Syberia 2 Action/Adventure Game

Microids and B. Sokal

Founded in 1985 by president Elliot Grassiano, French company Microïds has grown tremendously in the past years. Initially a game development studio, Microïds expanded its activities in 1995 to encompass game publishing and distribution. This shift was clearly a positive move for Microïds, bringing in spectacular profits for the company.

Microïds released its first real-time 3D blockbuster Fort Boyard Millenium, made with Virtools Dev 1.0. Using Virtools Dev 2.0, Microïds released the epic adventure game Road to India soon after. For the Syberia series, Microïds teamed up with renowned author/illustrator Benoît Sokal who orchestrated development for both Syberia titles.


The Challenge

The first episode of Syberia met with immediate international acclaim and won numerous awards. In the wake of this success, Microïds once again turned to Virtools as they launched their new project. Again featuring Syberia heroine Kate Walker, Syberia 2 portrays her as she guides Hans Voralberg on his search for mythical Syberia, land of the forgotten mammoths. As they cross Europe, their quest is full of obstacles and encounters with suspicious characters.

Like Syberia the sequel targets a wide audience, with appealing gameplay to meet the demands of frequent adventure game players and a captivating story to reach new gamers.

For the Syberia series, Microïds placed great importance on realism and needed a game engine that would make it possible to build high-level interactivity fast. Rather than concentrating on development issues, the focus had to be on creating exquisite, realistic graphics and providing an immersive game environment.


The Solution

Syberia 2 was developed in a year and a half by a team of 35 people which included game designers, and screenwriters, character modelers, graphic artists and programmers.
Virtools’ intuitive graphical programming language provided the main development hub for the entire team, allowing considerable reductions in overall production time. With optimized workflow and a seamless development/testing process, team members were able to make modifications and see them instantly in the game environment. Thanks to Virtools’ collaborative authoring platform, as well as the ease of integrating custom behaviors via the Virtools SDK and Virtools Scripting Language (VSL), the team was able to tailor the Virtools engine to meet its development needs.


Key Benefits

• Significant reduction in timescale and production costs.
• Optimized workflow thanks to a robust development hub.
• One of the principal Microïds’game develop with Virtools technology

See Screen Shots or Go to Microids Syberia 2 Website