Michel Ancel

Michel Ancel is a French video game director and is the creative manager of Ubisoft’s development studio in Montpellier. He is well known worldwide for having created the Rayman and Beyond Good & Evil franchises .  More than a simple graphic designer, he has been in charge of marking his own style in each game he has created and has managed to demonstrate that his ideas are clear and precise, because his way of thinking and his philosophy are unique. Ancel’s first title, Mechanic Warriors , was developed for the software house called Lankhor.. Ancel then joined Ubisoft as a graphic artist at the age of 17, where he worked on graphics for games like The Intruder and The Teller. In 1992, he began working at Rayman , where he made his directorial debut.

Michel Ancel biography

Michel Ancel was born on March 29, 1972 in Monaco . When he turned 17, he met Nicolas Choukron , and it was at this time that he joined his team at Ubisoft as a graphic designer and began working designing games like The Intruder and Pick’n Pile , and then starting his first project as a programmer. and graphic designer at Brain Blaster , a game published in 1990. This was the year the legend really was born. In 1992, and thanks to his impeccable work on previous projects, Ancel makes his first role as a game director. After hard work, the game called Rayman, a curious platform game that was full of positive reviews for its amazing and clean design, is released in 1995. The game was originally made for use on the Atari Jaguar , and later on the PlayStation and later on the Sega Saturn . Later, he created the game called Beyond Good & Evil , which acquired a large number of followers and admirers worldwide. In 2006, he was named a Knight of Arts and Literature by the French Prime Minister.

In 2011, he launched his game Origins , imposing a new design with this video game and taking many of the games that were already on the market out of the box. In 2014 Ancel founded his own studio known as Wild Sheep , however, he assured that he would also continue working on various projects for Ubisoft.

Michel Ancel’s style

Looking at the Rayman series in its entirety for example, it is interesting to note that the adaptations he made to the series seem to have a fluctuation in general reception from game to game. In General , Rayman has been very well received as a platformer solid and challenging , and many fans believe that Rayman 2: The Great Escape is the best game of the series. He had only an advisory role in Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc, which, while not a bad game, lacked the allure present in the titles he personally directed. Combine simple combat , but in a more attractive way , with vehiclesThey are running, solving puzzles , stealth and challenges of photography . The environments of each of their games are very detailed and beautiful, the characters are interesting and well animated , in a stylized balance of cartoon and realistic . It also includes secret characters, imprisonments and heroes in its games.

Acknowledgments

In 2006, he was named a Knight of Arts and Literature by the French Prime Minister. It was the first time this title was given to a person in the video game industry .

He won the BAFTA Video Game Awards for Best Artistic Achievement in his work.

He achieved success by winning nominations Award BAFTA Video Game for the Best Family Game and Spike Video Game Award for the Designer of the Year .

Featured Videogames by Michel Ancel

• Pick ‘n Pile: participated as a screenwriter
• Rayman: made the design and concept
• The Adventures of Valdo & Marie: made the game design
• Tonic Trouble – Provided the concept for the making of the game
• Rayman 2: The Great Escape: Script, Art Design and Concept
• Rayman Arena: developed the game concept
• Rayman Rush: also worked with the concept
• Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc – In charge of the script, art design and concept
• Beyond Good & Evil: he was the director, did the script and design.
• Peter Jackson’s King Kong: made the design
• Rayman Raving Rabbids: designed the characters
• Rayman Raving Rabbids 2: Character Design
• Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party: Character Design
• Beyond Good & Evil 2: Game Director
• Rabbids: go home: character design
• Rayman: drew up the concept and design