The former Ubisoft dev who wants to bring back the golden age of JRPGs
New developer Studio Camelia is launching its Kickstarter campaign today for Alzara Radiant Echoes, a Mediterranean-inspired JRPG that features work from renowned Dark Souls composer Motoi Sakuraba and Genshin Impact artist Yoshiro Ambe.
It's the French studio's debut title, after the developer was set up back in 2021 by CEO and creative director Emma Delage, who previously worked at Ubisoft on the likes of the Ghost Recon franchise, Watch Dogs Legion, Beyond Good & Evil 2, and more.
Delage has been in the industry for over 12 years, with a background in marketing, business strategy, and production. A lifelong JRPG fan, she had been dreaming of starting her own studio since childhood and says she's gone through her entire career with that one goal in mind. She started at indie studios in 2012 before moving on to Square Enix briefly, and then Ubisoft.
"When COVID hit, I was in Paris at the time, and I didn't really like the city. So I moved to the south of France, where I'm from, and I found a home in Montpellier. There, I joined an independent publisher called Plug In Digital. I stayed there for six months because every day I was talking with independent developers and I had this feeling [of]: when is it my turn? When am I gonna start my own studio?
"COVID brought a lot of interest in gaming, but with expectations that are not realistic with what most game [developers] can do"Emma Delage
"It was too much for me and I was like: no, I'm doing it right now. This was in summer 2021. I just took this big leap of faith, saying, okay, I'm fed up with waiting to find the right people to start the studio with, I'm gonna do it, whatever happens."
She found companions along the way, she says, growing the studio from four people who worked with her on the initial Alzara prototype, to a team of 14 now.
"We really are driven by modern values, because having worked in the industry for more than ten years, and especially in AAA studios, I was faced with crunch, overwork, burnout, toxic
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