In 2012 Ubisoft Milan faced the greatest challenge we could imagine. We worked on a game that was so far from our radio waves and to what we were used to, that we didn’t know how to deal with it, initially. We had to rethink our organization from the ground up. We had to deal with new job profiles we never worked with, we had to learn how to dance (well, a bit at least) we had to listen to music that we never listen to, we had to grow up knowledge about fabrics, fitting, fashion, make up, hairstyle. It was an earthquake. We didn’t know how to cope with it, we were afraid about it. But as usual, life find is way and we soon got a grip on things, and we also enjoyed it, to some extent.
At the end of our mission on Just Dance, I’ve put together a photographic book, for internal use only, to give it as a gift for some of the people in our studio, but especially to the Lead team in Paris which we were helping by creating additional content. For the occasion, I’ve asked additional help to Cristina Nava and Andrea Babich, who are way better than me, with “words”, to accompany my photos in order to help me telling our story of a team on the development of Just Dance.
I’m leaving you the story as Andrea Babich and Cristina Nava wrote it in the book. I hope this will trigger your curiosity, and a smile. But before leaving you to our small story, I wish to thanks the whole Just Dance team in Paris, the dancers, the make-up artist, the stylist, and especially Lala & Arben, two of the most talented dancers I’ve ever met, and wonderful friends to all of us.
Just Dance Milan studio photographic book cover
Walk the line
We are older and wiser, now. We can look down at it and take a laugh. Now.
But when the Managing Director told the studio that we were going to work on the Just Dance franchise, back in January 2012, well, we were not amused at all. There’s no point in denying.
Nothing personal. Nothing against the casual dance video games, not at all - there are millions of amateur afternoon dancers enjoying it, out there. Out there. But in here, we were not ready for that. Until that point, we were used to make video games. Even the Daily fortune cookies in Imagine: My Secret World retained more “gameplay” than the Just Dance games, to our geeky eyes. Our ears were not accustomed to modern dance music. Our vocabulary did not have either “Dubstep” or “Carlton” in it. How could we possibly develop a dance game for youngsters? The answer is simple: because it’s a challenge. And if Video games taught us anything, it’s that challenges must be accepted. Especially when you have no alternative. So we walked the line and we found out that…
Walk the line nearby Notre-Dame de Paris
Leica M7 film - 2012 circa.
We can’t dance
We watched Just Dance choreographies. We studied the phenomenon. We listened to the tracks. We kicked off our shows. An then we found the awful truth - the majority of us could not dance. Never did and never will.
Anyway, we soon realized that you don’t need to be a dancer to create a Just Dance choreography. You don’t need to be a singer to write a good song, after all. We met the professionals: the choreographers, the costume makers, the make-up artists. We learnt from them with humility, and we found out that they were rookies too, when it comes to build something in the spirit of Just Dance. Because, no matter what people say, Just Dance is a video game, it needs to make people feel like they’re great dancers, more than really transform them. As video game makers, we knew what it takes to fulfill that dream.
Having a ball
Difference: that’s what it takes to grow up and, maybe, to leave something good along the way. On Just Dance, we had the chance of meeting the most diverse professional categories. They knew nothing about video games, just as we knew nothing about dance and green screens. Nonetheless, we shared the same passion for accuracy and the same playful approach. Difference showed to be a powerful creative resource and, at the same time, fuel for fun. When you’re forced to stay for countless hours in a green room, constantly switching between intense recording session and long downtimes, the only mean of salvation is brought in by having fun together in a spontaneous way. You can’t of course see the behind-the-scene jokes in the final product, but, somehow, the reflection of that fun is there. And it’s infectious: we had a ball making Just Dance, you can have it too by playing it.
Formation
After two years deep into the Just Dance galaxy, we re-emerged, looking for some more tradition kind of gaming. Maybe you’d expect us to conclude this chronicle like in a coming-of-age story: finally the geeks learned how to dance.
We’d be delighted to say that, but it’s not the case. We are still elephants in a crystal shop. But, at the same time, we did learn a lot of things about dancing, about bodies and about ourselves. We learned to look at game development from a different, open-minded point of view. We found out that it’s great to work together to get the best possible result, no matter what the object of the job is, even if it’s a ballet built upon a pop chart song. And yes, in the process, we learned how to make millions of people dance.
Just Dance? The game? It’s out there on the shelves - go and play, erm, dance, it
Millions are already doing it. They swear it’s fun. But there’s a little story to be told, between one dance session and the other. A story among us, the developers of the game, the dancers, the visual artists, the costume makers, the make-up artists.
A story of hard labor, of jokes, of smiling faces, of sweaty bodies, of green screens which need to be kept clean. This is our story. And thank God it’s over.