Éric Chahi

Eric Chahi

Eric Chahi at the 2011 Utopiales
Born (1967-10-21) October 21, 1967
Essonne, Yerres, France
Nationality French
Occupation Video game designer
Known for Another World

Éric Chahi (born October 21, 1967) is a French computer game designer best known as the creator of Another World (also known as Out of This World in North America).[1]

Career

Éric Chahi started programming on Oric Atmos and Amstrad during 1983 for the company Loriciels. He then utilized his talents on platforms such as Atari ST and Amiga with games such as Jeanne d'Arc and Voyage au centre de la Terre published by Chip. In 1989 Éric Chahi quit Chip to join Delphine Software International to work on the graphics for Future Wars, a game designed by Paul Cuisset. Chahi then developed Another World (released in 1991) almost entirely on his own, from the story to the box cover; later it received much critical acclaim for its atmosphere and minimalism.

After leaving Delphine, Chahi founded Amazing Studio and became one of several designers that were working there on Heart of Darkness, which is an initially ambitious side-scrolling game. It suffered numerous delays, and was in development for six years.[2] When Infogrames finally published it in 1998, it was moderately received by critics due to short length and by-then dated graphical resolution, though the graphics of the PlayStation port were praised.

Chahi disappeared from the game industry for some years, but returned to games making with Ubisoft in the 2010s.[3] In April 2005 he released a free Game Boy Advance version of Another World. It was created in collaboration with a programmer named Cyril Cogordan, who originally started it as a fan project. It can be played by using a GBA flash cartridge.

A version of Another World for mobile phones was made with the help of developer Magic Productions and commercially released in 2005. On April 14, 2006, Chahi and Magic Productions released an updated PC version of Another World. It features higher resolution graphics and runs on modern versions of Windows. This HD version was ported to Xbox One, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PS Vita, 3DS and Wii U in June 2014 as a 20th anniversary edition.

On June 14, 2010, a trailer for Chahi's new game, named From Dust was shown at E3 2010. The game was released on July 27, 2011 on Xbox Live Arcade as part of the 2011 Summer of Arcade,[4] is described as a mix between Populous and Black and White.[5] It was also released on the PC later on August 17, 2011 and later was released for the Chrome web browser.

Games

References

  1. Premiere 2007 p117 "Quinze ans plus tard, Éric Chahi (photo) revient sur son projet, devenu, avec le temps, une référence. «Si "Another world" reste dans les mémoires, confie-t-il modestement après avoir remixé le jeu en HD pour cette réédition anniversaire, ."
  2. Hickman, Sam (June 1996). "One Man and His Dog". Sega Saturn Magazine (8). Emap International Limited. pp. 36–42.
  3. Freeman, Will (January 25, 2012). "Inside Ubisoft Montpellier: A Ray of light". develop-online.net. Retrieved February 6, 2012. It was at Ubisoft Montpellier that [...] where Another World creator Eric Chahi chose to step out from several years in the development wilderness to create From Dust.
  4. "Beat the heat with Summer of Arcade". Microsoft. Retrieved 2011-07-20.
  5. Luke Plunkett. "Another World Creator Back With A New Game: Project Dust". Kotaku.
  6. "Ubisoft E3 2010 Press Conference". Ubisoft E3 2010. 2010-06-14. Retrieved 2010-06-14.
  7. "From Dust". Facebook. Retrieved 2012-01-31.
  8. "'From Dust' Tech Demo is Phenomenal".
  9. Peter Moors - Music and Game: Perspectives on a Popular Alliance 2013 p129 ISBN 3531189131 "... at least in this respect, be compared to other 'sandbox' titles such as Peter Molyneux's Black & White (2001) and Éric Chahi's From Dust (2011)."
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