Ancel Hopes To Create “Memorable Moments” With “Strong Consequences” In Beyond Good And Evil 2

UK gaming magazine Edge has recently had the opportunity to speak to lead game designer Michel Ancel concerning the long-awaited release for Beyond Good and Evil 2. The action adventure sequel’s production was reportedly put on hold temporarily due to Ubisoft’s Montpellier division working on the Rayman franchise. But with Rayman Legends released last year on multiple platforms, Ancel’s team is back on track with the game’s development.

Speaking to Edge, Ancel believes that games have yet to create truly memorable moments, and he hopes to rectify that in Beyond Good and Evil 2 but claims that “it’s something that we need to work on.” He also says that exploration is a big part of the gaming industry and, though game design has evolved particularly in recent  years, Ancel believes the next step is to partially “move away” from graphics. Michel Ancel doesn’t lay down any specifics on the game, but it’s clear Beyond Good and Evil 2 is looking in a new direction.

“I think there are some very memorable moments in games, and in the one I’m working on we try to make moments memorable and [imbue them] with strong consequences. It’s not only about a single moment, but the whole journey that the player is led through in the world.

“In Beyond Good & Evil, we tried to make the player travel and discover different things, and I think it’s something that you really need… It’s like in a good story, or a good book, or a good movie: the whole book is supposed to bring you to this special moment. It’s meant to make you feel something very strong, even if it’s short. It’s something that we haven’t achieved yet [in the game industry]. I have the idea to build this kind of thing, but honestly, it’s something that we need to work on.

“When we did Beyond Good & Evil, we really wanted to make something different, even if it’s in the style of a classic action-adventure game, and make a real experience game.  I think that it’s a game that people are still discovering, and maybe these kinds of games still have a place. We’re all waiting for games like The Last Guardian, after all.

“We know how to take care with design better than before, but now the next step is to move away a little bit from the graphics. We know how to make games, but we need to work on how to make them really exciting and mysterious at the same time. We’ve made games with big cinematics and expensive sequences, and we’ve tried to make the games for millions of people. Now there are other explorations that we need to do.”