LudoScience

History of videogames (biography)

Author(s) : Daniel Ichbiah, Sébastien Mirc
Editor : Editions Pix'n Love
Publication date : 10-28-2010
Language : french

The biography of Michel Ancel, a french game designer, who is famous for creating the "Rayman" and "Raving Rabbids" series. This book details the creations of this famous game designer, by presenting the main steps of his career: the childhood of Michel Ancel, his first professionnal videogames, Rayman, Beyond Good & Evil, King Kong, Raving Rabbids, and Rayman Origins. Each chapter features an interview of someone who worked with Michel Ancel or who is part of his private life, in order to help us understand the personality of this very reserved game creator. Full of illustrations and easy to read, this book invites you to go through the career of a Game Designer who stayed in a single company, Ubisoft. When we think of it, the ludography of Michel Ancel is rather representative of the historical evolution of the whole AAA videogame industry: from crafty games to industrial ones with an ever-growing budget, to a recent shift towards smaller production teams influenced by the current trend of "indie" games.