Frédérick Raynal
Encyclopedia
Frédérick Raynal is a French
video game designer and programmer
, notable for his game developments in Infogrames
, Adeline Software International
and No Cliché
. He is married to Yaël Barroz, a fellow game designer, with whom he has two children.
He is perhaps best known for Alone in the Dark
, a game that established many conventions of the survival horror genre. Raynal also has a cult following for his Little Big Adventure
series.
Raynal and other former Adeline
members have repeatedly told fans that creating the third installment is made difficult by having to license or reacquire the rights to the franchise, which currently belong to Delphine Software International
. However, Raynal has hinted that his current company, Ludoïd, which Raynal owns jointly with his wife, is attempting to negotiate the rights for a game to be called Little Big Adventure 3: Genesis of the Stellar Entity, and at least one sketch, by Didier Chanfray, related to development of the title has been leaked to the public, later to be confirmed as appurtenant by Raynal.
, Corrèze
(France). Beginning in his high school years, Raynal made early LED
games including Laser (1979) for the ZX81
. Shifting to software programming and working at his father's computer shop, Raynal's first commercial game, Robix 500 (1983), sold around 80 copies. During his time working here, Raynal also designed a suite of Minitel
emulators entitled Minitelec (1986) for the Amstrad 464 through 6128
(Minitelec and Transmitelec), the Amstrad CPC6128
(Servitelec), and the PC-1512
(Minitelec Pro). He also produced graphics for the game PopCorn
(1988), which was only a moderate commercial success.
After joining the infant Infogrames
he ported Alpha Waves
(1990), a game which pushed new boundaries in gaming and is considered the first true 3D platform game. The port, from Atari ST
to DOS
, was actually a complete rewrite in C
of the original Motorola 68000
assembly language
code written by Christophe de Dinechin, after Raynal convinced Infogrames to make an exception to their policy of not porting assembly-language games.
Convinced by his experience with Alpha-Waves that the time was ripe for 3D graphics, he and his team soon went on to produce Alone in the Dark
(1992
), and worked on parts of the direct sequel (Alone in the Dark 2
) before leaving the company. The games were very influential on the gaming industry in general, and on the growth and success of Infogrames in particular.
Raynal formed Adeline Software International
in 1993 with several former Infogrames members. With this new team, Raynal produced Little Big Adventure
(1994), Time Commando
(1996), and Little Big Adventure 2
(1997). He was also given special thanks on the PlayStation port of Fade to Black
(1995).
Adeline was purchased by Sega
in 1997 and became No Cliché
. With No Cliché, Raynal and his team produced Toy Commander
(1999), and Toy Racer
(2000) both for Sega's Dreamcast system, and also helped Raster Productions into coding localisation for the European release of its Dreamcast Quake III Arena
port (2000). During this time No Cliché also produced a spin-off entitled Toy Commander: Christmas Surprise (2000) as a free bonus with issue #10 of OD Magazine
.
For a time Raynal was also working on a survival horror action adventure called Agartha, which got cancelled due to Sega's decision to stop development on Dreamcast. No Cliché remained together for a little while after the cancellation, attempting to create a PC port of Toy Commander. However, the group split before it could be finished.
Raynal went on to form F4-Toys (later F4) with Bruno Heintz where he began work on an action adventure called Trium Planeta. The game was to follow the style of Little Big Adventure, but was cancelled after a few months. Raynal also worked briefly at Little World Studio before forming his current company, Ludoïd.
In 1997 Raynal was credited in the short film, Double Jeu.
On March 13, 2006, Frédérick Raynal along with Shigeru Miyamoto
and Michel Ancel
were knighted by French
Minister of Culture and Communication
, Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres
, as Knights of Arts and Literature
. It was the first time that video game developers were honored this distinction.
Frédérick Raynal was involved as a consultant
in the design of Soul Bubbles
, a game for the Nintendo DS
, published by Eidos Interactive
. He left the project in the spring of 2006 to start a new game with Ubisoft Montpellier
. At E3 2010 it was revealed Raynal was working on Battle Tag
, a laser tag
-shooter
game, which was released in November 2010. In October Frédérick Raynal's website was updated linking his career to the aforementioned game and to Treasure Hunter Institute, a MMO
adventure game developed by Ubisoft. This project was canceled in April 2011.
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
video game designer and programmer
Game programmer
A game programmer is a software engineer, programmer, or computer scientist who primarily develops codebase for video games or related software, such as game development tools. Game programming has many specialized disciplines all of which fall under the umbrella term of "game programmer"...
, notable for his game developments in Infogrames
Infogrames
Infogrames Entertainment SA was an international French holding company headquartered in Paris, France. It was the owner of Atari, Inc., headquartered in New York City, U.S. and Atari Europe. It was founded in 1983 by Bruno Bonnell and Christophe Sapet using the proceeds from an introductory...
, Adeline Software International
Adeline Software International
Adeline Software International was a video game developer founded in February 1993 as a subsidiary company of Delphine Software International, and based in Lyon, France...
and No Cliché
No Cliché
No Cliché was a French-based game development company who created games for the Dreamcast, lead up by notable French developer Frédérick Raynal...
. He is married to Yaël Barroz, a fellow game designer, with whom he has two children.
He is perhaps best known for Alone in the Dark
Alone in the Dark (video game)
Alone in the Dark is a 1992 survival horror video game developed by Infogrames. The game has spawned several sequels as part of the Alone in the Dark series , and was one of the first survival horror games, after the 1989 Capcom game, Sweet Home...
, a game that established many conventions of the survival horror genre. Raynal also has a cult following for his Little Big Adventure
Little Big Adventure
Little Big Adventure is an action-adventure game developed by Adeline Software International and first released at the end of 1994. It was published in Europe by Electronic Arts and in North America, Asia and Oceania under the name Relentless: Twinsen's Adventure by Activision. Over 400,000 copies...
series.
Raynal and other former Adeline
Adeline Software International
Adeline Software International was a video game developer founded in February 1993 as a subsidiary company of Delphine Software International, and based in Lyon, France...
members have repeatedly told fans that creating the third installment is made difficult by having to license or reacquire the rights to the franchise, which currently belong to Delphine Software International
Delphine Software International
Delphine Software was a French video game developer company. They were famous for their games Another World and Flashback, which bore a similarity to Prince of Persia, both in gameplay and in utilizing rotoscoped animation...
. However, Raynal has hinted that his current company, Ludoïd, which Raynal owns jointly with his wife, is attempting to negotiate the rights for a game to be called Little Big Adventure 3: Genesis of the Stellar Entity, and at least one sketch, by Didier Chanfray, related to development of the title has been leaked to the public, later to be confirmed as appurtenant by Raynal.
Career
Frederic Raynal was born in 1966 in Brive-la-GaillardeBrive-la-Gaillarde
Brive-la-Gaillarde is a commune of France. It is a sub-prefecture of the Corrèze department. The population of the urban area was 89,260 as of 1999. Although it is by far the biggest commune in Corrèze, the capital is Tulle.-History:...
, Corrèze
Corrèze
Corrèze is a department in south central France, named after the Corrèze River.The inhabitants of the department are called Corréziens or Corréziennes according to gender.-History:...
(France). Beginning in his high school years, Raynal made early LED
Light-emitting diode
A light-emitting diode is a semiconductor light source. LEDs are used as indicator lamps in many devices and are increasingly used for other lighting...
games including Laser (1979) for the ZX81
Sinclair ZX81
The ZX81 was a home computer produced by Sinclair Research and manufactured in Scotland by Timex Corporation. It was launched in the United Kingdom in March 1981 as the successor to Sinclair's ZX80 and was designed to be a low-cost introduction to home computing for the general public...
. Shifting to software programming and working at his father's computer shop, Raynal's first commercial game, Robix 500 (1983), sold around 80 copies. During his time working here, Raynal also designed a suite of Minitel
Minitel
The Minitel is a Videotex online service accessible through the telephone lines, and is considered one of the world's most successful pre-World Wide Web online services. It was launched in France in 1982 by the PTT...
emulators entitled Minitelec (1986) for the Amstrad 464 through 6128
Amstrad CPC
The Amstrad CPC is a series of 8-bit home computers produced by Amstrad between 1984 and 1990. It was designed to compete in the mid-1980s home computer market dominated by the Commodore 64 and the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, where it successfully established itself primarily in the United Kingdom,...
(Minitelec and Transmitelec), the Amstrad CPC6128
Amstrad CPC
The Amstrad CPC is a series of 8-bit home computers produced by Amstrad between 1984 and 1990. It was designed to compete in the mid-1980s home computer market dominated by the Commodore 64 and the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, where it successfully established itself primarily in the United Kingdom,...
(Servitelec), and the PC-1512
PC-1512
The Amstrad PC1512 was Amstrad's mostly IBM PC-compatible computer system, first manufactured in 1986. It was later succeeded by the PC1640.It launched for £499 and sold very well, as it was one of the first cheap PCs in Europe...
(Minitelec Pro). He also produced graphics for the game PopCorn
PopCorn (game)
PopCorn is a Puzzle/Action game by French developers Christophe Lacaze and Frédérick Raynal and was released in 1988.- Overview :The game was released as freeware for DOS PCs with a CGA graphics adapter, and received a reputation for being an improvement over the PC version of Arkanoid. The game...
(1988), which was only a moderate commercial success.
After joining the infant Infogrames
Infogrames
Infogrames Entertainment SA was an international French holding company headquartered in Paris, France. It was the owner of Atari, Inc., headquartered in New York City, U.S. and Atari Europe. It was founded in 1983 by Bruno Bonnell and Christophe Sapet using the proceeds from an introductory...
he ported Alpha Waves
Alpha Waves
Alpha Waves is an early 3D game that combines labyrinthine exploration with platform gameplay. By most definitions of the genre it could be considered to be the first 3D platform game, released in 1990, 6 years before the genre's seminal classic Super Mario 64...
(1990), a game which pushed new boundaries in gaming and is considered the first true 3D platform game. The port, from Atari ST
Atari ST
The Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was released by Atari Corporation in 1985 and commercially available from that summer into the early 1990s. The "ST" officially stands for "Sixteen/Thirty-two", which referred to the Motorola 68000's 16-bit external bus and 32-bit internals...
to DOS
DOS
DOS, short for "Disk Operating System", is an acronym for several closely related operating systems that dominated the IBM PC compatible market between 1981 and 1995, or until about 2000 if one includes the partially DOS-based Microsoft Windows versions 95, 98, and Millennium Edition.Related...
, was actually a complete rewrite in C
C (programming language)
C is a general-purpose computer programming language developed between 1969 and 1973 by Dennis Ritchie at the Bell Telephone Laboratories for use with the Unix operating system....
of the original Motorola 68000
Motorola 68000
The Motorola 68000 is a 16/32-bit CISC microprocessor core designed and marketed by Freescale Semiconductor...
assembly language
Assembly language
An assembly language is a low-level programming language for computers, microprocessors, microcontrollers, and other programmable devices. It implements a symbolic representation of the machine codes and other constants needed to program a given CPU architecture...
code written by Christophe de Dinechin, after Raynal convinced Infogrames to make an exception to their policy of not porting assembly-language games.
Convinced by his experience with Alpha-Waves that the time was ripe for 3D graphics, he and his team soon went on to produce Alone in the Dark
Alone in the Dark (video game)
Alone in the Dark is a 1992 survival horror video game developed by Infogrames. The game has spawned several sequels as part of the Alone in the Dark series , and was one of the first survival horror games, after the 1989 Capcom game, Sweet Home...
(1992
1992 in video gaming
-Events:-Notable releases:* Gremlin Graphics releases Zool, Amiga's answer to Mario and Sonic. It goes on to become the best selling Commodore Amiga game, boosting the already popular computer to be the leading gaming machine in Europe....
), and worked on parts of the direct sequel (Alone in the Dark 2
Alone in the Dark 2
Alone in the Dark 2 is the 1993 sequel to 1992's survival horror video game Alone in the Dark created by Infogrames. The game is the second installment in the series...
) before leaving the company. The games were very influential on the gaming industry in general, and on the growth and success of Infogrames in particular.
Raynal formed Adeline Software International
Adeline Software International
Adeline Software International was a video game developer founded in February 1993 as a subsidiary company of Delphine Software International, and based in Lyon, France...
in 1993 with several former Infogrames members. With this new team, Raynal produced Little Big Adventure
Little Big Adventure
Little Big Adventure is an action-adventure game developed by Adeline Software International and first released at the end of 1994. It was published in Europe by Electronic Arts and in North America, Asia and Oceania under the name Relentless: Twinsen's Adventure by Activision. Over 400,000 copies...
(1994), Time Commando
Time Commando
Time Commando is an action-adventure computer and video game developed by Adeline Software and published by Electronic Arts in Europe, Activision in America , and Virgin Interactive and Acclaim Entertainment in Japan.It was originally released for the PC on July 31, 1996 in Europe, United States...
(1996), and Little Big Adventure 2
Little Big Adventure 2
Little Big Adventure 2 is a computer game made by the core team who created the first Alone in the Dark.It was later re-released by Activision in June 1997 in both North America, and in Brazil, under the name Twinsen's Odyssey...
(1997). He was also given special thanks on the PlayStation port of Fade to Black
Fade to Black (video game)
Fade to Black is an action-adventure game released in 1995 by Delphine Software International. Directed and designed by Paul Cuisset, it is the sequel to his previous game, Flashback .The game was released for DOS and PlayStation; planned Nintendo 64 and Sega Saturn versions...
(1995).
Adeline was purchased by Sega
Sega
, usually styled as SEGA, is a multinational video game software developer and an arcade software and hardware development company headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo, Japan, with various offices around the world...
in 1997 and became No Cliché
No Cliché
No Cliché was a French-based game development company who created games for the Dreamcast, lead up by notable French developer Frédérick Raynal...
. With No Cliché, Raynal and his team produced Toy Commander
Toy Commander
Toy Commander is an action game for the Dreamcast made by No Cliché and published by Sega.-Plot:...
(1999), and Toy Racer
Toy Racer
Toy Racer is a racing game for the Dreamcast made by No Cliché and published by Sega.The game is an extension of Toy Commander racing sections, designed exclusively for both offline and online multiplayer modes for up to four players...
(2000) both for Sega's Dreamcast system, and also helped Raster Productions into coding localisation for the European release of its Dreamcast Quake III Arena
Quake III Arena
Quake III Arena , is a multiplayer first-person shooter video game released on December 2, 1999. The game was developed by id Software and featured music composed by Sonic Mayhem and Front Line Assembly...
port (2000). During this time No Cliché also produced a spin-off entitled Toy Commander: Christmas Surprise (2000) as a free bonus with issue #10 of OD Magazine
Official Dreamcast Magazine (US)
The Official Dreamcast Magazine was a video game magazine for the Dreamcast published in the United States. The magazine's initial issue "0" was released in June 1999, a full 3 months before the launch of the system. This rare issue featured Sonic the Hedgehog on a black cover, along with the...
.
For a time Raynal was also working on a survival horror action adventure called Agartha, which got cancelled due to Sega's decision to stop development on Dreamcast. No Cliché remained together for a little while after the cancellation, attempting to create a PC port of Toy Commander. However, the group split before it could be finished.
Raynal went on to form F4-Toys (later F4) with Bruno Heintz where he began work on an action adventure called Trium Planeta. The game was to follow the style of Little Big Adventure, but was cancelled after a few months. Raynal also worked briefly at Little World Studio before forming his current company, Ludoïd.
In 1997 Raynal was credited in the short film, Double Jeu.
On March 13, 2006, Frédérick Raynal along with Shigeru Miyamoto
Shigeru Miyamoto
is a Japanese video game designer and producer. Miyamoto was born and raised in Kyoto Prefecture; the natural surroundings of Kyoto inspired much of Miyamoto's later work....
and Michel Ancel
Michel Ancel
Michel Ancel is a French video game designer for Ubisoft. He is best known for creating the Rayman franchise for which he was the lead designer for the first two games, and which as of 2008 has sold the most units for the publisher. He is also known for the cult favourite Beyond Good & Evil and...
were knighted by French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
Minister of Culture and Communication
Minister of Culture (France)
The Minister of Culture is, in the Government of France, the cabinet member in charge of national museums and monuments; promoting and protecting the arts in France and abroad; and managing the national archives and regional "maisons de culture"...
, Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres
Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres
Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres , often known as RDDV, is a French politician, France's Minister of Culture from 2004 to 2007...
, as Knights of Arts and Literature
Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
The Ordre des Arts et des Lettres is an Order of France, established on 2 May 1957 by the Minister of Culture, and confirmed as part of the Ordre national du Mérite by President Charles de Gaulle in 1963...
. It was the first time that video game developers were honored this distinction.
Frédérick Raynal was involved as a consultant
Consultant
A consultant is a professional who provides professional or expert advice in a particular area such as management, accountancy, the environment, entertainment, technology, law , human resources, marketing, emergency management, food production, medicine, finance, life management, economics, public...
in the design of Soul Bubbles
Soul Bubbles
Soul Bubbles is a puzzle video game for the Nintendo DS handheld console. It was developed by the French studio Mekensleep, and was published by Eidos Interactive in PAL regions and North America in 2008...
, a game for the Nintendo DS
Nintendo DS
The is a portable game console produced by Nintendo, first released on November 21, 2004. A distinctive feature of the system is the presence of two separate LCD screens, the lower of which is a touchscreen, encompassed within a clamshell design, similar to the Game Boy Advance SP...
, published by Eidos Interactive
Eidos Interactive
Eidos Interactive Ltd. is a British video game publisher and is a label of Square Enix Europe. As an independent company Eidos plc was headquartered in the Wimbledon Bridge House in Wimbledon, London Borough of Merton....
. He left the project in the spring of 2006 to start a new game with Ubisoft Montpellier
Ubisoft
Ubisoft Entertainment S.A. is a major French video game publisher and developer, with headquarters in Montreuil, France. The company has a worldwide presence with 25 studios in 17 countries and subsidiaries in 26 countries....
. At E3 2010 it was revealed Raynal was working on Battle Tag
Battle Tag
Battle Tag is a laser tag-shooter hybrid game developed and published by Ubisoft. The game was revealed at E3 2010 at the Ubisoft press conference. The game was released on November 2010 in Texas and Canada.-Gameplay:...
, a laser tag
Laser tag
Laser tag is a team or individual sport or recreational activity where players attempt to score points by tagging targets, typically with a hand-held infrared-emitting targeting device. Infrared-sensitive targets are commonly worn by each player and are sometimes integrated within the arena in...
-shooter
Shooter
Shooter may refer to:Films* Shooter , a 2000 short film depicting four paparazzi on a stakeout* Shooters , a 2001 UK television drama documentary film, set in Liverpool* Shooters , a 2002 theatrical film...
game, which was released in November 2010. In October Frédérick Raynal's website was updated linking his career to the aforementioned game and to Treasure Hunter Institute, a MMO
Massively multiplayer online game
A massively multiplayer online game is a multiplayer video game which is capable of supporting hundreds or thousands of players simultaneously. By necessity, they are played on the Internet, and usually feature at least one persistent world. They are, however, not necessarily games played on...
adventure game developed by Ubisoft. This project was canceled in April 2011.
Independent
- Laser (1979, ZX81)
- Robix 500 (1986, PCPersonal computerA personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
) (A.K.A. Robix) - PopCornPopCorn (game)PopCorn is a Puzzle/Action game by French developers Christophe Lacaze and Frédérick Raynal and was released in 1988.- Overview :The game was released as freeware for DOS PCs with a CGA graphics adapter, and received a reputation for being an improvement over the PC version of Arkanoid. The game...
(1988, PCPersonal computerA personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
)
With Infogrames
- The Toyottes (1990, PC port of an earlier Amiga game)
- SimCity CDTVSimCitySimCity is a critically acclaimed city-building simulation video game, first released in 1989, and designed by Will Wright. SimCity was Maxis' first product, which has since been ported into various personal computers and game consoles, and spawned several sequels including SimCity 2000 in 1994,...
(1990, PC port of an earlier Amiga CDTV game) - Alpha WavesAlpha WavesAlpha Waves is an early 3D game that combines labyrinthine exploration with platform gameplay. By most definitions of the genre it could be considered to be the first 3D platform game, released in 1990, 6 years before the genre's seminal classic Super Mario 64...
(1991, PC port of an Atari ST game by Christophe de Dinechin) - Alone in the DarkAlone in the Dark (video game)Alone in the Dark is a 1992 survival horror video game developed by Infogrames. The game has spawned several sequels as part of the Alone in the Dark series , and was one of the first survival horror games, after the 1989 Capcom game, Sweet Home...
(1992, PCPersonal computerA personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
)
With Adeline Software International
- Little Big AdventureLittle Big AdventureLittle Big Adventure is an action-adventure game developed by Adeline Software International and first released at the end of 1994. It was published in Europe by Electronic Arts and in North America, Asia and Oceania under the name Relentless: Twinsen's Adventure by Activision. Over 400,000 copies...
(1994, PCPersonal computerA personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
/PlayStationPlayStationThe is a 32-bit fifth-generation video game console first released by Sony Computer Entertainment in Japan on December 3, .The PlayStation was the first of the PlayStation series of consoles and handheld game devices. The PlayStation 2 was the console's successor in 2000...
) (A.K.A. Relentless: Twinsen's Adventure) - Time CommandoTime CommandoTime Commando is an action-adventure computer and video game developed by Adeline Software and published by Electronic Arts in Europe, Activision in America , and Virgin Interactive and Acclaim Entertainment in Japan.It was originally released for the PC on July 31, 1996 in Europe, United States...
(1996, PCPersonal computerA personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
/PlayStationPlayStationThe is a 32-bit fifth-generation video game console first released by Sony Computer Entertainment in Japan on December 3, .The PlayStation was the first of the PlayStation series of consoles and handheld game devices. The PlayStation 2 was the console's successor in 2000...
) - Little Big Adventure 2Little Big Adventure 2Little Big Adventure 2 is a computer game made by the core team who created the first Alone in the Dark.It was later re-released by Activision in June 1997 in both North America, and in Brazil, under the name Twinsen's Odyssey...
(1997, PCPersonal computerA personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
) (A.K.A. Twinsen's Odyssey)
With No Cliché
- Toy CommanderToy CommanderToy Commander is an action game for the Dreamcast made by No Cliché and published by Sega.-Plot:...
(1999, Dreamcast)- Toy Commander: Christmas Surprise (2000, Dreamcast)
- Toy RacerToy RacerToy Racer is a racing game for the Dreamcast made by No Cliché and published by Sega.The game is an extension of Toy Commander racing sections, designed exclusively for both offline and online multiplayer modes for up to four players...
(2000, Dreamcast) - Agartha (Canceled)
With Ubisoft
- Battle TagBattle TagBattle Tag is a laser tag-shooter hybrid game developed and published by Ubisoft. The game was revealed at E3 2010 at the Ubisoft press conference. The game was released on November 2010 in Texas and Canada.-Gameplay:...
(2010) – Creative Director - Treasure Hunter Institute (Canceled)