Rayman is a franchise of platform video games, created by video game designer Michel Ancel for Ubisoft. Since the release of the original Rayman game in 1995, the series has produced a total of 45 games across multiple platforms.
The series is set in a fantastical, magical world which features a wide range of environments that are very often based on certain themes, such as "the Eraser Plains", a landscape made entirely of stationery. The core games of the series are platformers, but there are several spin-off titles in other genres. The protagonist is Rayman, a magical limbless being renowned for his courage and determination who, with the help of his friends, must save his world from various villains.
Games
Main series
Spin-offs
Raving Rabbids
Other
Cancelled games
Rayman (SNES) - Ancel initially produced Rayman for the Atari ST, a 16-bit personal computer system, working alone on every aspect of the game. Following Houde's arrival on the project, Ancel noticed that public interest in the ST had started to wane and looked to the Super NES CD-ROM, a CD peripheral for the 16-bit Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). However, in 1993 Nintendo abandoned the project before the hardware was produced. Ancel and Houde ruled out a release for the cartridge-based SNES, doubting its ability to handle the large amount of information they wanted to incorporate into the game. The pair switched focus towards newer and more powerful consoles, leaving the SNES version of the game unfinished. This led to the decision to produce Rayman for the Atari Jaguar, a 64-bit cartridge-based system that the team felt could handle the graphics they wanted. In late 1994, magazine advertisements announced the game as a Jaguar exclusive title. Between 1993 and 1994, Rayman originally was submitted to Apogee Software by Ancel, however the publisher was scrapped. Rayman 2 (2D platformer) - Rayman 2 was originally conceptualised as a sidescrolling 2D platformer, like the first game. Development on the prototype began in early 1996 with a team of six people and a budget of 10 million francs. It was slated to be released on the PlayStation, Sega Saturn, and Microsoft Windows in the fourth quarter of that year. The prototype of Rayman 2 featured some usage of prerendered bitmaps of 3D computer models, differing from the hand painted presentation of its predecessor, beginning in 1998. A prototype containing a single level is playable in the final PlayStation version of the game if the player completes a certain percentage of the game.