The GHZ Forum

So I recently aquired an old copy of Rayman for PC. After playing it for a while and reminiscing the main reason why I bought the Playstation (why I never bought Rayman for it beats me) I wondered who had created this wonderful game that should be an example for any post 16-bit platformer and it was Michel Ancel, same guy who did Beyond Good & Evil, which is also great. I know France has some great game designers like Eric Chahi (who single-handedly did Another World/Out of this World and then made Heart of Darkness which is also excellent) but I never actually did any research about it. So I found out that Michel Ancel, Shigeru Miyamoto and some other french game designer were actually knighted by the french government as Knights of Arts and Literature, which is a pretty cool thing for game designers to be recognized with.

Anyway, I went to find out who this other french guy was, and he was Frédérick Raynal, the guy who created Alone in the Dark, which was, I think, the first survival horror game ever made, or at least it was the first game to make me not sleep at night. So I read a bit more about him and he was also behind Time Commando and Little Big Adventure, and then it completely hit me how similar these games are in terms of control, gameplay and design and I never ever had realized that.

Just sharing what I thought was a pretty cool thing to know. Also, apparently there are plans for a third Little Big Adventure.

Opa-Opa wrote:Also, apparently there are plans for a third Little Big Adventure.

Seriously? Man, I miss Twinsen! To this day I wish I could get the second game to work on my computer. Last time I played it was over 10 years ago.

You pretty much named my three favorite French designers.

I don't know if I have any others, but those three must be the best!

I like some of the Coktel Vision adventures from the early 90s though, especially the Goblins series.

Goblins 3 is one of my favorite point-and-click games ever, and the one I replayed the most times. The previous two were okay, but the permanent life bar in the first one and the abundancy of timing puzzles in the second one always pissed me off. Goblins 3, on the other hand, is very fun. There are timing puzzles in it too, but they're much easier and far sparser, and the game is more varied in everything it offers. Adding to that, Blount is the most likable and fleshed-out of the goblins by far (also the origin of my username), and I like all the cute sidekicks, especially Fulbert.