A Quebecer who has befriended Charlie Chaplin’s children in Switzerland for the past 15 years has just received exclusive worldwide rights to make video games, it has been learned The newspaper.
“We’re not part of the family, but we’re not far away,” confides in the journal Yves Durand, museographer and co-founder of Quebec-based games studio B Df’rent Games, a creative collective that was founded here just a few months ago.
“No one on the planet can make a video game for any platform without necessarily going through this collective,” he says.
Images, films, music and archives of legendary actor, screenwriter and director Charlie Chaplin will inspire the Montreal studio’s games.
“In his own way, he was the very first influencer,” summarizes Yves Durand.
Friends of the Chaplins
To achieve this, the man was able to build a solid relationship with the heirs of the legendary filmmaker
In 2016, he created the Chaplin’s World museum in Corsier-sur-Vevey, where Charlie Chaplin lived, which allowed him to rub shoulders with his children.
Géraldine (cinema), Victoria (circus), Michael (literature), Christopher (music)… a true friendship was born from their meeting.
Without giving any financial details, Yves Durand puts his game project at several million dollars, which he wants to be “humanistic” like Charlie Chaplin.
Refugees (The Immigrant), abandoned children (The Kid), workers (Modern Times), dictatorship (The Great Dictator)… the director’s work has themes that are still relevant half a century after his death.
“Charlot will be the hero of our games. It will be the representative of all wanderers in the world. Our games will stage the stories in which the little ones meet the giants”, pictured by Yves Durand.
Photograph of the Journal de Montreal, Chantal Poirier
Pascal Nataf, Kim Berthiaume, Christopher Chancey, Robert Young and Yves Durand.
collective project
In the journal he emphasizes: The project is a collective project.
Christopher Chancey, CEO of ManaVoid Entertainment and co-founder of Indie Asylum, Pascal Nataf, CEO of Affordance Studio, co-founder of Indie Asylum, and Robert Young, co-founder of B Df’rent Games are working on it.
And above all, there is no question of falling into the trap of violent video games with sexist references, which we still see very often in the world.
“We’ll try to get the best in people, not the worst. Our games will not focus on violence, racism and sexism.”
The games created will be fun, assures the co-founder of B Df’rent Games.
“There was a philosophical encounter between the members of the collective. I’m not afraid to say it,” he concludes.
➤ B Df’rent Games is calling on industry experts, studios and other companies to collaborate to join them on the sequel.
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