones so I could parent
- 00:35:06something too
- 00:35:06of the guy and it'll be attached to his
- 00:35:08hand and when he moves it up and down
- 00:35:09it'll move with him it's really really
- 00:35:12strangely powerful and now you can see
- 00:35:15that as he walks around he's destroying
- 00:35:17the cake and that's what I did with the
- 00:35:19snakes this takes were more interesting
- 00:35:21than this guy so I stuck with the snakes
- 00:35:24but there are some other interesting
- 00:35:26cases too for example there's this
- 00:35:29really big luchador and one thing that's
- 00:35:34interesting about this case is the
- 00:35:36original version of this there was a
- 00:35:38flat ground he jumped he landed and he
- 00:35:40sat there and you had to kill him but
- 00:35:43because of his animation and the way
- 00:35:44that he was it just felt a bit weird so
- 00:35:47what they did was the level designer
- 00:35:48just dropped some digging at the bottom
- 00:35:50and put the digging component into the
- 00:35:52guy all of a sudden he jumps off falls
- 00:35:55into the abyss it solves one problem and
- 00:35:57it creates an extra danger behind the
- 00:35:58player which pushes him forward
- 00:36:00problem solved I just a matter of
- 00:36:02replacing one little functionality for
- 00:36:04another and seeing what happens and
- 00:36:08here's this next I was talking about
- 00:36:10it's really interesting because you can
- 00:36:13make all kinds of interesting tunnels
- 00:36:14configurations with different snakes
- 00:36:16digging through and visually it's really
- 00:36:18interesting - it's very different from
- 00:36:19something that you would normally get
- 00:36:21with a player controlling it usually
- 00:36:22they'll just wipe the screen clean done
- 00:36:24but here you've actually got a nice
- 00:36:25tailored level design that's created and
- 00:36:28generated by these enemies in the game
- 00:36:32this is an example that I'm particularly
- 00:36:34proud of because I did it it was
- 00:36:40basically just we were between projects
- 00:36:42after Rayman Origins was finished and we
- 00:36:44were playing around some adversarial
- 00:36:46gameplay you know it's a co-op game but
- 00:36:48we like to smack each other can we make
- 00:36:49that a thing we wanted slight randomness
- 00:36:52because otherwise one guy dominates and
- 00:36:54everybody feels bad and we don't want
- 00:36:55that we're a family game everyone should
- 00:36:57feel good and it needed to be a
- 00:37:00convincing prototype because if it's not
- 00:37:02a convincing prototype you're not
- 00:37:03convincing anyone are you so ultimately
- 00:37:06this is what it is it's just a soccer
- 00:37:09ball and you can kick it around it's fun
- 00:37:11in for players people can smack each
- 00:37:13other it's two versus two three versus
- 00:37:15one all that kind of good stuff
- 00:37:17and what it basically started was was I
- 00:37:20just tossed a projectile from an enemy
- 00:37:22in Rayman Origins he threw boulders and
- 00:37:24they bounced once or twice the ironic
- 00:37:27thing is that after they bounced once or
- 00:37:29twice they died it exploded so I had one
- 00:37:32shot to get it into a goal and otherwise
- 00:37:34I'd had to restart the map so it wasn't
- 00:37:36really easy to prototype that one but it
- 00:37:38proved a point it felt good to try to
- 00:37:41kick a ball into a goal so then I made a
- 00:37:43trigger that detected the ball
- 00:37:44exclusively and when I triggered
- 00:37:46something for example I had numbers and
- 00:37:48I would just say when the ball enters
- 00:37:50shift the numbers up so it says one now
- 00:37:53it's 2 now it's 3 it was like a really
- 00:37:55rudimentary messy prototype but on the
- 00:37:58outside when you're playing it you don't
- 00:37:59feel it you don't know that it's a messy
- 00:38:01prototype it feels like what it's
- 00:38:03supposed to be so then we developed it
- 00:38:05that was the final version this is the
- 00:38:07first version this is actually something
- 00:38:09internal we did this for our Rayman
- 00:38:14Origins release party actually in the
- 00:38:16final version you've got some nice
- 00:38:18little enemies dancing in the foreground
- 00:38:19when you kick the ball in for this
- 00:38:21version we have our lovely creative
- 00:38:23directors face but it was good fun and
- 00:38:26actually what's interesting to note here
- 00:38:28we had moving goals
- 00:38:29multi-ball at the top bouncing surfaces
- 00:38:32for the floor and we moved all of them
- 00:38:34for the final version it was fun we
- 00:38:36could have done more but we felt that
- 00:38:38the simple version was clear enough and
- 00:38:39we had more things to focus on but it
- 00:38:41was a lot of fun and the reason that we
- 00:38:43kept it was because we we made the
- 00:38:45prototype we brought it to our Rayman
- 00:38:47Origins release party and everybody
- 00:38:49started playing it and they couldn't
- 00:38:50stop for the entire evening can you
- 00:38:53imagine an evening you're supposed to be
- 00:38:54drinking and celebrating that you're
- 00:38:55done with that freaking game you not to
- 00:38:57look at it anymore yeah party hearty and
- 00:39:00everyone wants to play the prototype it
- 00:39:01just doesn't make any sense but it told
- 00:39:04us something they knew that it was
- 00:39:05actually quite special so we pushed it
- 00:39:07forward and it made it into the final
- 00:39:09game so through all of this I mean what
- 00:39:14went right obviously a lot like right
- 00:39:17right although I wouldn't be here
- 00:39:19talking about it like this
- 00:39:20or I'm just hopelessly optimistic well
- 00:39:23there's the rapid iterative failure
- 00:39:24thing we did fail a lot
- 00:39:26we failed hard sometimes less hard other
- 00:39:28times but we failed consistently
- 00:39:31and that was by design we knew that the
- 00:39:34better off we were we were better off by
- 00:39:37building a lot of things throwing them
- 00:39:38away building more throwing them away
- 00:39:40then putting all of our eggs into one
- 00:39:41basket and realizing when it was too
- 00:39:43late that it wasn't working our actors
- 00:39:47our templates the free system which I'm
- 00:39:49sure impressed a number of you all of
- 00:39:51these different systems are obviously
- 00:39:54going right because they allow us to do
- 00:39:56our job so fast unimaginable until you
- 00:39:59try it and we're a small team for ease
- 00:40:04of communication
- 00:40:05because with the tool like this as well
- 00:40:07you don't need so many people you know
- 00:40:09you build systems like it's procedural
- 00:40:10which is everyone's doing these days
- 00:40:12kind of a hot topic it is relatively
- 00:40:14procedural the way that it's set up
- 00:40:15these freezes and everything it saves a
- 00:40:17lot of people a lot of time and also
- 00:40:20having a small team is great because you
- 00:40:22can actually go up to somebody who's
- 00:40:23right next to your programmer and smack
- 00:40:25him for something or tell them this or
- 00:40:26that there's not this sort of like
- 00:40:28hierarchy or you have to report to is
- 00:40:30lead and this and that we're a small
- 00:40:32team we work together and little strike
- 00:40:34team sometimes other times we're in our
- 00:40:36big level design group programming group
- 00:40:39but we're all in the same little villa
- 00:40:40in France it doesn't really make a
- 00:40:42difference when I have to go upstairs
- 00:40:43the water cooler and talk to somebody or
- 00:40:45two down the hall and of course there's
- 00:40:49the simplicity of workflow and the
- 00:40:51flexible systems which I've hopefully
- 00:40:53demonstrated to you guys already but
- 00:40:55they're there and they work very very
- 00:40:57well of course everyone makes mistakes
- 00:41:00when you say that failure is sort of by
- 00:41:03designed in your workflow you're gonna
- 00:41:04fail a lot but we didn't really do
- 00:41:07design documentation you can imagine
- 00:41:09that when you're working extremely
- 00:41:10quickly when do you find the time to
- 00:41:12write things down and when you do write
- 00:41:14things down
- 00:41:15aren't they obsolete that's pretty much
- 00:41:17the way that it went for us but the bad
- 00:41:20part about this is the fact that when
- 00:41:21someone new joins a team they don't
- 00:41:23really have a resource to go to they
- 00:41:25can't just like Oh read the Bible and
- 00:41:27then there you go you go through it and
- 00:41:28you figure out everything and then you
- 00:41:29start working we have a help menu in the
- 00:41:32editor which is good it's a good base
- 00:41:33but for example the design of the game
- 00:41:35no no we're not ready yet we're still
- 00:41:37experimenting we have two months left
- 00:41:39we're still experimenting we'll see
- 00:41:44sometimes we had a lack of tools for
- 00:41:46specific tasks I mean we have some great
- 00:41:48systems in there but there are some
- 00:41:50other processes that are a little bit
- 00:41:51more tedious less flexible basically and
- 00:41:54sometimes we could have communicated
- 00:41:56better on what we needed so we could
- 00:41:59actually work more efficiently and there
- 00:42:03was a lack of communication of engine
- 00:42:04workflow issues because the thing is
- 00:42:06when you're used to working so fast and
- 00:42:08trying to pump things out very quickly
- 00:42:10when you realize that you have to do a
- 00:42:11very tedious work around for something
- 00:42:14just to get it to work you take the
- 00:42:16extra ten seconds to do the work around
- 00:42:18rather than telling somebody the
- 00:42:19parenting system isn't working you have
- 00:42:21to parent three times instead of one but
- 00:42:23it's like oh whatever I'm sure they know
- 00:42:25and I work with it and then like six
- 00:42:27months later I hope someone knows well
- 00:42:30you keep working with it instead of just
- 00:42:32going and if I just went to the guy and
- 00:42:33told him it's not working it would be
- 00:42:35fixed in the next build but it's just
- 00:42:36this mentality that we get into of just
- 00:42:39deal with it just push forward you're
- 00:42:40gonna fail anyway so you might as well
- 00:42:41just keep going and when you hit
- 00:42:43something that's good then you improve
- 00:42:44it but the engine is a different story
- 00:42:46and sometimes we have to realize that
- 00:42:48and there of course was sometimes a lack
- 00:42:51of communication of new features and
- 00:42:53additions because we worked so
- 00:42:55informally sometimes going straight to a
- 00:42:57programmer and asking for a new feature
- 00:42:58that meant that there were times that a
- 00:43:00new feature was created and one level
- 00:43:03designer knew about it and he didn't
- 00:43:05tell the rest of us and we lost a lot of
- 00:43:09time and then some guy comes up to me a
- 00:43:13year-and-a-half later and says that we
- 00:43:15had the thing all that time and I've
- 00:43:17been doing it the wrong way people get
- 00:43:20annoyed and it's definitely something we
- 00:43:22need to work on but it's cool when you
- 00:43:24get new features just tell people when
- 00:43:26they come out in the beginning so it's
- 00:43:31not just Rayman in the VR framework it
- 00:43:33started with Raymond but it sort of
- 00:43:35evolved since then we actually do mobile
- 00:43:38games in newbie art as well Rayman
- 00:43:40Fiesta run Rayman Jungle Run actually
- 00:43:42can I have a show of hands who's played
- 00:43:43one of the new Rayman games from origins
- 00:43:45to legends to mobile not bad good job
- 00:43:49guys
- 00:43:50[Music]
- 00:43:51thanks for helping me survive eat
- 00:43:53everyday so we do mobile but we're also
- 00:43:58expert well not me personally but
- 00:44:00Ubisoft is experimenting with other
- 00:44:02genres in the UV art of course
- 00:44:04so in Montreal they're working on a
- 00:44:06Japanese RPG child of lights using the
- 00:44:08same framework is still a 2-d game is
- 00:44:10still using a lot of the similar systems
- 00:44:12but they're adding some really cool
- 00:44:14features that we didn't necessarily add
- 00:44:16for our projects but it's cool for us to
- 00:44:18see how other teams adapt and impact the
- 00:44:20development of the engine and of course
- 00:44:24we also have another one valiant hearts
- 00:44:26which is a world war 1 adventure game
- 00:44:28that's being developed actually by the
- 00:44:29guys who did Rayman legends I not on the
- 00:44:33team personally I have other things to
- 00:44:35do but a lot of my friends are working
- 00:44:37on it you should buy it it's gonna be
- 00:44:39great and it's it's a really cool game
- 00:44:41it's it's different to have something
- 00:44:43that's a bit slower paced less action II
- 00:44:45more emotional and everything and having
- 00:44:47an adventure game in an engine that was
- 00:44:49built originally for a platformer but
- 00:44:51it's working it's an interesting take on
- 00:44:53the genre and we're trying to push
- 00:44:55forward and see what we can do with the
- 00:44:56engine from there I actually write
- 00:45:01sometimes for the Ubisoft VB blog I've
- 00:45:04written a couple columns about working
- 00:45:05in the engine working on the games and
- 00:45:08working with the artists and trying not
- 00:45:11to fight with them and all that kind of
- 00:45:12stuff and it could be quite interesting
- 00:45:15for you to check in especially if you
- 00:45:17found this presentation interesting
- 00:45:18despite the blackout you might want to
- 00:45:20check this out and have some further
- 00:45:21reading just to give me some hits anyway
- 00:45:23you know so if I'm gonna give you a
- 00:45:28couple things to take away apart from
- 00:45:30the fact that have a good engine that
- 00:45:31empowers your artists and designers
- 00:45:32which is a given fail often don't be
- 00:45:36scared of it you know plan for it or
- 00:45:39don't plan I mean to plan failure let's
- 00:45:41just build stuff and see what happens
- 00:45:43try to make the most efficient fast
- 00:45:46process that you can for getting to that
- 00:45:48sort of proof of concept stage get there
- 00:45:50see if it's working or move on but
- 00:45:53that's it just push to fail often and
- 00:45:55you'll eventually stumble on the right
- 00:45:56thing embrace artistic constraints a lot
- 00:46:01of people think all constraints are
- 00:46:02there so
- 00:46:03constraining but they're not they they
- 00:46:08really push you to be more creative and
- 00:46:10work outside of your comfort zone there
- 00:46:12been so many times that I'm given a new
- 00:46:13art kit in a new world and I'm like what
- 00:46:16am I supposed to do with this come on
- 00:46:18guys and then I think oh no but actually
- 00:46:20I can do something I've never done
- 00:46:21before and that's the point
- 00:46:23if they just gave us the same kit re
- 00:46:25skinned every time we'd be making the
- 00:46:27same levels every time we wouldn't move
- 00:46:29anywhere and now we have worlds that are
- 00:46:31very unique different gameplay elements
- 00:46:33different direction and it's because of
- 00:46:35these artistic constraints that we sort
- 00:46:37of have to live with and embrace and my
- 00:46:41personal model is waste your home time
- 00:46:43not someone else's I'm very happy to
- 00:46:46spend a lot of time making my prototypes
- 00:46:48trying to prove people that it's gonna
- 00:46:50work and I don't mind if I have to throw
- 00:46:52it away because I know I'm not impacting
- 00:46:54the rest of the production I can make up
- 00:46:56for my own lost time but I don't want to
- 00:46:58feel guilty for somebody else's and so
- 00:47:00you have to find a way to really clearly
- 00:47:01express yourself in your idea so that
- 00:47:03everybody understands and knows where
- 00:47:05you want to go with it and we can make
- 00:47:07it together so that's it check us out at
- 00:47:11the UB lounge upstairs we're doing demos
- 00:47:12of the engine and I hope you appreciated
- 00:47:15it and thanks for being here
- 00:47:22[Music]
- 00:47:27as far as I know I think there's some
- 00:47:29time for questions if anyone has it you
- 00:47:31have to step to the mic and otherwise
- 00:47:33I'll be in the wrap-up room after the
- 00:47:34question time can you talk about the
- 00:47:37process for choosing the concepts and
- 00:47:39our tickets for the levels and who's
- 00:47:41who's involved in those discussions yes
- 00:47:44so the people that choose the art kits
- 00:47:46that we use basically the artists
- 00:47:48through the concept of course and
- 00:47:50there's a always a higher level artist
- 00:47:52or creative person that oversees it and
- 00:47:54stuff like that and they just sort of
- 00:47:56decide okay this one's interesting not
- 00:47:58clean enough they have to be able to
- 00:48:00visualize the gameplay as well if they
- 00:48:02can't really see how this concept is
- 00:48:04gonna translate to the level or be clear
- 00:48:06enough then they go back to the drawing
- 00:48:08board and you know revamp it a little
- 00:48:11bit or throw it away and try something
- 00:48:12new there are worlds we didn't include
- 00:48:14in the game because they didn't work as
- 00:48:16well as others and we didn't have the
- 00:48:17time to make them work but so basically
- 00:48:19just comes down to people working hard
- 00:48:21and somebody above them telling them
- 00:48:23it's good enough for it's not business
- 00:48:25as usual you know sure hey so you talked
- 00:48:30a lot about the art impacting the design
- 00:48:33and I was wondering if there are any
- 00:48:34instances where are impacted things on
- 00:48:36the programming side yeah I mean there's
- 00:48:42I'm guessing there's a lot of times when
- 00:48:43especially in a game like this that's
- 00:48:44cartoony that the animations sort of
- 00:48:46guide the way that you program certain
- 00:48:49functionality right for example the
- 00:48:51character controls of Rayman and the
- 00:48:53other main characters of the game
- 00:48:54they're very very based on the
- 00:48:57animations the cartoony sort of ease-in
- 00:48:59ease-out floppy animations that's why it
- 00:49:02feels that way but it works because it's
- 00:49:04sort of linked to the animation that was
- 00:49:06originally given to the programmer to
- 00:49:07work with so yes of course in cases like
- 00:49:10that it comes down to taking the artwork
- 00:49:12understanding the intention of it and
- 00:49:14programming the functionality to make
- 00:49:15sure it feels the way it's supposed to
- 00:49:17of course so anything like new features
- 00:49:20that were added well of course I mean
- 00:49:24the the artists they did tests for the
- 00:49:26lighting system the new 2d lighting
- 00:49:28system basically they did them in things
- 00:49:30like 3ds Max and Maya just to sort of
- 00:49:32get a feel for what kind of system they
- 00:49:34wanted and then they told the
- 00:49:36programmers this is what we want this is
- 00:49:38how
- 00:49:38wanted at least to work this way and
- 00:49:40they said okay boss and they did it and
- 00:49:41it turned out cool in the end but it's
- 00:49:43because they had a clear direction they
- 00:49:45knew what they wanted and they had to
- 00:49:46convey it to the programmers okay thanks
- 00:49:48yeah hi I was really curious how did you
- 00:49:52get your job at Ubisoft magic no no I
- 00:49:59was I was a I was a student three years
- 00:50:01ago and I made a portfolio for level
- 00:50:04design because I wanted to one of my
- 00:50:06teachers used to work at Ubisoft and he
- 00:50:08was like hey looks pretty good and so he
- 00:50:10sort of like sent it under the table I
- 00:50:12was actually busy an entire weekend
- 00:50:14putting together like stacks of
- 00:50:15applications for other companies like
- 00:50:17I'm gonna do this and then on Monday
- 00:50:18it's like ready to send group want to
- 00:50:21work at Ubisoft well whatever so I went
- 00:50:24and worked at Ubisoft and then I stuck
- 00:50:26around and I have a contract now so I've
- 00:50:27been there for three years but it was
- 00:50:29really that but I guess they liked my
- 00:50:31portfolio or something
- 00:50:33I think it - you know my question
- 00:50:39concerns I know you talked a lot about
- 00:50:41just creating levels just by doing and
- 00:50:43prototyping and testing and failing
- 00:50:46whenever you got those gem moments and
- 00:50:49you had success because the iteration
- 00:50:53process is so fascinating awesome how
- 00:50:55did you know when to like just stop you
- 00:50:57know did you ever get sucked into just
- 00:51:00being in that level and enjoying it and
- 00:51:02like how would you move past that to the
- 00:51:04next one how did you know to move on
- 00:51:06well a game has never done everyone
- 00:51:09knows that so it can be hard sometimes
- 00:51:12to say done and move on there have been
- 00:51:14times that I actually cut out an entire
- 00:51:16portion of my level after it's been
- 00:51:18approved after it's in beta and rebuild
- 00:51:20it sort of like a ninja thing and
- 00:51:23somebody noticed isn't they asked what
- 00:51:25the hell do and like no trust me it's
- 00:51:27better and I'll make sure it's clean
- 00:51:28don't worry and it usually is but
- 00:51:31honestly it's just a matter of saying
- 00:51:33like did I fulfill what I needed to they
- 00:51:36want a boss level with three arenas and
- 00:51:38creative ideas I built all three of them
- 00:51:40I could iterate on top of it more and
- 00:51:42all this kind of stuff but it's like
- 00:51:43scope wise it's there functionality wise
- 00:51:46it's there it's cool people appreciate
- 00:51:47it it works in the play test let's leave
- 00:51:50it unless I get tired and I fix
- 00:51:52later thank you yep hello this might be
- 00:51:58a bit big question for here but if
- 00:52:00there's some information on the block or
- 00:52:02could be I'd be very interested so
- 00:52:04basically you talk about these freezes
- 00:52:06for creating for example ground or pipes
- 00:52:08similar and assume creating a completely
- 00:52:10new type of freeze requires some
- 00:52:12programming but I'm curious about the
- 00:52:13process if you have a freeze already and
- 00:52:15you want to adapt it to a new
- 00:52:16environment with completing your art
- 00:52:18what are the tools for doing that it's a
- 00:52:23good question as far as I know what it
- 00:52:24comes down to is there's like it's like
- 00:52:27an atlas and you can see all of the
- 00:52:29pieces like the top the side and all
- 00:52:31that stuff this things at tile and it's
- 00:52:35a matter of making a new atlas and then
- 00:52:37using a tool to sort of specify this is
- 00:52:39the top this is the side this is the
- 00:52:40fill and things like that the technical
- 00:52:42actually at the UB lounge there's a
- 00:52:45technical artist who uses UB art at the
- 00:52:47moment and he can actually open
- 00:52:49everything and show you all those tools
- 00:52:50and how it works so you can get some
- 00:52:51real details because I'm just a level
- 00:52:53designer but it's more or less like that
- 00:52:56you I think yeah I had a question about
- 00:52:59Rayman legends about the musical levels
- 00:53:01so you mentioned working with the
- 00:53:04artists to create a look at the canoe
- 00:53:06tell me who was there a different
- 00:53:08process making a musical I was
- 00:53:10considering they're very synced to the
- 00:53:11the beats that's an interesting one
- 00:53:14actually it was it was just sort of like
- 00:53:17a happy accident that we started making
- 00:53:19musical levels we were just making some
- 00:53:21challenges and we made a video of it to
- 00:53:23show internally and put some really cool
- 00:53:25rock music synchronized with the action
- 00:53:27in the video and after they showed that
- 00:53:29it was kind of like can we play with the
- 00:53:31music I mean is this real or is this
- 00:53:33just a video and it's like well no but
- 00:53:35maybe we can make it and so then they
- 00:53:36started building a system for
- 00:53:38synchronizing the gameplay to the music
- 00:53:39the the composer Christoph Farrell he
- 00:53:42made the original version of the song
- 00:53:43and then the level designer built a
- 00:53:45level based on it and then it was a
- 00:53:47process of back-and-forth between the
- 00:53:48two of them to make the final product
- 00:53:50and then of course the animators came in
- 00:53:51and did all the fun animations
- 00:53:52background art things like that yep how
- 00:53:58much do you think the editor evolved
- 00:54:01during this dream and I mean it sounds
- 00:54:02like you create the levels the graphics
- 00:54:04got created graphics but
- 00:54:06they were edit or just was there somehow
- 00:54:08how many new features came up all had to
- 00:54:12be done by the programmers lots changed
- 00:54:14I mean if you look at for example just a
- 00:54:17touchscreen functionality alone or the
- 00:54:19three-dimensional entities in the game
- 00:54:21they just weren't there and those are a
- 00:54:23big chunk of what makes rayman legends'
- 00:54:25different from a man origins right we
- 00:54:28also had a lighting system that wasn't
- 00:54:29there at all it changes everything
- 00:54:31about the way the artists decorate their
- 00:54:34levels if you actually press a button to
- 00:54:36turn off the lights the levels look
- 00:54:38really bad like in war remand or
- 00:54:41adjourns we worked with it and we made
- 00:54:42the levels look like they were maybe lit
- 00:54:44but it was a different style but here
- 00:54:46you turn it off wolf and so it's
- 00:54:48important that it was developed properly
- 00:54:49and so there are big big features like
- 00:54:52that that really impacted the way that
- 00:54:53we started to produce things and there
- 00:54:55were just so many countless little
- 00:54:57features I can't even remember because
- 00:54:59I'm just used to the current version but
- 00:55:01it was a very different tool when we did
- 00:55:02Rayman Origins and it's improved a lot
- 00:55:04since you you mentioned working on a
- 00:55:09small team how small was your team I
- 00:55:12think at its peak it was about maybe a
- 00:55:16little bit over a hundred people I'm not
- 00:55:18sure but usually we were about 6070 then
- 00:55:22we ramped up a little bit more near the
- 00:55:24end to get things done yeah anyone else
- 00:55:31you how did the decisions get made about
- 00:55:36what levels are selected and what aren't
- 00:55:39lead level designer creative director
- 00:55:42okay I mean I'm in era three much things
- 00:55:46that you thought were particularly a
- 00:55:48good level that they weren't into and
- 00:55:50you had to make your case for more or of
- 00:55:52course yeah but I mean that's what it
- 00:55:54comes down to right it's about
- 00:55:55convincing people that's what I've been
- 00:55:56talking about with the prototyping
- 00:55:57process and everything it needs to be
- 00:55:58clear to convince somebody that this is
- 00:56:00a good idea and I've seen a lot of
- 00:56:02people that go in with a half-baked
- 00:56:04proposal they say oh look it's a red
- 00:56:06square on the floor it's a button it's
- 00:56:08like oh okay I guess I trust you and
- 00:56:11they jump and it doesn't do anything
- 00:56:12except to open a door and stuff it
- 00:56:14doesn't make sense but when you make it
- 00:56:15look like what it's supposed to be feel
- 00:56:17like what it's supposed to be and then
- 00:56:18you show it in a multitude
- 00:56:19different situations then it's very
- 00:56:21clear for them whether or not they just
- 00:56:23hate the idea or they can't deny that
- 00:56:26it's actually quite cool so when it
- 00:56:28comes to reviewing levels and things
- 00:56:29like that it's just that the level
- 00:56:30design lead come sits down with you and
- 00:56:32says this is good this is not try to go
- 00:56:34more in this direction and if you really
- 00:56:36disagree you can take one more chance to
- 00:56:38try to prove it to him but honestly
- 00:56:40that's the part about failing and moving
- 00:56:41on nothing is sacred just trash it and
- 00:56:44move on you can make something better in
- 00:56:45five minutes anyway
- 00:56:46thank you I'm a little curious about the
- 00:56:53development of the engine itself or the
- 00:56:56framework what led up to it and how long
- 00:56:59was it in development begin before it
- 00:57:01was used and when you add key features
- 00:57:06and stuff how long does that typically
- 00:57:07take well the engine was originally
- 00:57:10created by the creative director Michel
- 00:57:12Ancel and a small team of I believe five
- 00:57:14senior programmers the initial version
- 00:57:17of course I mean then we ramped up to a
- 00:57:19more a few more engineers as the process
- 00:57:21went on we were building the game itself
- 00:57:23but it was a small team developing the
- 00:57:25tools for that and then the team started
- 00:57:28to ramp up maybe a year later I believe
- 00:57:30and we started to actually go into
- 00:57:32production on Rayman Origins and it's
- 00:57:34just been in constant update status ever
- 00:57:36since but when it came to something like
- 00:57:38the lighting engine the new update for
- 00:57:40the lighting system it took quite a
- 00:57:43while like I believe if I remember
- 00:57:45correctly maybe a month or two to wait
- 00:57:47to get that thing actually working but
- 00:57:50it's a heavier system so it takes more
- 00:57:52time but some engine improvements they
- 00:57:54don't take any time at all they take
- 00:57:55like maybe one to three days tops
- 00:57:57depending on what it is thank you
- 00:58:00yep I think I can't take any more
- 00:58:03because they held up a yellow sign or
- 00:58:05something so thanks for being here I
- 00:58:06really appreciate it guys
- 00:58:07[Applause]
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