Rayman 4 (2007-2009 cancelled prototype)

[Tribelle2026]

I'm surprised nothing from the cancelled Rayman 4 with Punished Rayman that was in development from 2007 to 2009 has leaked. We got leaks of concept art, assets and gameplay from Phoenix Studio's Rayman 4 and the Rayman Raving Rabbids prototype but nothing has leaked from this Rayman 4. We know basically nothing about this game. Since the game was in development for two years, there must be loads of assets, concept art and a playable build sitting on a hard drive somewhere.

https://raymanpc.com/wiki/en/Rayman_4_( ... prototype)

[Hunchman801]

Maybe the game's development never went past the design stage? The book mentions "an undisclosed gameplay specificity that would have distinguished the game from the rest of the series", but was it actually implemented or just ideated?

[PluMGMK]

Is it possible that the book got it mixed up with Ghosts? IIRC, the ghost gameplay was at the time "undisclosed", as it didn't come to light for about another decade after the book was published…

[Tribelle2026]

Is it possible that the book got it mixed up with Ghosts? IIRC, the ghost gameplay was at the time "undisclosed", as it didn't come to light for about another decade after the book was published…

Katia Wladimiroff drew concept art for a Rayman game and she worked at Ubisoft between February 2008
and November 2009 and Rayman Ghosts was in development in 2005 so it couldn't have been Ghosts.

[PluMGMK]

I know that, but is it possible that the book got the two projects mixed up when discussing the gameplay?

[Droolie]

I think it's unlikely that it got mixed up, given that this quote came directly from Mickaël Janod who was a game designer on this project, and not on Phoenix's game.
Unfortunately, we might never know more about this unique gameplay mechanic of his, or this project in general, as it appears Mickaël Janod passed away in 2024.

I'll avoid naming people directly because I don't think the people in question want this info to be known, but one thing that has been an open secret on Discord for a while (and I'm posting this here because I don't like Discord-exclusive info) is that a certain composer who last composed for Rayman on The Phantom Show DLC (not the current "main composer" of the series) had previously already worked on a Rayman game, and it is very likely the 2007-2009 project. There is a 3-track album available on their bandcamp page that contains a 2009 date. The source is some deleted tweets from a few years back from a certain other ex-Ubisoft person who is a good friend of this composer.

[Tribelle2026]

I think it's unlikely that it got mixed up, given that this quote came directly from Mickaël Janod who was a game designer on this project, and not on Phoenix's game.
Unfortunately, we might never know more about this unique gameplay mechanic of his, or this project in general, as it appears Mickaël Janod passed away in 2024.

I'll avoid naming people directly because I don't think the people in question want this info to be known, but one thing that has been an open secret on Discord for a while (and I'm posting this here because I don't like Discord-exclusive info) is that a certain composer who last composed for Rayman on The Phantom Show DLC (not the current "main composer" of the series) had previously already worked on a Rayman game, and it is very likely the 2007-2009 project. There is a 3-track album available on their bandcamp page that contains a 2009 date. The source is some deleted tweets from a few years back from a certain other ex-Ubisoft person who is a good friend of this composer.

We already knew Grant Kirkhope composed the music for this cancelled Rayman 4 project and the three music tracks he composed for the game are here:

https://grantkirkhope.bandcamp.com/albu ... r-happened

Not sure why the people on Discord don't want this to be known considering this has been known for a while now outside Discord. I'm pretty sure L'Histoire de Rayman confirmed that he was the composer for this version of Rayman 4.

[Droolie]

A bit sad that my attempt to respect the composer by hiding their name was immediately shut down by the next post. Well, at least I tried.

No, I'm pretty sure this was never publicly posted on RaymanPC or even anywhere else (outside deleted tweets), and it definitely isn't in l'Historie de Rayman. I suppose it's just that much of an open secret that you assumed that this was public. And to be honest, I agree with you, at that point it might as well be public.

Though according to the description of each track on that bandcamp page, it sounds like he didn't actually get the composer role in the end as they went with other music before it was cancelled.

[Hunchman801]

If it leaked and it's not information that endangers anybody's privacy or security, then I think sharing it openly with the community is the right thing to do. As someone who manages a wiki whose entire goal is to make Rayman knowledge accessible to all, I'm much more concerned about people hoarding information within private groups.

[PluMGMK]

It seems you leaked it yourself last year, Droolie: viewtopic.php?p=1516069#p1516069

[Droolie]

If it leaked and it's not information that endangers anybody's privacy or security, then I think sharing it openly with the community is the right thing to do. As someone who manages a wiki whose entire goal is to make Rayman knowledge accessible to all, I'm much more concerned about people hoarding information within private groups.

You're completely right, and this is why I decided to share the info here in the first place. However, I never said anything about groups hoarding information - that's not true, as far as I know. In this case the information was kept "private" precisely because at the time, it might have endangered somebody's privacy or security: the ex-Ubisoft employee who shared it on Twitter - as well as the composer himself who has had this album for sale on his bandcamp since 2009 with no game title attached (presumably to avoid trouble with Ubisoft). At the time this bit of information leaked on twitter, it was shared openly with the community (some big twitter accounts posted about it), but people were asked by that Ubi employee to remove their tweets and they did. He also quickly removed his own tweets, I guess he was scared of a reaction from Ubisoft.

I don't think this kind of information should be kept private either, and I'm sure the people on Discord would agree that it's probably not such a big deal to share it now... but it's been years since this was discussed and most likely, everyone just forgot about it. I simply remembered it now, and considering it wasn't on RayWiki and the OP here said nothing was leaked from this prototype, I figured I'd mention that in fact, something was leaked. I just wasn't sure whether I should still watch out with naming names or not, and to stay on the safe side to make sure no one was endangered, I tried to be vague. But I suppose I shouldn't have been, as the OP already knew and just threw the information out there.

And I suppose I did too last year and just forgot about it:

It seems you leaked it yourself last year, Droolie: viewtopic.php?p=1516069#p1516069

... Oops. Anyway, apologies to Tribelle then, I suppose it had been publicly mentioned before after all!

[Hunchman801]

I see, thank you for the clarification! My remark was more general, but you are correct that it did not apply here.