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COMPOSER

VIDEO GAMES & MULTIMEDIA

Composing for video games is slightly different from film scoring mainly because, in my experience, the work involves becoming a full-fledged member of the creative and production team, much more so than when writing for a movie. My first contract with UbiSoft was for Cosmic Family. As a publisher UbiSoft is well-known for the outstanding quality of the music and sound in all their video games. In addition to the titles listed here, I composed the music for Rayman M and contributed guitar tracks on other versions of Rayman, as well as on trailers for UbiSoft's Far Cry game, corporate films, as well as arrangements and scores for Piano Hits and Guitar Hits (CDR & DVD). On Guitar Hits I contributed arrangements and a chapter on Guitar History as well as writing original tracks for the DVD version.

The one thing I will never forget is how I spent 3 solid months putting in 14 hours every day, 7 days a week writing for Rayman Arena. It was a great opportunity, a wonderful team, and a score I am really proud of.

RayMan Arena

Rayman Arena

CREDITS

Music composed, arranged and performed by Claude Samard Polikar
Project management: Arnaud Carette, Riccardo Lenzi
Lead sound designers: Gregoire Spillmann, Davide Pensato
Sound designers: Nicolas Vermot, Gianni Ricciardi
Sound producer: Sylvain Brunet
Creative manager: Manu Bachet
Sound Fx: Talkover
Voices director: Eddie Crew
Sound production organisation: Marine Lelievre
Additional arrangements: B.H. Levitte
Mixed by: Martin Dutasta

REVIEWS

GAMESDOMAIN
Coupling the feast of the eyes is a soundtrack that is reminiscent of some of the extravagant delights heard in Squaresoft's legendary Chrono Trigger on the SNES. There are one or two tunes in Rayman M which sound like they could have been loosely related, such is their quality.

FUTUREGAMEZ
Superb graphics, wonderful orchestral music and, most importantly, totally addicitve and enjoyable gameplay combined to make it the best platform game on any system in year. It's a true "must have" game on the Playstation 2.

VIDEOGAMEREVIEW
Rayman has the sweetest sound and plays some sad, cool, funky, groovy, hip, kind, sweet, happy music. Always the levels fit to their music, and the sounds perfectly match to Rayman's moves.

PLAY MAGAZINE:
Rayman Arena is impossible to put down, especially multiplayer.

GAMESPY.COM:
The pumping techno soundtrack seems designed to further increase the adrenaline level, and occasionally resembles "Garbage" -- the band...

Bear In The Big Blue House

Bear in the Big Blue House

CREDITS

Music composed, arranged and performed by Claude Samard Polikar
Game producer: Valerie Beaufils-Radellet
Sound producer: Sylvain Brunet
Sound FX: Big Wheels

ABOUT

Based on Jim Henson's popular children's TV series, Bear in the Big Blue House lets players learn by solving age-appropriate puzzles in Bear's colorful world. Bear's friends Tutter, Treelo, Pip and Pop, and Ojo join in the fun. One of the few games rated EC (Early Childhood) by the Entertainment Software Rating Board, Bear in the Big Blue House is designed for children between the ages of 2 and 7.

Cosmic Family

Cosmic Family

CREDITS

Music composed, arranged and performed by Claude Samard Polikar
Game producer: Ubisoft Barcelona

ABOUT

Cosmic Family is an interactive kids game where you'll get to explore a rocket house with the Cosmic Family! They'll have a great time meeting Mom and Dad Cosmic, Big Sister, the two small children, the aloof dog, the lazy cat, and plenty of colorful monsters. Families can pilot a rocket into space & play 15 early-learning mini-games found throughout the five floors of the rocket-house. Use your magic wand (the Wii Remote) to reveal crazy animations, funny stories and playful mini games.

POD2: SPEEDZONE

Pod 2

CREDITS

Music composed, arranged and performed by Claude Samard Polikar
Game producer: Ubisoft

ABOUT

In POD 2 the player has the option of playing against online opponents. The game takes place on a terraformed version of Saturn's largest moon where a planet-wide viral outbreak has taken place. The premise of the game is that the only person who knows how to contain the virus will only assist the player if they race against him. There are a variety of courses that include volcanoes and deserts.