This is where it all started. Ubisoft Montpellier was my first studio, and Montpellier is the city where I grew up. Getting my first job in game development, at a studio I had watched from a distance for years, in the place I called home, felt like an unlikely piece of luck that I didn’t take for granted. And the project I joined, Killer Freaks From Outer Space, was my first real taste of game development. Working on NPCs, building tools for level designers, learning how a production actually runs. The unglamorous, essential work of a junior engineer finding their footing.
Then Killer Freaks was cancelled. The team regrouped, the concept pivoted, and what emerged from the ashes was ZombiU: a survival horror game set in a post-apocalyptic London, built for the Wii U launch.
What I worked on
My responsibilities spanned gameplay elements: interactions, mini-games, doors, systemic behaviors and tools for the Level Design, Sound and FX teams. I also owned several manager systems: weather, audio, subtitles.
The weather system is the achievement I’m most proud of from this project. We turned it on for the first time just before a milestone presentation, and it transformed the game. London, rain-soaked and grey, suddenly felt alive in a way it hadn’t before. That moment, seeing something you built change the feel of an entire world, is one I haven’t forgotten.
Killer Freaks, ZombiU, and shipping on launch day
The transition from Killer Freaks to ZombiU wasn’t easy. There were difficult months, uncertainty about the project’s future, and the particular anxiety of watching something you’ve worked on get dismantled and rebuilt. But the reborn project had something the original didn’t: focus. A clear vision, a strong atmosphere, and a real deadline.
Shipping a game on console launch day is its own kind of pressure. The Wii U launched with ZombiU. There was no room for slipping, no second chance. We shipped. The game went on to become a cult title for the Wii U, remembered fondly by everyone who played it, and by everyone who made it.
