Welcome to our latest "Funfacts" article! Are you ready to dig into the conception archives of Twinsen's Little Big Adventure (TLBA)? After reading your enthusiastic feedback on our first article, we've noticed that many of you are eager to learn more about the creation of the game's 4 species: Rabbibunnies, Grobos, Quetchs, and Spheros. Luckily, we were able to get insights from Didier Chanfray and Frédérick Raynal, which shed light on the decisions made during the game's original development. As we move towards the future, it's important to understand the past. As we mentioned in our first article, the choices made in the 90s were based on technical limitations that are no longer relevant today, so there are still some mysteries to uncover.
So let's start at the beginning: where did these 4 species come from?
Didier brought his collection of early illustrations to the office and shared the first sketches of the species. Meanwhile, Frédérick answered all of our questions, and we were able to gain a better understanding of the creative process behind these unique characters.
Samantha: Wow! When were these first drawings made?
Didier: During the conception phase of LBA 1, which lasted three months. These drawings were made between March and April 1994.
Samantha: Is this a Quetch here?
Didier: Yes, the first version of a Quetch was a bit different: the species only had 4 fingers on their hands, and on top of that, they had gloves! Initially, it was to save polygons. But Fred [Frédérick Raynal] didn't like the gloves version. (laughs) So, I added fingers.
Frédérick: Didier drew everything we talked about in meetings. Then, we sorted through them. I remember we had a discussion about the number of fingers on the Quetch, and we excluded the number 4 because the Japanese translation of 4 means "death."