Emotional, interactive gaming
1492 Studio is a video game studio based in France. It was co-founded in 2014 by Claire and Thibaud Zamora, two entrepreneurs with over 20 years’ experience in the freemium game industry. Acquired by Ubisoft in 2018, the studio continues to create interactive stories in the form of visual novels and to continually enrich the content of the Is It Love? series.
With more than 60M downloads to date and all our universes and characters now in one and only application, “Is It Love? Stories”, 1492 studio offers players the chance to travel to new dimensions, in worlds full of intrigues, suspense and romance 2.0. The studio continues to operate its live games by creating further content and animating a strong community of fans while working on other projects to come in a near future.
OUR CREATIVE PROCESS
CHOOSING A THEME
Everything we create, whether for an upcoming universe or for a new game within an existing universe, is the product of a great brainstorming session and a good dose of coffee! This first step is crucial, as it’s when we lay the foundations for the future story: the main themes, the principal storyline, the characters, the results of our research and the feedback from our players. Once these elements are defined, we put them together in a roadmap which is then used for the rest of the creative process.
STORY
Once this roadmap is built, our scriptwriters start attacking their keyboards and write up the general synopsis and the summary of the chapters, elaborate the character profiles, and come up with a list of imagined sets… Once this step is validated, a detailed synopsis is written in collaboration with the creative team. The chapters and the locations for the coveted secret scenes are then slotted in like pieces of a puzzle! When the writing phase is over, it’s time for the artists to get in on the action…
ARTWORK
Our artists (led by our artistic director) receive briefs based on the general synopsis. These briefs describe the visuals needed, as well as any additional information they require to create a secret scene, set or character. It takes a lot of discussion between the teams before obtaining the final versions that make it in our games. At the same time, our narrative designers create briefs for the music and look for accompanying sound effects. All these elements then feed into the coherence of the story, while bringing that touch of originality that distinguishes each universe, story and character.
PRODUCTION
Before giving you the opportunity to experience a new story, our narrative designers stage all the elements mentioned above. Their goal is to offer the best possible gaming experience by meticulously inputting the dialogue, the choices (and the resulting side lines), the sets, the visual effects, the music, etc. This process is done in close collaboration with our developers. They integrate all the content into the Unity game engine, in different languages (thanks to the brilliant adaptations from our translators), and then generate the app that you see on your platform. The application is tested extensively to make sure that all elements work perfectly. The application (or update) is then published on the Play Store and the Google App Store and is ready to be played!
MAINTENANCE
Behind this significant creative process hide the masterminds whose mission is to bring the games to life beyond publication. All our teams work exceptionally hard to offer you regular content and ensure the smooth running of all games. At the same time, our various marketing teams work on ambitious side projects, sometimes in partnership with third-party companies and sometimes with you, our “Is It Lovers”! We want to make “Is It Love?” a global success. We aim to strengthen our fanbase by offering new and innovative ways to entertain you through a range of exciting opportunities.
Interviews
We asked some of our employees to answer a few questions! Find out more about their roles here!
JOIN THE TEAM
Contact us
Would you like to share your portfolio with us, or have a marketing or business proposition? Please don’t hesitate to get in touch! If you’ve encountered an issue with one of our games, please head over to the FAQ, and for any comments or feedback on our productions, you’ll find us on social media!