Upcoming Wii U eShop releases that catch the eye are often from small, independent developers, with a sense that it's these small teams that have freedom to express new ideas or conventionally niche approaches. For multi-national, multi-million dollar publishers the focus can be different, yet with the rise in popularity of download-only games we're seeing these sizeable companies beginning to dabble in smaller-scale releases.
A clear example is Ubisoft, which has taken various opportunities over the last couple of years to increase its presence in the download markets, from PC and consoles to smartphone games and apps. Nintendo gamers may have encountered Cloudberry Kingdom on the Wii U eShop, a crowdfunded game by Pwnee Studios that was eventually published by the European giant.
Yet Ubisoft seems to be stepping up another gear with home console download-only releases developed by its own internal studios. One of these that's caught the eye is Child of Light, a 2D RPG coming to the Wii U that utilises the eye-catching UbiArt engine first pioneered in Rayman Origins. With little revealed to date beyond a 2014 release window and a short walkthrough video, we posed some questions to creative director Patrick Plourde and writer Jeffrey Yohalem to learn a little more.
Nintendo Life: Thank you for your time, can you introduce yourselves and describe your roles in the development of Child of Light?
Patrick Plourde: My Name is Patrick Plourde, I’m the Creative Director on Child of Light.
Jeffrey Yohalem: And I am Jeffrey Yohalem, the Writer of Child of Light.
NL: To date we’ve seen an announcement trailer and a brief walkthrough, so we’ve had glimpses of the storyline and setting. Can you outline these for us?
JY: Child of Light tells the story of Aurora, a young girl from 1895 Austria who wakes up one morning to find herself on the lost continent of Lemuria. At first she believes she’s in a dream, but then discovers the only way home is through a mirror in the throne room of the Queen of the Night. On her quest to return home she meets the magical creatures of Lemuria and discovers that the Queen of the Night has stolen the sun, the moon and the stars. As she learns more about Lemuria and grows, her destiny will shift. Lemuria is a continent that once existed but is now hidden from our world that is home to all the fairytale creatures we’ve recorded throughout history.
NL: From a storytelling perspective, are there any particular sources of inspiration for taking a real-world girl to a fantastical place? It’s suggestive of C.S. Lewis (the Narnia series) to us.
PP: Narnia, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan. It’s a structure that is part of many tales.
JY: We were also inspired by early 20th century fairy tales and the Oz books, as well as more modern sources like Edward Eager’s novels and His Dark Materials. Video games like Syberia and the Longest Journey.
When I write stories for games I follow the principle that the player’s actions and what the player is doing moment to moment in the game should be the central focus of the story.
NL: Can you tell us about the storytelling style? You’ve already explained that dialogue will rhyme, so is the aim to have a storybook approach, or will in-game events be as important to the narrative as text?
JY: All the events in the game are told through rhyming stanzas, usually in ballad form (four lines with endings ABCB) and couplets for emphasis. When I write stories for games I follow the principle that the player’s actions and what the player is doing moment to moment in the game should be the central focus of the story, that what the player is playing should deliver the meaning. So, that is the case in Child of Light. The cutscenes serve to emphasize and frame the gameplay. And, depending on the player’s play style, events and outcomes change.
NL: Moving onto the gameplay, can you tell us first of all about the degree of exploration that’s encouraged? Do you feel the 2D sidescrolling perspective will portray a sense of scope and size to the world?
PP: My previous experience as a designer came from making open world games and I like the freedom these types of games provide to players. So for me it was really important to create a game where freedom of movement could exist even in 2D. That’s why Aurora can fly: it gives the player the freedom to move and explore in every direction: Up, down, left and right. I feel we managed to capture a feeling of freedom similar to that in a 3D game.
NL: The turn-based battle system places an emphasis on timing; how does this influence the dynamic of battles, as opposed to a standard menu-based move-set?
PP: It adds a layer of anticipation and strategy to battles – When you add the notion of casting time and the risk of losing your turn, it open up a lot of depth. It also allowed us to add the CO-OP.
JY: You have to balance both decision-making and timing, especially as a single player. You make a choice and you act it out. The passive element in menu-based combat is gone. In CO-OP it sometimes feels like running football plays together.
NL: Will the Skill tree and levelling up be relatively complex, or are you aiming for a clear, relatively simple setup?
PP - Each character has a unique skill-set and there is a different skill tree for each character, each with different branches to specialise. So overall I would say simple, but deep.
NL: We’ve noticed that the walkthrough had an emphasis on a second player to assist with avoiding enemies, identifying objects and even co-operating in battle. How important is the multiplayer mechanic?
PP: A player can play the game alone – the second character is controlled with the right stick, but it’s great to sit down and share the adventure. The asymmetric gameplay allows two players to talk about strategies and places to explore.
NL: In terms of the Wii U, has any consideration been given as yet to how the GamePad or Wii Remotes will be utilised, such as pointer controls for the second player or use of the touch screen?
PP: The game will fully support the GamePad. More details pretty soon.
NL: We’ve heard in the past of the UbiArt engine being easy to use, and it’s becoming increasingly prevalent in Ubisoft games. Can you share your experience utilising it for your vision of Child of Light?
PP: The pipeline for integrating art is really straightforward. An artist can draw concept art and integrate it directly in-game. It also allows level designers to create levels quickly and modify them on the fly. It’s the same for the animation system, which utilizes a puppet system that is very quick. UbiArt allowed us to create more than fifty enemies in the game, creating a wide variety of foes for Aurora to face in battle.
NL: With so many stylised, artistic and creative indie platformers available on digital game stores nowadays, how is Ubisoft ensuring Child of Light stands out in the crowd?
PP: Child of Light has many unique and distinctive features – the watercolor artstyle, the rhyming dialogs, the turn-based combat and the soundtrack (wait until you listen to it, it’s glorious) that are already making the game stand out for those who have seen and played it.
NL: Is Child of Light, in any way, a reaction to the rise of the Indie / download-only scene? Should we anticipate more download-only experiences of this nature from Ubisoft?
PP: Personally I was really interested in the creative challenge of producing a smaller scoped game. I feel that it was a great opportunity to try something different from my previous experiences. As for Ubisoft, I’m not the person who can answer that.
NL Is there any indication, as yet, of a release window in 2014?
PP: You’ll have more details on this pretty soon.
We'd like to thank Patrick Plourde and Jeffrey Yohalem for their time. Let us know whether you're looking forward to Child of Light based on what we've heard so far, while you can check out the recent video walkthrough below.
Comments (21)
It looks like a pretty cool game and i like how such a big developer is creating such a small budget game. I will probably get it if it comes out at a good time.
sounds ok, but rather dark. if it isnt, me and my bro will get this.
This game looks to be incredible, unfortunately I don't see it becoming much of a success in today's market. It's nice to see a big developer take some risks though.
@Falchion
Ubisoft has been pushing smaller downloadable games for a while now. This year they put out Blood Dragon and that western arcade shooter. Next year they have
Child of Light
Valiant Hearts: the great war
Assassin's Creed Liberation
Trails Fusion
After a year of Ubisoft making Watch Dogs look less interesting and more like a generic high-polish low-passion AAA title, this is now the Ubisoft title I'm most anticipating. It could very well be the only Ubisoft title I buy next year next.
About time that Ubisoft caught on that their business model was sinking them. Every piece of news you see about them is that their latest mega-budget AAA title "failed to meet sales expectations."
This looks phenomenal day one download for me.. Rayman meets final fantasy
@CaviarMeths
where did you read that. In the last couple of years the only Major games of there's that have underpreformed have been ZombiU and Rayman Origins/Legends which says alot.
As of right now, this game will be a day one buy for me. The art for some reasons beckons a sense of Nostalgia.. probably because it reminds me somewhat of Legends of Mana. Ubisoft has made a lot of under appreciated games and I'm betting this will be one of them, sadly to say. With that said though, I'm sure this is going to be great. Can't wait to hear the release date.. hopefully it's sometime in January or March.
I hate to say it, but Nintendo should do something like this for Wii U eShop, the company can probably create something great for the service. with one of their smaller studios. Make it happen, Nintendo.
@CaviarMeths Be better if they failed and all their IP was sold off to decent dev's. Ubisoft are the most customer unfriendly punisher there is. (I hope they go down the THQ path.)
@unrandomsam lol, EA.
@Wonder_Mask I really like Raymans art style, but to each his own I suppose.
@unrandomsam it just seems like Ubisoft sets its sales goals way too high and then punishes the consumer because said goals aren't reached.
All these amazing games coming up and im excited but dam, when are we getting released dates.
@Kroisos
You don't spend 4+ years making a game your not passionate about.
I'm interested in CHILD OF LIGHT, but after seein the trailer and demo walkthrough I'm more excited for VALIANT HEARTS! Please, Ubisoft, please bring it to Wii U.
@unrandomsam
WIth EA here i'm not sure that's possible.
@Wonder_Mask
Good thing its not the same art style as Rayman right.
Ohh I'm liking what I see.
Pretty soon the majority of the video game market will be these lower budget games. Chasing the ultra photo realistic graphics is going to end in a spectacular explosion.
That's how crashes happen in other industries. Indie games will be the way forward in that environment.... Nintendo on the other hand should do very well in this environment because they already attempt to hold their development costs down as much as possible. And they make some stellar indie games.
@shingi_70
@Wonder_Mask
I agree. I really did not like the art style in Rayman. Some of the most poorly drawn characters I have seen since Ren and Stimpy.
I call it a lazy art style. My 6 year nephew can draw far more interesting characters than Rayman. I'm still confused by the high marks it got in reviews. Besides the distracting god awful art style, the game had ZERO challenge. A platformer that doesn't have you frustrated to the point of wanting to throw your controller across the room is a boring platformer. I haven't played a platformer this easy since Kirby's Epic Yarn.
I like the look of this game, but i dont understand why we are getting this but not valiant hearts which looks just as good
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