Valiant Hearts Creative Director Embarks On Indie Development Journey

Yoan Fanise, a former Creative Director at Ubisoft responsible for Valiant Hearts and actively involved in other projects including Beyond Good & Evil , has announced he is joining the indie game development community by opening a new studio known as Digixart along with co-founder Anne-Laure Fanise.

, has announced he is joining the indie game development community by opening a new studio known as Digixart along with co-founder Anne-Laure Fanise. According to Yoan, the “X” is Latin for ten, since video games are being considered more and more as the 10th Art.

Yoan Fanise entered into video games thanks to classics like Tetris and Sonic the Hedgehog , before moving on to create a successful anime short film in France. His move to Ubisoft focused on creating and implementing sounds for Beyond Good & Evil , before eventually entering global creativity and working on a variety of game types through his 14 year career with the AAA company.

Yoan attributes the move from AAA to indie gaming based on the success of Valiant Hearts , a quaint 2D animation that follows the emotional stories of a handful of characters during the first World War. Expressing a desire to create more “meaningful” games that dig into the subject of personal lives through simple storytelling, Digixart intends to create games that continue to explore difficult concepts, such as religions, cultural differences, and the struggles of modern society. The goal is for the substance of the game, and the general message, to stay with the player even after the game is finished, and encourage personal introspection.

Digixart is, for now, a smallish studio with less than ten people, some of which include freelance artists experienced with Ubisoft projects, such as Nicolas Leger. Yoan also noted that he was pleasantly surprised to meet several talented and passionate indie devs within the community in Montpellier.

Gamers can learn more about Digixart’s current and future projects by following them on twitter at @digixart.