Meet The Team is an offbeat interview with the studio’s talents. Get to know us, discover our backgrounds, our favorite games, our life at Ubisoft and our hidden talents! This time, let’s meet Ophélie Schlichting, Associate Technical Director Art on Beyond Good and Evil 2.
Hi Ophélie, do you play?
Yes, I got my first pink Gameboy Color at the age of 7. At that time, I had 2 or 3 “girl games” that I didn’t like, like the Sabrina the witch license. So I quickly swiped my brother’s Pokemon cartridge. As I grew up, I started playing tactical RPG games like Final Fantasy and other JRPGs. At the moment, I’m playing Animal Crossing DLC, and other strategy or management games like Civilizations. On the other hand, I never liked FPS, except Portal but I didn’t dwell on it.
For me, video games are a crossroads between art and technique. When I played Final Fantasy XII, I wondered how they managed to create that. I was impressed by the universe and the graphics of the game and that’s how I told myself that I would like to do technical work. I’m a creative person at heart, so the prospect of mixing the two appealed to me right away.
How did you end up in our studio?
I got my first job in Berlin at another game company as a technical artist – that was my goal. I got bored there and started looking for another studio in Berlin. By chance, a schoolmate called me and offered me to join the team in Paris. As I wanted the job, I went for interviews and ended up in France again, with no regrets!
Today I am Associate Technical Director Art at the studio. I work in the Beyond good and Evil 2 team, on procedural and content generation via algorithms and my work is exciting!
What is your best encounter in video games?
I had the opportunity to meet the creator of Tetris Alekseï Pajitnov. He was the president of the Jury for my graduation work. He tested the game I was working on called Nova Life: a puzzle game whose objective is to attract creatures to make them move in a space and adapt to environmental conditions. To my surprise, he liked my game best of all the others. I guess it spoke to him, since he is fond of puzzle games. But his enthusiasm really motivated me. It’s my own little success.
If you could work on another Ubisoft game, what would it be?
Probably Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle! It’s a creative game with great gameplay and I can totally relate to the genre. The partnership with Nintendo is very rewarding and it’s a license with a lot of potential. In Assassin’s Creed too, there are vast possibilities in the creation of worlds. As a Technical Artist, my job is versatile. There’s always something really interesting to do.
What do you do when you’re not at work?
I love to cook and take care of my three ferrets Vanilla, Soba and Kaiju! The ferret is between a dog and a cat. It’s a very endearing animal. Very playful, but sleeps a lot. Laughs. It does a lot of silly things too!
I also read a lot! I love Brandon Sanderson’s books, especially The Roshar Archives. Very creative, whimsical and logical works. I’m actually not the only one in the studio; I know at least 3 other enthusiasts. On a trip to Montpellier, it was funny to discover a colleague reading it.
What is your best memory at Ubisoft?
The atmosphere at E3 has marked me. At the time, I was working on Watch Dogs Legion and my team was still in Paris. But we felt the atmosphere even in Paris. It was a moment to experience because there was a good appreciation for the game, so everyone was excited at the studio. It really motivated us to see that people were happy with what we had worked on. After all, we’re in the entertainment business and it’s really cool to have an impact on people. That’s when you realize that you really have a purpose.
Credits :
Editor : Jennifer Lufau
Graphist : Stéphanie Guérin
