Indie studios ”fail or struggle” because we take proprietary technologies and ”lock it all in a black box” - it’s better to have ”a community and share”.
“UbiArt has been built to be shared,” declared Rayman creator Michel Ancel. ”It won’t be like other games technologies, which are often just locked away.” Our industry keeps technological discoveries mostly locked away when sharing would enrich everyone.
Ancel wants UbiArt ”to be open source, I want it to go out and be shared and evolved.” Collaboration would make everyone’s lives better in making games.
”If you look at the best artists at Disney for example, they create incredible books and artwork and share their processes – it’s interesting because those same people are happy to look at how other artists are developing their style. That whole medium has evolved on the basis of sharing ideas. But in games we lock it all in a black box and keep it to ourselves.”
“A lot of independent developers fail or struggle because of that trend. We need to be more open. I don’t believe that keeping the technology to yourself is interesting. I want someone to look at our game and be inspired to use the tools to be artistic themselves. It is more interesting to have a community and share our content,” continued Ancel.
No specific policy is in place yet at Ubisoft for the UbiArt tech to be made free but Ancel understands that’s what is going to happen. “Making Rayman here I have two goals,” he said. “Firstly, to prove that this engine can be done, and that it is creative. And secondly, to make an actual game with it and prove it works.”
Rayman Origins releases on Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii this holiday.
