A new French video game, simply called Dordogne, has been downloaded 4,500 times on personal computers, with a 95% rate of positive reviews (July 2023 data).
Hand drawn in watercolour and developed by a small team of French developers, the game is proving a hit both at home and abroad.
Creative director Cédric Babouche said the game was partly inspired by his own memories of staying with his great-grandmother in the area as a boy.
It is played from the perspective of Mimi, a 32-year-old who returns to her grandmother’s home in Dordogne shortly after her gran’s death. She discovers an old mystery and reminisces about their time spent together.
“I would not say it’s autobiographical. It’s just the feeling that the game conveys, the air of Dordogne, its life and ambiance, that’s lifted from my own experience,” said Mr Babouche. “When I returned with my wife and children 30 years later, it was as if nothing had changed.”
Observe, breathe and contemplate
Credits: Un Je Ne Sais Quoi
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The game was developed in partnership with Aymeric Castaing and his animation studio Umanimation after he was won over by the watercolour style.
“I’ve been doing watercolour since I was 14,” Mr Babouche said.
“For Dordogne, I painted more than 180 landscapes by hand. And since I was the director, I could just greenlight my own work and everything moved faster."
When asked about the significant population of Britons in the area, the second most British department after Paris according to a 2016 survey by the state statistics office, they smile.
“There are a thousand different things that may bring people to Dordogne,” Mr Babouche said. “The food, history, the landscapes with the warm-coloured stones… And of course, how well French tradition is preserved there.”
“I think that’s why the game is popular in Asia,” Mr Castaing added. “It encapsulates what makes life here so beautiful.”
He hopes the immersive experience of playing the game – including cooking, planting herbs and buying bread at the bakery – highlights the simple pleasures of the area.
“Many people have asked if we had a financial incentive to set the game in Dordogne but it was really an artistic choice,” Mr Babouche said.
“There is something timeless about that area, it’s like frozen in place. We wanted players to experience that. The game is not a postcard for you to take home, it’s an ode to living at your own pace. We want you to observe, to breathe and contemplate.”
To make sure that everyone could enjoy this game, the developers have made sure that it was playable by a wide audience.
“The game will never punish you if you make a mistake,” Mr Babouche explained. “That’s just not Dordogne.”
Dordogne’s got talent
Credits: Un Je Ne Sais Quoi
Originally, Un Je Ne Sais Quoi produced animated films, with this same, distinctive watercolour style. A short 15 min film called Les Ricochets is being released in early 2024, going deeper into the game’s story by going further back in time.
In the future, Un Je Ne Sais Quoi will also be producing a comic book based on Dordogne, in a strategy that Mr Castaing calls “transmedia”.
“We both come from a background in animation,” he explained. “It’s art, why limit ourselves?”
In fact, any future video game produced by Un Je Ne Sais Quoi and Umanimation will also be accompanied by animated films and comic books. All, of course, will stick to Cédric Babouche’s distinctive visual style.
Dordogne is available in English on PC for €14.99, and for €19.99 on Nintendo Switch, on Playstation and on Xbox.
