Ubisoft's Child of Light will be a jRPG with influences from Final Fantasy 6

At the ongoing Game Developer Conference (GDC) in Europe, Ubisoft has unveiled a new game—Child of Light. According to Polygon, the game is being helmed by Far Cry 3 Director Patrick Plourde. The game is said to be inspired by jRPGs such as Final Fantasy, and its art will be modelled after classic fairy tales.

Speaking of art, Child of Light is set to use Ubi Art framework, which is the same engine responsible for giving us the rather beautiful worlds of Rayman Origins and the upcoming Rayman Legends. The smartphone-only Rayman: Jungle Run is also one of the games based on Ubi Art. Earlier, Plourde released some in-engine footage of Child of Light on Vine. Check it out:

According to Plourde, with Child of Light, he wanted to make what he calls the antithesis of a AAA game, which can’t be sold by showing off violence. The aesthetics of the game were settled upon after Plourde travelled the world, visited museums and built a library of artistic influences. He cites Arthur Rackham and Edmund Dule as inspirations, who were responsible for art in children’s books when they began to feature art.

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Plourde explained the decision to make the game a jRPG by explaining that it was the best game genre to go with the aesthetic style of Child of Light. According to him, this is because of the operatic nature of the jRPG genre. Plourde cites the concept art of Final Fantasy 6 by artist Yoshitaka Amano, stating that the Ubi Art engine is capable of the concept art style, making it look less like a game.

Child of Light is set to be a download-only title. “With digital, there’s no shelf space to fight over, and that is the crux of the battle in publishing,” Plourde said.

Here’s a piece of concept art for Child of Light