Cita:nintendoeverything[/url]"]General/gameplay details

- Ubisoft really wanted to make Rayman Legends because of the GamePad
- Ubisoft Montpellier was one of the first third-party studios to receive Wii U dev. kits
- Michel Ancel says that the environment is very important in a platforming game, and the GamePad allows players to change the environment in new/different ways
- Up to four players lead Rayman and company through level level with Wiimotes or Wii U Pro controllers
- Fifth player manipulates surroundings with Murfy on the GamePad
- Murfy can cut ropes, lower platforms, turn gears
- Turn gears with the gyroscope
- Murfy can be mischievous as well
- ItÔÇÖs possible to take a health bottle from someone whoÔÇÖs about to take it and give it to another player
- Murfy can use the environment to wreak havoc on other players
- Ex: take lava and dump it on someoneÔÇÖs head
- The team wants the GamePad player ÔÇ£to feel like they have an identity in the gameÔÇÖs worldÔÇØ
- In single-player, youÔÇÖll mostly control Rayman or one of the other playable characters!
- Temporarily switch to Murfy when you reach certain sections
- In these cases, AI will take over the other character
- Developers promise that the AI will perform flawlessly
- No mosquito levels
- New character in each world
- Barbara is from the medieval world

Improvements made to the Origins formula

- Platforming mechanics improved over Origins
- Ex: in Origins, if you jump-kicked while running you would basically stop in midair and drop down; now you keep moving forward
- Different structure this time around as well
- Travel to any of the five worlds out of the gate
- This choice was made so that players could have options, especially if they get stuck on a level
- Ubisoft considers each world to be its own legend
- Each has its own mini story and personality
- Each world also focuses on a particular gameplay mechanic and highlights particular skills
- Abilities are all available right off the bat

Olympus world

- Nintendo Power saw an Olympus world
- Level called ÔÇ£Swarmed & DangerousÔÇØ
- Tons of ferocious shadow creatures chase Rayman and the others throughout the level
- Murfy can hold back a few creatures at a time
- Only works for a bit before too many of the creatures appear
- Usually need to lose a swarm by using its own momentum against it
- Ex: drop off a cliff and quickly come to a stop on the narrow ledge below
- Creatures will keep going and run into the lava
- Can kill the creatures by triggering fireworks
- Level comes to a close as the creatures chase you into a palace
- Need to jump over a little purple minion who is scrubbing the floor
- Legends has a lot of humorous touches like the above
- In the game, youÔÇÖll come across a big brute with a hammer and shield to make him drop his guard
- Murfy can tickle his armpit to drop his guard
- Another Olympus world level: Murfy holds a magic shield over the heads of the other characters to protect them from ZeusÔÇÖ lightning bolts

Magic Beanstalk world

- Nintendo Power also saw Magic BeanstalkÔÇÖs ÔÇ£Orchestral ChaosÔÇØ
- Stage has players jumping, swinging, and punching to the beat of the music
- These stages have the nickname ÔÇ£Platform HeroÔÇØ within the studio
- Traverse a giant beanstalk in the level
- Thorn-covered vines will close in around you
- Drop below the clouds in the middle of the level and into a violent storm
- Rain pours around you, with some lightning strikes
- 8-10 music stages in the final game
- At least one per world
- Some feature original tracks made by composer Christophe Heral (Rayman Origins, Beyond Good & Evil)
- Also features remixed music like ÔÇ£Eye of the TigerÔÇØ in flamenco style with gibberish vocals and a little kazoo mixed in
- ÔÇ£Wo HooÔÇØ from The 5.6.7.8ÔÇ▓s

Underwater world

- Exclusive sneak peak showed to Nintendo Power
- Jules Verne-inspired environment
- Story will be more James Bond
- Secret underwater base
- Need to infiltrate it
- Levels play with light and shadow
- Need to remain cloaked or risk being spotted (and fried) by the baseÔÇÖs security system
- In one room, players have to avoid a sentryÔÇÖs spotlight
- Another room: swim between glowing jellyfish
- Murfy will need to manipulate light sources or create shadows in some levels
- Ex: hold a discarded robot head in front of a rotating floodlight
- Rhythm of these levels will be somewhat different from Origins
- Not just a matter of running full steam ahead
- Some sections will have lots of traps and electrified water
- Will have to platform over mechanical objects, climb into an air vent, and navigate through a dark room
- The team didnÔÇÖt just want to make an underwater world with just new fishes

Cita:Sven[/url]"]Yeah, sorry... it's been daunting to sit down and write this. It's a little all over the place but even over simplifying the issues (and make no mistake, I am over simplifying here)  there's a lot to cover so bear with me.

Ok, let's start with some basic elements about how licensing, service agreements and work for hire agreements are structured and what they're meant to protect.

A work for hire or a service agreement is generally executed with either a developer, an actor (voice or motion) or a contractor. What it states usually is that the entity in question (be it person or company) is being compensated by Capcom to perform a specific service or to create a specific work product that will be used or sold by us. In the case of true work for hire, the end product is typically owned by Capcom outright, without limitation. In the case of services agreements, that's often not the case.

The objective is to make clear what's being produced, for what amount of money and how it in turn is going to be used. Capcom is clear on what it expects to receive. The person/company on the other end is clear in how that piece of work is going to be used and in exchange, how they will be compensated for it.

In the case of voice work, if you're using SAG actors (Screen actors guild actors) there are extra specific elements that must be explicitly named as being included within the usage rights granted under the  agreement. For example, if you expect that voice work to be used in the creation of promotional material (like say, a trailer that is distributed over the Internet or a TV spot that airs on TV), that must all be spelled out explicitly. Additionally, if the ending work product is to be distributed digitally in any form, in this day and age, that must also be specified seperately from physical distribution. If it is not, those rights are not included within the work for hire agreement (at least as literally interpreted by our lawyers and likely the actors' representation).

The same parameters and rights grants are also required for all for middleware use and licensed soundtracks. So things like Q Sound and odd music tracks from Japanese artists you've never heard of that were done as one shot deals where the product lifecycle was 12 months. Factor in additional complications with Jasrac rights and royalties (which is sort of the Japanese equivalent of the RIAA) and things get more complicated.

I'll add an additional wrinkle... if it was for an original PS1 game and you want to play it on a PS2 or Vita or PS3 via backward compatibility (even though it's the same PS1 ROM), if it's being exploited in a way that it plays on another piece of hardware, our lawyers would stipulate that we need to get that clarified within an amendment.

Now, most agreements have a term associated with them, which is the length of time the contract is in effect. Typically after the term, the agreement expires and the rights are terminated.  So the rights that were granted are no longer in force. It is extremely rare to see an "in perpetuity" term within any contract as the costs demanded by the rights giver for that term would be commercially unreasonable and in many cases, a licensor won't grant more than three years as a matter of policy. Typlically that's because they want you to come back with a new minimum guarantee on an amendment to the contract that extends the term and/or they also want the option of evaluating whether or not they want to continue the relationship at all for reasons that may extend outside the financial measurements.

Within an external development agreement, if the external developer is creating new characters or new content in any way, the rights to that content get specified in terms of who owns what. Is it pure work for hire where Capcom owns any work product outright? Are the rights shared or are there encumbrances or reversion clauses for non-use? There's many potential variations in deal there and in the case of the EX title specific characters created by Arika or Strider, Capcom does not own those characters in an unencumbered fashion. If it was all produced internally, our employment agreements remove any chance of ambiguity in all of these areas.

So today we have platform specificity, term limits, usage specificity, guild and union royalty issues, new content ownership/shared ownership or encumberances, etc. as just a basic simplifaction of the complexity involved in every title.

Now, go back to the year 2000 (or earlier). It's the era of Dreamcast, PS2 and Xbox. And deals for games were being done as they always had. Digital distribution wasn't considered, especially by folks in Japan who have historically been a little behind "online" in terms of activity and monetization.  Backwards compatibility still only applied to physical goods and thus created no legal issues. Those terms do not exist in the contracts of the day because these forms of sales were never envisioned. Secondly the duration of the agreements are usually no more than a couple years, because those were the expected sales lifecycles of a given product. Not the 10+ year lifecycles that were extended via digital sales.

So you're going to tell me now, "ok, just go back and do new contracts/amendments".

There's a number of challenges there. In some cases, the entity that originally was contracted with, may no longer exist or not be able to be located. The actor in question may be "gone or unreachable". The middleware company or music label may have folded and it may not be clear where the IP rights for that entity now resides.

Or the other party may not be willing to reengage either for financial or interest reasons (or elements of the IP may be held exclusively by someone else and a re-up with us would put them in breach with someone else).

Additionally, there are costs on both sides in terms of business development manhours and legal work to produce an amendment to an agreement and for the dollars in question, it may not be worth it to them (their internal costs could easily be more than any deal we could make).

Now, if you take this out and extend it across all licensed audio tracks, all voice work in every language, all middleware, all IP licenses and rights clearances for older titles (even just the checking process) is extremely time intensive. Tracking down which partners are where (if they're able to be found after a decade or more) and engaging with them in negotiations is even more so.

So you're next assertion is probably "bah, there's a lot of gray area there, just wing it and do it anyway without the checks and don't be so strict in the interpretations".

The upside in revenue, fan love and costs savings would be radically dwarfed by potential legal exposure and costs of defense from even a single suit from former partners. It's just not worth the risk. What's more, we'd like to be viewed by our partners (current and former) as a company that treated their IP and work product respectfully, so that we have the opportunity to work with folks like them again in the future on new products (which fans are also requesting).

Now, these are the "straight forward" ones. There are also versions of certain games (and no, I won't name them... they tend to be pre-1998 when more strict IP sweeps were put in place) that as it turned out, had what our legal/IP group perceived to be infringements of other companies' IP within them. And without changes to their content that removes or edits that content (which requires development resources), they can't ever be re-released. And in some cases, the editing and resubmission of certain types of games (like PS1) isn't supported by the first party in question any more. So they can't ever be released in any form without a full port (which again, is new development but at an even higher expense).

The short, short version of the story is, we're working hard to get up older versions of games that people love. In some cases we've ported them to new platforms (like MvC2, SSF2THDR, Okami, Final Fight, Puzzle Fighter, etc.). In some cases they're preserved as PS1 sales on PSN, virtual console on Wii and 3DS or Games on Demand on X360.

But not every title can get cleared for a variety of legal or licensing issues and that's the unfortunate reality all game companies live with, not just Capcom.

For the future, most of our contracts are structured in ways that take into account these issues. They still aren't in perpetuity contracts but they at least allow for certain distribution and at times are forward looking enough to name "successor" platforms. That said, at times there's still an oversight. For example, there's a music track in a game we released this year (I won't say which) that doesn't have the correct rights to allow for digital distribution on that specific track, and that's what's keeping it off of Games on Demand/Blu Ray on PSN. We're working on it, but these are not solved problems. I constantly harp on producers to ensure that they're planning for these eventualities as they're an ever-increasing part of the revenue that a title has.  We're in long-tail-ville now.

I hope this sheds a little more light.

Cita:edge[/url]"]
[img alt=Beyond Good & Evil height=340 width=610]http://media.edge-online.com/wp-content/uploads/edgeonline/2009/10/beyond_good_and_evil_top.jpg[/img]
One of the side effects of games being such strange creatures is that they often get remembered for the most incidental things. For every masterpiece celebrated for the worlds it creates, the new mechanics it defines or the visual techniques it pioneers, there are half-a-dozen oddballs remembered because of some quirk of their attract mode, a particularly bizarre bug or a faintly obscene Easter egg. But a greater rarity is a game that will go down in history for something that has nothing to do with any of the code on its disc, but everything to do with someone elseÔÇÖs reaction to it.

Beyond Good & Evil has a lot of code that it should be remembered for: the code that renders the lively haze of its world, Hillys; the code that governs its heroine JadeÔÇÖs lithe animations; the code which underpins its subtle storytelling techniques. But its place in videogame history wasnÔÇÖt assured until Ubisoft announced that it was through playing this game that Peter Jackson, then the undisputed king of the box office, had chosen the creator he wanted to work on the game of his next film, King Kong. It was an announcement that bore clear trails of having been spun by a series of PR offices, but at the heart of it was something rare and wonderful. Here was a man at the peak of the worldÔÇÖs biggest entertainment industry finally taking games seriously. Not just seriously as an economic avenue, or a branding exercise, or a marketing ploy, but as a creative endeavour.

[img alt=Beyond Good & Evil height=315 width=610]http://media.edge-online.com/wp-content/uploads/edgeonline/2009/10/beyond_good_and_evil_interview-610x315.jpg[/img]

So what was it about the adventures of an elfin lighthouse-keeper that made Jackson think Ancel could tame a two-ton gorilla? On the surface it seems a peculiar choice, but while Jade and Kong could hardly be more different, it was exactly because of what Ancel had accomplished with his heroine that Jackson was interested in the first place. Toby Gard, in an odd respect the keeper of videogamesÔÇÖ feminist flame, praised her in an interview in E156 as the only post-Lara female lead to have real individuality and character. ItÔÇÖs a fair point ÔÇô game heroines are still a rarity, and itÔÇÖs rarer still for them not to be aggressively sexualised. Jade, with her sensible trousers and serious frown, is a breed apart from the off.

SheÔÇÖs instantly her own woman, with her own job and her own style, whose desirability comes from her beauty and depth of character rather than the depth of her cleavage. With one skilled piece of design, Ancel and his team make you care about her, and since she cares about the fate of her world, you care too. That shock of black hair and slash of green lipstick at once give you a sense of your place in the world, define your purpose in the game and provide motivation for seeing the story through to the end.

And that, surely, should answer the question as to what Jackson saw: a game-maker whose skills as a character designer, world creator and storyteller made him a perfect match for the world of film. Except, on closer inspection, itÔÇÖs clear that Beyond Good & Evil doesnÔÇÖt deliver a story to match JadeÔÇÖs initial appeal. The plot ÔÇô of a world terrorised by aliens and protected by a brutal and totalitarian army ÔÇô points towards a story with the darkness and moral ambiguity suggested by the title, but instead unfolds into a fairly mundane world-in-peril game scenario. There is a promising moment of sophistication which occurs when Jade first falls in with the ÔÇÿterroristsÔÇÖ who claim the army is in league with the invaders: who should she believe? The army that claims to protect her or the resistance fighters who claim everything she knows is a lie?

[img alt=Beyond Good & Evil height=314 width=610]http://media.edge-online.com/wp-content/uploads/edgeonline/2009/10/beyond_good_and_evil_hologram-610x314.jpg[/img]

However, this uncertainty lasts a few minutes at best, as the army is soon revealed to be a legion of green-faced, mad-voiced child-catchers. Jade herself is a simple photojournalist who canÔÇÖt hope to overthrow these oppressors by force. Instead, she must use her camera to collect evidence to fuel the resistanceÔÇÖs propaganda war. Again, itÔÇÖs a promising premise ÔÇô a game hero who isnÔÇÖt super-powered, just super-determined. But this too is undermined as the game progresses, with allusions to JadeÔÇÖs mysterious hidden identity and preordained fate. She even has a special power-up attack. How much more impact would the gameÔÇÖs story have had if it had really been her quick wit and itchy shutter finger that saved the day?

Worse, the cracks that show in the gameÔÇÖs narrative widen when it comes to the gameplay. BG&E offers the standard adventure game mishmash of exploration, stealth, combat, platforming, collect ÔÇÖem ups and minigames, except its heart doesnÔÇÖt seem to be in any of them. Ancel, determined not to let his game become bloated, or to emphasise elements which undermined the story heÔÇÖd created, in the end only hollowed out much of the interaction. Combat is deliberately hobbled, platforming is automatic and joyless, exploration confined to ensure linear progress, collecting turned to a chore by instructing you on the location of every item, puzzles are rudimentary in their simplicity, stealth simplified to repetitive basics, and the minigames diversions at best. Although everything works together smoothly, and thereÔÇÖs no question that Ancel achieved his ambition of producing a streamlined adventure, thereÔÇÖs nothing memorable, nothing meaty in any of the gameÔÇÖs set pieces.

[img height=315 width=610]http://media.edge-online.com/wp-content/uploads/edgeonline/2009/10/beyond_good_and_evil_bar-610x315.jpg[/img]

ItÔÇÖs a game you finish in a happy haze, entranced by your time in JadeÔÇÖs world, but hard pressed to remember a single fight, puzzle, race, or stealth challenge that stood out. And itÔÇÖs this, more than anything, that is AncelÔÇÖs secret. Jackson, speaking on a ÔÇÿMaking OfÔÇÖ documentary included with the King Kong game, makes a very clear distinction: he didnÔÇÖt choose Ancel because of his story-writing abilities. He chose him because of how good a storyteller he was. And that skill is abundantly apparent in JadeÔÇÖs Hillysian home.

The first thing that strikes you is the total confidence and cohesion of his vision. Hillys should be a mess of contradictions. ItÔÇÖs a world which welds the mundanely modern together with elements of sci-fi and traditional fantasy without the slightest attempt at explanation or rationale: Jade may communicate by email and pay by credit card, but her friends are talking walruses and she flies around in a spaceship. These vibrant ideas find a perfect expression in an art style which is as grounded in the traditions of European architecture and bande-dessiné as it is liberated by the freedom of game technology. The canals and coffee shops of the main city are drawn with familiar affection, the sharks, pigs and people that frequent them represented with simplicity and charm. At a time when many designers are chasing hyper-realism, and others are labouring over perfectly consistent visions of alternate universes, the BG&E team had the nerve to present Hillys as pure invention, confident that the warmth and solidity of their absurd world would enable players to take it at face value.

[img alt=Beyond Good & Evil height=315 width=610]http://media.edge-online.com/wp-content/uploads/edgeonline/2009/10/beyond_good_and_evil_lake-610x315.jpg[/img]

Other games, however, have produced charming worlds which havenÔÇÖt succeeding in wooing players (and movie moguls) as effectively as AncelÔÇÖs. Where Beyond Good & Evil differed was in the simple tricks it used to integrate you into that world. For a medium whose claim to fame is that itÔÇÖs interactive, games are all too often unable to allow their players to have a lasting impact on the worlds they explore. With new technology and bigger teams, next-gen games may be the first to move towards the creation of rich, graphical worlds where the playerÔÇÖs actions have persistent and varied effects, but most gamers long since stopped holding their breath. ItÔÇÖs an enormous and unforgiving undertaking that games may never perfect. But what Ancel shows is that with the slightest of touches, games can use their own limitations to reinforce the sense that their worlds are alive and changeable.

Beyond Good & EvilÔÇÖs main minigame is hovercraft racing, and the tracks snake around the main playable areas. Midway through JadeÔÇÖs investigations, she discovers that to access one highly protected installation sheÔÇÖll need to sneak through a shortcut only accessible from the middle of one of the race tracks. ItÔÇÖs a simple ruse, but an effective one: your experienced gamer brain has already marked those areas off as furniture ÔÇô locations which can be seen but not interacted with. Lining up on the starting grid with seven other eager NPC racers, knowing your purpose is so much more devious and substantial, does a surprisingly sophisticated job of conveying why her bundle of polygons is so much more valuable than theirs. It makes her autonomy ÔÇô which is the other side of the coin of your control over the game ÔÇô unusually visible.

There are similar touches throughout. As JadeÔÇÖs photographs filter out to the populace via the resistanceÔÇÖs underground newspaper, discontent grows and protesters gather in the main square. Jade ÔÇô although they donÔÇÖt know her real identity ÔÇô has become a hero to them, and they chant her name and parade her slogans as she stands right in front of them, confronted by evidence of the impact of her earlier actions. ItÔÇÖs exhilarating and a tiny bit eerie, despite the fact that itÔÇÖs the simplest bit of gaming sleight of hand, only a few generations down from 16bit RPGs playing tricks with the names you type in for your characters.

[img alt=Beyond Good & Evil height=314 width=610]http://media.edge-online.com/wp-content/uploads/edgeonline/2009/10/beyond_good_and_evil_fence-610x314.jpg[/img]

At the gameÔÇÖs climax, after Jade has taken control of the armyÔÇÖs (mysteriously unguarded) orbiting antenna, the resistance broadcasts her photographs to the whole world, filling the huge screens that loom over the city streets and replacing the armyÔÇÖs propaganda with its own. And so, in place of the ÔÇÿnewsÔÇÖ programmes that youÔÇÖve been watching since the beginning of the game, youÔÇÖre now seeing the photos that youÔÇÖve taken throughout, compete with out-of-focus fuzz and heads-chopped-off and whatever other incompetences you displayed while guiding Jade through her adventures. Again, itÔÇÖs a simple trick, but it elevates the images youÔÇÖve created to the same status as the rest of the gameÔÇÖs preprepared content, and it makes your presence in the world feel meaningful.

ItÔÇÖs this which makes Ancel such a good storyteller, and itÔÇÖs this that Jackson likely found persuasive when looking for a game-maker who could extend his own tale. Ancel may not be a master of story-writing, he may not map out the most sophisticated character arcs, and he may not have the instincts to set taut and rewarding game mechanics at the heart of the experience he creates, but he has an ability to create characters with instant resonance ÔÇô and, if you doubt that, you only need to hear ÔÇÿCarlson and Peters!ÔÇÖ echo in your memory to convince you. In a videogame world ÔÇô where those characters will be acting under their creatorÔÇÖs control for so much less time than in other media ÔÇô this is unusually vital. And, once established, he can place those characters ÔÇô and therefore the player ÔÇô in a world that feels real and responsive to their actions ÔÇô regardless of how limited those actions actually are.

However, the proof of JacksonÔÇÖs choice of pudding is in the playing: King Kong recieved Metacritic ratings of 82 on both the Xbox and PS2. Whatever that gameÔÇÖs achievements, however, his determination to work with someone who treasures the emotional connection between player and character above all else means AncelÔÇÖs unique skill shines out as clearly from Kong as it does from this. And, as a consequence, for all the historical footnotes their relationship may produce, the gameÔÇÖs real impact will remain in the minds of those who remember their time at JadeÔÇÖs side with pride, satisfaction and, perhaps, just the tiniest touch of boyish infatuation.

This is an edited version of an article that originally appeared in E157.