Rayman Legends (early production)

The original logo for the game.

Rayman Legends had a bunch of changes made during early production, most which has been seen through early leaks of the game.

Early plot

Rayman, Globox, and the Teensies are off wandering through an enchanted forest when they discover a mysterious tent filled with a series of captivating paintings. As they look more closely, they notice each painting seems to tell the story of a mythical world. While focusing on a painting that shows a medieval land, they are suddenly sucked into the painting, entering the world, and the adventure begins. The gang must run, jump and fight their way through each world to save the day and discover the secrets of every legendary painting.

Leaks

Rayman Legends was first leaked on April 23, 2012 in a marketing survey with screenshots from two early trailers. The following day, the trailers were uploaded to YouTube, but both were quickly taken down at the request of Ubisoft. On 26 April 2012, Ubisoft registered the domain names 'RaymanLegends.com' and 'Rayman-Legends.com', confirming the name of the game.

On 27 April 2012, the first full-length trailer for the game was leaked to the public. Ubisoft initially attempted to suppress the videos, but after a few hours they released an official statement, confirming that Rayman Legends was being developed by Michel Ancel and Ubisoft Montpellier.

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  A dragon and a toad on stilts in one of the first leaked screenshots of Rayman Legends.

Gameplay

Early gameplay leaks shows that the game was originally more similar to Rayman Origins.

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  Enemies were originally going to get "bubblized" like in Rayman Origins.
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  A bouncing hat can be seen in a leaked trailer, possibly a reference to the bonus levels in the original Rayman game.

Wii U functionality

One of the leaked trailers show an early Wii U feature where the player can put a figure, such as a Rabbid figure, on the Wii U GamePad to affect the game in various ways. However, according to one of the developers, the demonstration of this function was just a joke due to the growing popularity of such toys. The Rabbids as seen appearing in the game were later used in Rayman Adventures for its events.

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  Murfy did not originally appear in the game.
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  A heart figure being placed on the Wii U GamePad.
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  The apparent effects of the heart figure on the game.
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  A Rabbid figure being placed on the Wii U GamePad.
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  A Rabbid seen entering the game.
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  Rabbids in the game as enemies.
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  A third figure from the Assassins Creed series.

Online features

According to the leaked trailers, Rayman Legends was originally going to feature several more online features. One of these seems to have been a feature in which players could send challenges to each other to earn rubis, a form a currency not used in the final game. One of the locations the challenges could have taken place in is the Ghost's Pit, which is apparently the original name for the Neverending Pit.

It also seems that Kung Foot was originally planned to be played online, rather than locally.

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  A cut social feature where players could send each other challenges.
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  An early challenge taking place in Olympus Maximus.
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  An early challenge taking place in the Neverending Pit.
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  A challenge with an unused treasure chest icon.

E3 trailer

During E3 2012, an official trailer was revealed showing what would later become the level Once upon a Time. There are several differences throughout the level, and the final area was later used in How to Shoot your Dragon instead. One of the biggest differences is the first challenges room which features a new type of minigame known as Catch 'em All, a reference to Pokémon. This challenge would have seen one player controlling Murfy on the touchpad and moving over creatures to the other players before the time runs out. Leftovers of this mode have since been found in the PlayStation Vita version. Other differences include cages containing two trapped Teensies, different ways which Murfy could interact with the environment and unused music.

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  The Catch 'em All minigame.
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  Gameplay of the Catch 'em All minigame.
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  The ending of the Catch 'em All minigame.

Kung Foot

A prototype of the Kung Foot minigame was originally created for Rayman Origins as a celebration for the game's release. It became so successful among the developers that it was further developed and included in Rayman Legends.

Unlike the final version, it had movable goals and 2 Greenbottles holding a sign to count the scores of the team they were representing. The arena was set in the Jibberish Jungle, decorated with beer bottles, and when a goal was scored, some dancing stick figures with Michel Ancel's face appeared in the foreground.

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  A screenshot of the prototype

In Rayman Legends, the mode was meant to be one out of several game modes available to play online, known as "adversarial" games. The other known ones are called Golden Potato mode and Skull Coin mode, although it is unknown how they would have functioned.

Game files

Unused content has been discovered within the game files. In the PlayStation Vita version, 10 unused maps for the Catch 'em All Mode were found.

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  30 seconds, 100 creatures
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  30 seconds, 200 creatures
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  30 seconds, 300 creatures
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  40 seconds, 400 creatures
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  40 seconds, 500 creatures
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  60 seconds, 600 creatures
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  60 seconds, 700 creatures
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  80 seconds, 800 creatures
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  60 seconds, 1000 creatures
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  30 seconds, 10 creatures

In the localization file there is unused text which references a feature where players can send each other lucky tickets.

Do you wish to give a Lucky Ticket to [m:1]?

—Unknown, Rayman Legends (files)

Your gift has been successfully sent.

—Unknown, Rayman Legends (files)

There is also mention of a feature where the Bubble Dreamer would place lucky tickets back in paintings every day.

It is a new day, my friend! I have placed lucky tickets in all the paintings again! Go get them!

—Bubble Dreamer, Rayman Legends (files)

Some unused text can be found for the 8-bit levels.

You're about to launch the 8-bit world. Enjoy the trip back in time where glitches and bad graphics were considered cutting edge.

—Unknown, Rayman Legends Challenges App (files)

You're entering a 8-bit painting. Enjoy the trip back in time where glitches and big pixels were considered cutting edge.

—Unknown, Rayman Legends (files)

Along with the text for the different types of leaderboards there is mention of the amount of rescued Teensies and unlocked costumes. In the Rayman Legends Challenges App text there are a lot of minor text differences. Here are some of the more notable ones:

• "Free 60 Teensies to earn 20 points" changed to "Free 50 Teensies to earn 20 points" in the final version
• Dashing Thru the Snow kept its original name in the challenges app
• Raymesis was named Dark Rayman and has this description:

This is Rayman's evil clone. A nemesis created by Mister Dark to destroy Rayman. I don't think this guy has many friends in the Glade of Dreams...

—Character description, Rayman Legends Challenges App (files)

The game configuration file has values for several unused features in the game. It defines that there can be a maximum of 8 players when playing online and 4 when playing locally. In the final game only the local multiplayer is supported. There are also values for how much health different pets can give you. A normal pet gives 1, a protector 2 and a protector king 3. This concept was later used in Rayman Adventures with the Incrediballs.

The game's files contain sprites for the Green Teensy from Rayman Origins updated to fit the game's art style. Despite his presence in early gameplay footage, as well as in the final game's intro cutscene and the Shooting Me Softly painting, he was not made playable in the final game for unknown reasons, making him the only Teensy from Rayman Origins with this distinction. His sprites would later be used for his playable appearance in Rayman Fiesta Run.

In the game there exists leftover code for what is referred to as a "plug" system. This would have the player able to jump on certain object to then control and play as them. The duck transformation was originally going to implement this system. Additional controllable objects mentioned are a toad, a lizard and something named "El Crapo", most likely created for testing purposes only.

Drak's Nightmare

Main article: Drak's Nightmare

Drak's Nightmare is a scrapped environmental theme. Assets from here were later reused in Rayman Adventures.

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  Rayman inside the castle in Drak's Nightmare
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  Rayman outside the castle in Drak's Nightmare
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  Rayman inside the castle in Drak's Nightmare
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  Rayman inside the castle in Drak's Nightmare
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  Globox flying through the rooftops
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  Rayman encountering an unknown enemy
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  Concept art for Drak's Nightmare
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  More concept art for Drak's Nightmare

Crouching Huns

Main article: Crouching Huns

Crouching Huns is a scrapped environmental theme. Assets from here were later reused for the Kung Foot minigame.

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  A nomad horde
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  A castle on wheels
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  A Hunnic building (on the right)
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  Various yurt-inspired objects and buildings
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  The loading screen for the Kung Foot minigame, showing the Hunnic steppe
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  Gameplay of the Kung Foot minigame, showing repurposed assets from the Crouching Huns world

External links

• Leaked trailer 1
• Leaked trailer 2
• E3 trailer
• Wii U production interview