Child of Light, a JRPG-inspired game led by Far Cry 3 director Patrick Plourde, will be an opportunity to bring a “dreamy, fairy tale-inspired concept art to life in a very direct manner.” The game will use art inspired by classic fairy tales and children’s books, and will strive to look much more like artwork rather than a video game.
Plourde spoke with Polygon and revealed that after working on several big name, big budget games in a row, he wanted to do something that was quite the opposite. Using Ubisoft’s game design engine Ubi Art Framework, artists will be able to make this artistic vision come to life and create an environment of mystery and discovery. Plourde said he wanted to recreate in video game form what he called the “Golden Age of Illustration,” when the artwork in children’s books was indeed something that even grownups could be inspired by.
Plourde said the easiest way to describe the style of his game was to match it to something found in classic JRPGs from Square. But he believes the Ubi Art Framework engine will be able to get his finished product to look more like the game’s initial concept art than ever before. Gameplay was described as “a combination between Limbo and Final Fantasy 6, with side-scrolling gameplay and turn-based battles.”
Plourde said one-third of his team is female, and the experience thus far has been – for the most part – smooth. He said making a smaller project in a triple-A studio yielded more support than what he would experience in a traditional indie situation, but sometimes the “big game culture” at Ubisoft caused some issues. That “big game culture” also seems to have taken a toll on Plourde’s distribution plan, saying he plans on the game being a downloadable title, meaning he won’t have to battle big distributors in getting his game published.
“With digital, there’s no shelf space to fight over, and that is the crux of the battle in publishing,” he said. “…dealing straight with the consumer, dealing directly with them, then it’s entirely up to them to decide.”
There are not many details available for the game yet, but Plourde said the game will be more formally revealed soon.
