Lexis Numérique/Ubisoft - Alexandra Ledermann 4

Lexis Numérique

Lexis Numérique launched multimedia production in 1998 with the first of several titles in the highly acclaimed Uncle Ernest CD-ROM series. The unique design and innovative approach quickly won praise from users and the press alike, and this success is still thriving. With over one million video games sold by distinguished publishers including Disney, Ubisoft, Vivendi and Emme, and over 20 international awards, Lexis Numérique has become a leading specialist in mainstream interactive games (Uncle Ernest, E.T. the Extraterrestrial, The Jungle Book, Papyrus, etc.).

For over ten years, Lexis Numérique has also expanded its expertise in corporate communication via a range of interactive platforms including online, offline and mobileware, for clients in various fields (La Grand Récré Magazine, Le Cidil, Total, Laboratoires Genévrier, France Telecom, Société Générale…).


The Challenge

After the success of the first 3 games in the Alexandra Ledermann series, Ubisoft wanted to develop new episodes to follow up on their PC bestsellers. Their project specifications were stringent, however, with an extremely tight budget and timeframe to ensure the game would be on the shelves by the holiday shopping season.

In response to user feedback, design specifications also included very specific requirements in the way of gameplay. The goal was to combine the best features from the previous games in the series, to create a horseback riding adventure game allowing users to identify with and establish an emotional relationship with the virtual horse. This unique strategy made the design phase and interactivity specifications even more crucial than issues concerning underlying technology and real-time 3D render engine.

With Ubisoft’s quick release date and reduced budget and production team, they knew that prototyping was a vital way of getting project approval. After establishing the foundations, they had to fi nd a way to make full game development quick and efficient, and use dependable technology accessible to their small team.


The Solution

Ubisoft’s technical choices leaned towards using Virtools Dev, in order to take advantage of the development platform’s capabilities for creating highly interactive real-time 3D content. Other reasons for choosing Dev included the quick learning curve for prototyping, which enables developers, scripters and designers to manipulate the basics in a very short time and thus test various design options. The modular nature of content creation with Dev also made it possible for the team to work collaboratively and approve project development step by step, for full production in record time.

Alexandra Ledermann 4 is marketed as a licensed game, so production absolutely had to remain on schedule in order to meet the quick time-to-market characteristic of this type of game development. Thanks to Virtools Dev, development took only 5 months (prototyping, production and post-production), with a 3-person team (2 programmers and a scripter). Ubisoft also opted for the Virtools Dev platform based on the robust nature of the development environment as well as Dev content executables. The accessibility of the software’s intuitive interface made it possible for the scripters to get down to work in less than 2 weeks. With Dev’s library of over 450 standard behavior building blocks, the team created an outstanding, richly interactive game without any specific SDK programming.


Key Benefits

• Quick learning curve, graphical programming and intuitive interface.
• Robust development environment and executables.
• Accelerated prototyping and production for small
  teams.
• Accessibility to non-programmers.
• Facilitates tuning, with focus on design and gameplay.
  
  

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