Patrick Plourde, creative director of Far Cry 3, revealed his newest classic-JRPG inspired title, Child of Light this morning at GDC Europe. While describing what exactly Child of Light was all about during the Small Projects in AAA Studios: Making of Child of Light panel, Plourde explained his inspirations from Final Fantasy VI and other timeless Squaresoft titles of the past. Although precise details were scarce–an official announcement is coming our way in early September–the story within the game follows a young girl’s journey as she “physically and mentally grows up”.
When delving deeper into his pool of inspiration, Plourde expressed his love for fairy tale illustrator John Bauer as well as the famous Japanese artists Hayao Miyazaki and Yoshitaka Amano. When looking at photos taken of the screen during the reveal, which can be seen above and below, the inspirations definitely show. Child of Light was also revealed to be running on Ubisoft’s Ubi-Art Framework engine; the same engine that Rayman Legends and Origins runs on. He feels it’s perfectly suited for the game since the engine helps “make a game that is a playable painting”, which perfectly suits the overall tone trying to be achieved.
With his inspirations and setting portion of the panel out of the way, limited details regarding Child of Light’s release and gameplay were given. He hinted at possible co-op play and a release for a multitude of platforms, but, once again, nothing specific due to the official announcement slowly creeping up the horizon. However, a loose release date of Winter 2013 and digital-only release were confirmed.
So there you have it – Child of Light’s surprise but ever-so enticing reveal. Really goes to show you how flexible Patrick Plourde and the crew at Ubisoft Montreal can be, going from a hardcore first-person-shooter to an artistic JRPG inspired title. I, for one, cannot wait for the official reveal in the coming month, how about any of you out there? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
Ed. Note: As IGN notes, the images came from cropped photographs taken at the presentation, which is why some are odd in size.
