[Book] The History of Rayman, Pix'n Love Editions.

[Bradandez]

Just got a job, is there more special editions left with the Artbook? I'm in need of this and I'd probably giveaway the main book since it won't be of use to me.

[Motormike]

Of course I'll let you know if I have some news regarding the english version.

Just got a job, is there more special editions left with the Artbook? I'm in need of this and I'd probably giveaway the main book since it won't be of use to me.

Not sure if I understood what you meant '-' You're talking baout the limited edition of the book, the one with the 48 pages artbook?

[Bradandez]

Yes! I'm planning on buying the English version, but I'd like to the special/French edition for the artbook. Sorry for the confusion.

[Shrooblord]

Check the Pix 'n' Love website:
http://www.editionspixnlove.com/Les-Ser ... e.tpl.html

[OCG]

Special Edition is still in stock thankfully.

[Haruka]

I just finished to read the second chapter, focused in the Rayman 1 development. There are interviews with different people that worked in the game, some more known and others not that known but they were crucial in all this process. There's some unseen R1 artwork (that sadly I can't show) that are really pretty, mostly environments, few Rayman sketches and early level designs (one of them seemed to be a pre-Swamps of Forgetfullness with an horizontal layout instead of a vertical layout; I also think I caught up an early design of the Red Monster from Band Land with a design that is not quite related with the final one).

I also caught up very interesting early development details which I'll summarize:

- Initially, Rayman was an electronic character created by a professor named Hendrix
- There was a lightning strike that hit in Jim's house and caused him to drag inside the virtual world of Rayman
- The worlds were initially inspired in the different computer hardware (sound card, graphic card, etc)
- Band Land and Picture City are leftovers that managed to survive until the end directly from the idea that I just described above
- Rayman would have all the powers in the start and few other ones, including using a shield and energy spheres (Yes, much before Rayman 2!) and of course, the use of the telescopic fist
- The white circle on Rayman's shirt was originally the connection symbol between Jim/player to Rayman, more precisely like an electrical socket
- Co-Op was initially planned with a Raygirl alike character (like we all know)
- Rayman would be able to control and adquire veichles in the game, and one of them a monocycle (You read that well!)
- A narrative was planned but they decided to postpone that to Rayman 2

I'll comment about the third chapter once I finish to read it.

[saerleiya]

I'll have to correct a few things here:

- There was a lightning strike that hit in Jim's house and caused him to drag inside the virtual world of Rayman

It was the virtual world of his computer, as he moves here and there.

- The white circle on Rayman's shirt was originally the connection symbol between Jim/player to Rayman, more precisely like an electrical socket

It's the connection between the character/player and his computer, through which he acquires new abilities (and exchanges informatino with the computer).

Rest is correct, though: you understand French very well, Haruka

[Cairnie]

My copy of the book came this morning and I had a look at that bit just now; hot damn the amount of stuff I hadn't actually known about =o

[Imco]

Oh man, I'd love to read this book, but so far I can only understand small pieces of random information :')
I should do a quick-course French XD

[Haruka]

@Saer Ah thanks for the fixing, but I still have lots of trouble to read french so I need external help.

[saerleiya]

@Saer Ah thanks for the fixing, but I still have lots of trouble to read french so I need external help.

Appreciated. I haven't found the Hendrix you are talking about too, but I probably forgot him somewhere

[Motormike]

You seem to speak French better than me, Haruka

[saerleiya]

You seem to speak French better than me, Haruka

Wait, what? You are not French oO?

[Motormike]

Ah ah I am.
That must have been a french joke

[Haruka]

I read the third chapter, focused in Rayman 2. It has got more interviews and more interesting about the game development and Tonic Trouble's development.

- Michel Ancel really enjoyed Super Mario 64 at the time and it would influence the transition to 3D along with Crash Bandicoot
- Tonic Trouble was created in purpose to test the new engine and ensure it wouldn't harm R2
- The engine had lots of issues and the development of the game was in such a mess in a way that Michel Ancel and Fréderic Houde abandoned the project during its development in order to focus entirely in R2. The engine was redesigned by scratch and funny enough the game was finished first than Tonic Trouble.
- Psychlops were going to be enemies from Rayman 2 but they got scrapped. They originally named "Janod" as a reference to the person's surname who designed them.
- Ludiv comes from "Ludivine", the name of the daughter of other person who designed it.
- Those black creatures with a buzzing sound are actually named Capoué, which is a reference to a famous sketch of François Pérusse
- The name for the butterflies, Popopoloï, is also derivated from a kind of a "war scream" from a crazy guy at the time that was shouting this close to the windows of the studio in Montpellier when passing by
- Michel Ancel didn't want Ssssssam to be in the game in first place, but only later he got convinced that he could go in
- Rayman was about to have the telescopic fist as its main ability but due to visual factors they decided to go for the energy spheres
- The Flying Shell didn't exist at first. It was a Walking Shell running in a ceiling apparently.

I have been reading the fourth chapter, R3 focused but once I finish it I'll also comment about it.

EDIT: Read the fourth chapter. More interviews and interesting stuff:

- After Rayman 2 and before Rayman 3 there was a prototype that got developed and it would have been the real sequel to R2 and it was called Rayman 2000. It would consist in an opened world with houses, cities and roads built in trees, like some known R3 artwork shows to us. Although the project was dropped, it was not fully lost because these elements were used for the Animated Series. It explains why Razoff ressembles those Aeropolis inhabitants.
- The name of R3 and Beyond Good and Evil's engine is called Jade Engine
- The Mawpaw would have more uses in the game but he ended up appearing only in the intro
- A pursuit with Xowar was developed but scrapped since the team really hadn't a reason for such thing happening in the game
- One of the jokes they were about to put in the game would be Teensies under effects of stupefacients but for obvious reasons they did not do it in the end
- The references to the hip-hop, and other musical genres were admitted to be done for the marketing
- They intended to include lots of references to different videogames
- The game was confirmed to have references to the comic book series Bone from Jeff Smith, the books of L'Ursula Le Guin and to Hayao Miyazaki's movies (Princess Mononoke, Totoro, etc.).
- The game was initially thought to work in a First-Person mode, not in Third-Person mode
- Razoff is a reference to The Most Dangerous Game
- Bégoniax was directly inspired in Madame Min from Disney's The Sword and the Stone
- Rayman was about to have legs again, but the idea was quickly put aside

[Motormike]

"The game was initially thought to work in a First-Person mode, not in Third-Person mode"
Nope ^^ It was just a special mode that was made 'for fun' cause the guys were playing too much Team Fortress.

[OCG]

Rayman Fortress was gonna happen at some point? Too bad it didn't.

Globox cound be Heavy, Rayman would be Sniper, Green Teensie would be scount, Romeo would be Medic...
I am sure there would have been a perfect matches for others too.

[Haruka]

@motormike Thanks for the correction. It was because there was a worker that was playing a lot of Half Life at the time, but I still believe there was a leftover in R3 (The Razoff first person minigame).

[Shrooblord]

Globox cound be Heavy, Rayman would be Sniper, Green Teensie would be scount, Romeo would be Medic...
I am sure there would have been a perfect matches for others too.

I'm gonna say we'd need at least a Ly in there somewhere, too. And maybe one of the Rayman 1 cast - Musician, no, Joe! I'd love to see a Joe in a future Rayman game. He's so out there, it works 100%.

[OCG]

Ly could possibly be Spy and Musician could be...DAMN, can't think of anyone to suit him. We need someone to be Pyro too.