Journey

Mornings at my grandfather's

It all starts with the mornings at my grandfather's. I draw by copying: comic panels first, then Dragon Ball Z and Disney, line for line, until my hand caught up with my eye.

In 1999, in primary school, I drew a comic page for a competition. The whole class won it, thanks to that drawing, and the prize was a trip: a festival in Paris. The first time a drawing took me somewhere.

I learned to draw by copying what I loved.

The studio, and the first games

At ten, I join André Chisloup's painting studio. I stay from primary school to the end of secondary school: more than a hundred oil paintings, and three things that never left me — colour, perspective, and how to look.

From 2004, in my last year of middle school, video games already take up all the space: I tinker with my first ones in RPG Maker, and I write my first game design document without knowing it has a name.

From 2005 to 2007, the digital workshop run by Alain Ducros and Lucas Laroche teaches me 3D, layout, the web and animation. That is where I put my first websites online, in Flash. I have worked with both hands ever since: the brush and the machine.

My first mentors did not teach me software. They taught me how to look.

The prize that paid for the ticket

In 2006, in my last year of secondary school, Réunion Island's IKRÉ competition gives its newcomer prize to a video game about the chikungunya epidemic, along with €3,000. That money pays for my move to Australia.

A baccalaureate in applied arts, then Sydney: Billy Blue College of Design takes me straight into the second year of its Bachelor of Applied Design (Digital Media), which I finish at the end of 2009. I leave with two awards, the Green Carrot Award in 2009 for consistent creative excellence and the Yellow Socks Award in 2010 for innovation, and a first job there: 3D and rotoscoping on the short film The Cartographer.

After drawing, it was a video game that paid my way to the other side of the world.

Coming home, and the first jam

Back on the island, I study for two more years: a master in information and communication sciences, taken at ILOI on the video game track, from 2010 to 2012. That is where we team up, between students, under the name Funky Monkey Studios.

In 2012 we win the island’s first game jam together. Until 2015 we release more than ten mobile games, among them Ice Core, Megabike Extended, Megafast, Shadow Pet and Love Zooka, downloaded hundreds of thousands of times.

Shipping often teaches faster than polishing for a long time.

Seven years in luxury

Digital manager at the Be Chic agency. Campaigns, retail design, 3D modelling and store dressing across the Indian Ocean, for luxury houses: LVMH (Kenzo, Givenchy, Guerlain), Chanel, Dior, Lancôme, Armani, Lancel, Montblanc.

Alongside them, brands and products built from scratch — LHOV, Yoolook, Maison Banian, Seabreacher France — and campaigns for the Ghanty, Mado, Sogerep and Diageo groups. During Covid, mask and test kits for companies and local authorities.

Luxury teaches you detail: at that level, one pixel out of place shows.

Late nights and game jams

Through those agency years, office hours are never enough: I keep making games, websites, 3D and photographs in the evenings and at weekends. I trained in growth hacking, followed blockchain closely, then AI.

In 2017, the Volcano Game Jam took marronage as its theme. With Eric Castieau, we won the grand prize. That game became Le Fils de Tsilaosa.

In the evenings, I learn what nobody asks me to.

The leap

Covid made one thing obvious: I would never see my projects through as an employee. I left Be Chic on good terms.

In 2022 I found GRAFITOID: digital creation, video games, interactive experiences. I chair it and lead it as creative director.

I stopped choosing between my ideas and my working hours.

Teaching

Teaching comes naturally: game design and level design for Hello World261 with Rubika and Projet ONY, then the “Video game industry” course at the University of Réunion Island and AI training for video games at ILOI.

It is the belief I started with: what you live stays with you; what you merely hear does not.

What you learn by playing sticks.