Had the pleasure to interview Anthony Vazeille, Lead Programmer from Ocellus who worked on The Smurfs: Dreams. We discuss the inspiration behind the game development for the game and what franchises would Anthony like to develop next. The Smurfs: Dreams is available now for consoles and PC. You can read our review on why the game should have a secure spot in your gaming library.
Thank you for taking the time to talk with us!
What inspired the idea behind The Smurfs: Dreams?
We wanted to make a game in which we could see the Smurfs in all new environments, and be able to use exclusive abilities too!
What elements did you want to put into the game but couldn’t? For example, power-ups or levels?
Initially, we wanted to have a lot more things to do in the village and have a gallery with concepts or songs you’d unlock by playing the game (like we did in Marsupilami Hoobadventure).
There were also great ideas for other dreams and when I heard about them I only wished we could also do them!
What challenges did you have to overcome in Dreams?
We had 2 big challenges for this project. First one was using a new engine. It was our first production using the Unreal Engine, we had to learn a lot of things about it in a short span of time. We also had a bigger team than on the previous project, so we had to rethink our ways of making games!
If you could create a new official Smurf, what would be their key characteristic?
Pirate Smurf, he would just speak like a pirate and tell about adventures he never did! I guess he would also put himself in danger in search of said adventure haha
Which of the dreams featured in the game would you want to have in real life? Were any inspired by actual dreams?
I’m not sure I’d want any of these dreams in real life ! I mean, they are trapped in what are more like nightmares than dreams. If I need to choose though, I’d like some vacation near the beach of Smurfette’s dream !
They are not inspired by dreams per se, but we had a reflexion about the most common dreams people do, and then we asked ourselves what would be a good dream for some iconic Smurfs.
What are some of the most memorable and/or unexpected aspects of creating the game?
The first level finished always does something to me. This is the point where the game feels like a real game and afterwards everything happens so fast and each week sees the content grow!
Who’s the biggest Smurfs fan on the team? How did they prove that they were the top Smurf?
I’m not sure we have big Smurfs fans in the team, we were all familiar with the licence and did our research to see how the licence had evolved till now!
Is there another classic series you would like to develop a game for and why?
Well, only speaking for myself here, but I’d love working on a game set either in the One Piece or SteamWorld universe!
We obviously love cats. Will we see a game that centers around Gargamel’s cat at some point?
I love cats too!
Well, that’s not up to me, but that sounds like an interesting take on the licence haha