Philippe Dessoly

Philippe Dessoly signing books on the MO5.COM stand at Paris Games Week 2018.

Born in 1969 in Saint-Vallier, Philippe Dessolybegan drawing at the age of eight, following the discovery of GoldorakAt secondary school, he decided to devote himself to his passion, manga and comic books. So, in 1986, he entered the Lycée professionnel des Arts Graphiques et du livre Corvisart. Dreaming of working in cartooning, he took the Gobelins entrance exam, but was unsuccessful. In 1989, he seized the opportunity to begin his career at Ocean Softwarea British publisher that has had a French branch since 1986.

Philippe Dessoly helped create the graphics for original titles such as Beach Volleyball (1989) and Ivanhoe (1990), and ports of Japanese arcade games to 16-bit microphones, the subsidiary's speciality, such as Toki(1991) or Snow Bros. - which, although completed, was eventually cancelled. When Ocean France closed its doors in 1992, he decided with the programmer Pierre Adane to develop as a freelancer Mr. Nutzwhich the parent company agreed to publish in 1993 on Mega Drive and Super Nintendo.

It won awards from the French press and was a commercial success. With the advent of 3D, Philippe Dessoly continued to create new works. pixelartand mobile phones, on behalf of Ocean and thenInfogrames after their merger in 1996. At the same time, he began working as an illustrator for Golgoth71 and was contacted in 2003 by the Japanese merchandising company HL Prowhich made him the official designer of prestigious series such as Albator, Ulysse 31 and GoldorakThese have been used to create a wide range of packaging, figurines, magazine covers and more.

He also collaborated with the late Christophe Gayraud on an RPG Captain Harlock as well as on Flashback Legends on Game Boy Advancewhich unfortunately never saw the light of day - although the second was completed! The two men nevertheless co-founded Mickaël Pratali the studio Otaboo in 2006, which created a number of licensed games for Nintendo. Bored with video games, Philippe Dessoly was nevertheless contacted to bring arcade classics such as Joe and Mac: Caveman Ninja, Toki and Magical Dropbut only the last one has been released to date, in 2012. Currently concentrating on the manga universe, he hopes to move into the comics and follow up on Mr. Nutz...

Raphaël Gesqua

Born in Paris on 11 February 1972, Raphaël Gesqua got his start in electronic music with the demoscene 16-bit under the pseudonym Audiomonsterbefore making his debut in video games (under his real name) with the music for the port of Amiga finally cancelled from Snow Bros. (1990), on behalf of the French subsidiary ofOcean Software. The company closed in 1992, but Raphaël was reunited with his programmer Pierre Adane and its graphic designer Philippe Dessoly for Mr. Nutz (1993).

At the same time, he arranged the soundtrack for the Amiga version of Flashback (1992) edited by Delphine Softwarefor which he became sound director and composed the music for Shaq Fu (1994), Fade to Black (1995) and Moto Racer (1997). He then returned to freelance composing, penning numerous soundtracks, notably for the publisher Neko Entertainment (Code Lyoko, Gunslingers, Cocotoetc.). In particular, the music of Glory Days/Super Army War (2005) was hailed by the press and that of Pop Island (2009) earned him a nomination at the Video game milestone.

In 2003, he also began a career in cinema, first working on short films and then on the films Livid (2011) and In the eyes of the living (2014) by the director duo Julien Maury/Alexandre Bustillo as well as The Blood That Will Run (2016) by Christophe Monierand documentaries Super 8 Madness ! (2013) by Fabrice Blin and Kirby at War (2017) by Marc Azéma and Jean Depelley. In 2018, the publisher Microïds reveals that Raphaël Gesqua reunited with Pierre Adane and Philippe Dessoly twenty-five years later to compose the music for their remake of Toki (1989).