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We caught up with HR director Yolanda Sánchez, marketing director Arnaud Benéfice, and principal VFX artist David Martín to learn more about what's going on at the studio after its 25th Anniversary party and in the world of Asphalt Racing.
"Hi Gamereactor friends, this is the Barcelona Game Fest, formerly known as the IndieDevDay, and as we are in Barcelona, and as you guys invited me to your birthday party in June I think, it's nice to catch up, it's nice to see you, and it's nice that you have some popcorn, so that's why I stopped here, so first of all I wanted to know a little bit more about, you know, the activities and the sort of celebrations that you had, both in and out this studio for your 25th anniversary."
"Ok, so I'm super glad to have you here again, it's been an amazing year so far, because it's always a blast to celebrate 25 years, and it was a nice party in which you already came, and it was also the opportunity for us to celebrate with the employees, so we celebrated another party with them, more inside of the studio, closed doors for our employees, and of course we have a lot more things that we are planning to come for the rest of the year, we are going to take advantage of the full year till 31st of December, so we have a lot of surprises for our employees that are coming, also surprises and events that we are planning for outdoors, so for all our followers and everybody that is really interested in Gameloft and about our story, so yeah, stay tuned because we are going to surprise you with a few more things."
"What are you guys showing here, what do you have here?
Well, we have a booth, because you know we are sponsoring this event, this is the third year in a row that we are sponsoring, indie industry is super important for us, we are super supportive with them, it's really important, we couldn't be able to exist without the indie industry, so this is our way to publicly show that we really support them, and that we are here to help them in whatever they need, to become a big big company like we were lucky to become."
"We can tell that, there is a nice indie feel to everything here, and we are official media partners to also share the indie passion here with other countries in Europe, and now let's talk a little bit about games, we always talk asphalt, I know it hasn't been that long since we met, since June, so it's been like full summer, so what did you guys do, what sort of activities did you have, what sort of content that we didn't talk about in June?
It hasn't been long, but it's actually been really packed, so the first thing, we talked a little bit about that in June, but we had the 20th anniversary of the franchise also that was coming, so we celebrated this July-August, we launched a new track with the teleporters, with some throwback to Asphalt 6 and Asphalt 8 that were in there, all the new cars etc, big celebration, it was super exciting, the players were really happy with it, so we were super stoked, and in things that are a little bit more recent, we are about to launch our next update in Asphalt, and we are going to be kicking off with two big things, we have a collaboration with Hololive that is coming, the Vtuber agency, we collaborated with their Japanese branch a couple of years ago, now we're collaborating with the English branch, so we have a brand new song made by one of the talent that has just been announced today, that is going to go live in a few days, it will be in the game, we'll have an event in the game with some dedicated skins, and even the voices of the girls are going to be in the game, so quite excited about this, and then in a few weeks, we're also going to be kickstarting a special event for Halloween, we are doing some Lovecraftian horror this year, so expect some Cthulhu, expect some mystery, expect some dark environments, and a special new game mode that is going to be launching with some special mechanics, you can turn invisible, you can explode the cars around you, it's our take on horror, horror racing, that's our new thing."
"And then for the end of the year, obviously for Black Friday, we're going to have some celebration, a lot of cool deals in the game, and then at the end of the year for Christmas, we'll have a new update with a track that is going to be set in India, so we are going to be visiting mostly the countryside of India, so all the natural sights and all the environments, which to be honest, in India there's like 500 different types of cool environments, so we have a lot of material to work with."
"It's already looking gorgeous, we're super stoked about this, and we're really looking forward to launching it.
The main update you mentioned is the one that is coming out in December.
No specific date?
It should be around the second week of December, something like that."
"And finally, same namer, David David, you have a panel, a workshop later today, this afternoon, where you're going to show young developers gathered here how you guys work on VFX for Asphalt."
"And we see it's a pretty spectacular sort of game, of course it's arcadey, it's full of flashes and fire, so two questions.
What are you going to share with them?
How are you going to teach them how you guys work with this?
And what is the specific thing about your VFX in Asphalt that you are the most proud of?
We are going to speak about the techniques behind each VFX, because all the games have a VFX, and we have a lot of techniques and we are going to explain it."
"And then, it's not a teach, it's a workshop, it's who can do that, who can do that, who can get here.
All the games have environment, design, and one little part is VFX."
"VFX is more thrill, no?
The name of the conference today is VFX for More Thrill.
And all of that, I think that we are going to explain it.
What is the thing you think sets Asphalt apart in terms of VFX, that is very trademark in terms of VFX, something that stands out in Asphalt in terms of VFX, something that is really cool in your opinion?
No, I like it when you pick up a power-up, all the effects that we have in the car, it's spectacular for me."
"Any special VFX we can expect for the Halloween content?
Yeah, a lot.
A lot of VFX new.
Yeah.
Very busy."
"All right.
Thank you so much for your time, guys.
Enjoy the show.
I'm going to grab some popcorn and enjoy your workshop later today."
