ECTS 1998 Ubi Soft Enter…inment Press Kit (Europe)/ECTS 1998 Ubi Soft Entertainment Press Kit (Europe).bin/text/INTER/GB.cst/00012_Field_LHA.txt

Text File | 1998-08-21 | 12KB | 368 lines

Laura's Happy Adventures

Interview with Catherine Roy, Project
Manager



Q:    Why did Ubi Soft develop
CD-ROMs featuring the Playmobil toys?

    We all played with Playmobil toys
when we were kids. Therefore, 2 years
ago, when Ubi Soft planned to develop
a brand new range of games for the
whole family, the idea of introducing the
Playmobil plastic toys in our 3D world
developed naturally. Alain Tascan and
Jean-Michel Detoc created a small
demonstration movie in 3D, featuring
the Playmobil characters, and they
approached Playmobil during the
N├╝rnberg toy fair in 1996. Seeing the
Playmobil characters come alive in 3D
felt like a childhood dream come true!
The connection was immediate, they
were so astonished by the quality of the
graphics and animations in the 30
seconds video we presented that they
stopped the negotiations they had
started with another software editor and
signed a license agreement with Ubi
Soft. But beyond the quality of the
software edited by Ubi Soft, the main
reason for this partnership is rooted in
a shared philosophy.  Both companies
have the same philosophy in regard to
quality and excellence, our values are
the same when we think about
production and entertainment for the
family. More than a simple license
agreement we have forged a
co-operative partnership that utilises
the expertise of each partner.


Q :    Can you give us more details on
how you worked with Playmobil?

    The first step was to take a deep
breath and immerse us in the
Playmobil universe.  Geobra
Brandstätter, the German firm that
created the Playmobil toys 26 years
ago, has grown very quickly and has a
strong family identity. Before we could
start working on a game, we needed to
understand what had ensured the
success of Playmobil's small plastic
people and get the "Playmobil seal of
approval". We needed the insight to
understand why young children kept the
Playmobil catalogue as close to their
bed as their favourite storybook!
Therefore the whole Ubi Soft team went
to Germany to visit Playmobil's
headquarters and plant. During our visit
the Playmobil team shared their
knowledge and experience and gave
us insight into what were the key
success factors of their toys.

    The Playmobil people were also
present throughout the games'
development process. They came to
Montreal to see what we did with their
image in order to ensure that the
identity of their toys was respected.
Colour, size, shape and the spirit of the
story are just a few of the elements they
looked at. They were actually very
touchy! But it worked out perfectly well
and I think that they love what we did
with their little plastic guys! Actually,
Hans Brandstätter, the President of
Geobra Brandstätter, who has the
reputation of being a tough guy, couldn't
believe his eyes when he saw the
games. He was just amazed and only
said "How is it possible?"… No more
commentary needed!



Q:    Can you give us some background
on the production teams and the
different titles?

The three different titles are produced
by Alain Tascan who was a project
manager in the Paris office developing
edutainment products for children. The
core of the team is Benoit Galarneau
and myself, who are the project
managers. Benoit is responsible for
Hype - The Time Quest and I am
responsible for Alex Builds His Farm
and Laura's Happy Adventures. We are
working with talented young people that
we have recruited, game designers,
graphic artists, programmers and
screenwriters.  Most of the team, which
now numbers more than 20, are from
Quebec, Canada.

Q:    Why software for girls?

    Over half of the population has been
left aside in the video game industry.
We believe that girls like playing with
computers, but there are not enough
quality games available for them.  Our
goal is to produce a real game for girls
that will answer to their needs and
preferences.   We want to create a big
game that will be designed specifically
for girls and not merely feature a
female character.


Q:     Please describe "Laura's Happy
Adventures" in more detail. What's the
basic plot line?

    While examining her grandfather's
rock collection in the attic of her house,
Laura, a 8-year-old girl, finds a
mysterious diamond.  The beautiful
rock was once a lucky charm, but it
unfortunately lost its' powers when it
became a prisoner of volcanic lava.
The diamond will recover its' powers
and be Laura's lucky charm if she can
illuminate the 5 faces of the stone.   In
order to do that she must please the 5
members of her family.   This will allow
her to experience several smaller
adventures and exciting discoveries
along with elements of mystery and
humour.

Q:    What would you say are the main
differences in the playing patterns of
boys and girls in regard to video
games?

┬╖ Girls care more about the social
aspects of the games.
┬╖ They don't like violence.
┬╖ They don't like to be threatened by
time in a video game.
┬╖ They appreciate games that appeal to
their thinking and creativity; they don't
want a dumb game.
┬╖ Girls want to control the game and the
environment, they don't appreciate
being told by a machine what they can
or can't do and they don't like being
restricted by a pre-set path.
┬╖ They attach a lot of importance to the
quality of the graphics.
┬╖ They prefer realistic environments, but
this does not imply that we have to
exclude fantasy or magical elements.


Q. As you say , girls like to be creative
and address social issues. How did
you integrate these particularities into
the game?

    The 5 adventures the girl has to solve
will lead her to interact with more than
20 characters.  Each character has its'
own personality and behaviour patterns
which evolve based on the player's
actions.

    It is impossible to die in this game
and there are no time limits, however
you can solve the quests more or less
rapidly based on your abilities of
observation and deduction.
There is no set path for the player, she
can resolve the quests in the order she
wants.

    The level of detail that each map
delivers is very high, we really focused
on reproducing the Playmobil toys
exactly as they are in reality.  We believe
that it's better to have smaller maps but
to fill them with plenty of objects
perfectly textured that you can interact
with, just like in reality.

The player can use her creativity to
decorate the whole Playmobil house
following her tastes.



Q:    What platform will it be available
on?


    PC


Q:     How long has this game been in
development?


    Twelve months including the
pre-production.


Q:    The graphics look very rich. Can
you give us some background on the
engine and the programming team?

    The engine called ACP is a variation
of the one that we developed for Tonic
Trouble.  Ten programmers work on
the projects, they are either computer
engineers or have completed their
bachelor in computer science.

 Q:     How did you handle the
adaptation of the rather stiff toys into a
smooth game?

    We first tried to animate the toys in
their original state, with stiff arms and
legs but we soon realised it was not
effective.  Try to imagine a Playmobil
character climbing a ladder without
bending his legs or eating with a spoon
without bending his arms!  With the
Playmobil people we finally decided to
give a little bit more flexibility to the
small characters. We gave flexibility to
the arms and legs of the characters so
the movements now look a lot
smoother, but we always make sure to
keep the Playmobil look in every thing
we do. Imagination is the only limit to
the moves a character can perform.
However when a character stops
moving he automatically returns to a
Playmobil pose.



Q:    Did you test this title with girls? If
so -  how was their reaction?

    Yes we did, they were very receptive
to the story. We first explained the plot
without showing the games in order to
get their initial reactions. When we
finally showed them the game they
remembered each detail and wanted to
see everything! Their eyes opened wide
and they were so excited about the
game! We were very proud and happy
to see how enthusiastic the girls were
to open each drawer, and discover
each world.


Q:     How did they manage the
keyboard controls?

    Actually they all did pretty well.  The
parents were a bit sceptical about the
ability of their children to manage with
the keyboard but the kids adapted very
quickly. The children who were familiar
with the computer were, of course,
quicker than the others were but in
general it did not take anyone more
than 15 - 20 minutes to learn how to
perfectly direct Laura. The parents
themselves were quite surprised. Kids
really have adaptation capabilities that
we sometimes underestimate.

Q:     There are already several girls'
titles on the market. What in "Laura's
Happy Adventures" makes the title
stand out and differ from its
competition?

    First our game is a real adventure
game for girls and is nothing like
activity software. It offers complete
freedom of movement in a real time,
3D environment. It also offers girls the
opportunity to enter and explore the
extraordinary world of Playmobil. The
stories address subjects that girls
enjoy and allow the player to interact
with up to 20 different characters.
Moreover the game offers the additional
feature that allows the girls to decorate
the house along their personal taste.

Q:     What will be the system
requirements for the PC version?

    Pentium 166 MMX, with 32mb RAM
and a 3D accelerator card.  However
the Pentium 200 MMX, with 32MB of
RAM and a 3D accelerator card are
highly suggested.

Q:     The system requirements are very
high. Why did you make that choice to
develop a children game with such a
motor?

    We made this choice in line with the
general Ubi Soft development strategy.
We have a great license with Playmobil
and we have developed a state of the
art 3D games motor in-house, these
two factors matched.  For us it was
obvious that the association of the
Playmobil top quality toys and of Ubi
Soft quality requirements have given
birth to a new standard in terms of
games for children. So much careful
attention has been paid to the
development of these games we
believe that they shall have long lives. It
will be difficult for competitors to reach
the same level in terms of quality, we
have developed today's games using
tomorrow's technology.

    Moreover we strongly believe that
those games could push the market in
terms of computer equipment for the
families. Intel has expressed an
interest in our products. They displayed
our games on their computers at E3
and declared "for the kids the Ubi Soft /
Playmobil game is the state of the art:
there is nothing like it in the world for
kids. Last week I was in Paris and I fell
off my chair when I saw these games".

Q:     What 3D cards will the game be
optimised for?

    3Dfx and all other DirectX
compatibles