The end of last year had many of us reflecting (no pun intended!) on what a ride 2023 was for our company! From the challenges we overcame and the accomplishments we achieved to the milestones we hit and the great times we shared; it’s safe to say that it was a productive year!
In the spirit of starting 2024 on a positive note, we’re kicking things off with a recap of 2023, looking back on some of Reflector’s greatest moments of the year.
We stayed true to the mindsets that fuel our success.
As we continued our development efforts onUnknown 9: Awakening and wrapped unique transmedia products set within the same universe, work on our next IP and second production line began to pick up.
And while our people worked hard to achieve critical project milestones, they also took time to partake in several enrichment workshops. Nine Ask Me Anythings brought Reflectorians up to speed on exciting departmental initiatives. Staff also took part in over 1,600 hours of professional and personal development training sessions covering topics like stress and priority management, communication, collaboration, and more.
We can’t forget the professional achievements we celebrated. While 21 Reflectorians were promoted throughout 2023, five were honored with slick-looking Reflector-branded Kanuk winter coats for their five-year work anniversaries!
February 2023 town hall
We hosted the first-ever Bandai Namco Global Development Summit.
As Bandai Namco’s sole Canadian studio, we welcomed colleagues from six countries across Asia and Europe into our Montreal office for the first-ever Bandai Namco Development Summit.
While our marketing and narrative teams brought our guests up to speed on our first IP’s brand DNA and product offering, leadership teams from Bandai Namco development studios worldwide came together to discuss strategy, success, and the day-to-day realities each one faces.
This five-day event—packed with presentations, workshops, brainstorms, and a memorable happy hour—proved instrumental in laying the groundwork for future collaborations.
Bandai Namco Global Development Summit 2023
We paid it forward by supporting Technovation’s Gameable program.
Following through on our intention to shape the future of gaming and storytelling, 2023 marked a new chapter in our mentorship mission with our participation in the Gameable program.
To support the Montreal initiative, whose aim is to foster tech and game design skills in young girls, Reflector’s IT department donated computer towers to ensure program participants had access to a robust set of technological tools. Moreover, one of our game designers spent six months mentoring a dedicated group as they drafted a viable business plan and built a video game prototype, both of which were presented to parents, mentors, participants, and sponsors in June 2023.
In addition to ongoing weekly mentoring sessions, two other Reflectorians took the time to host two dedicated workshops, one on UI programming and the other on game design—experiences we hope to continue to share with the game developers and designers of tomorrow in the years to come!
Senior Game Designer Yoan Le Souder partakes in a Gameable workshop.
We made it a point to get together on the regular.
Reflector consists of creators and experts from all corners of the industry. We’ve always known our complementarity to be our strength, and 2023 showed us, yet again, just how crucial hanging out beyond the confines of department meetings and Teams chats is to our collective success.
And for this, we have our incredible Engagement Committee to thank!
Bi-weekly 5-Ă -7s and game nights allowed us to relax, unwind, catch up, and meet new additions to our growing team, while our more formal events saw Reflectorians bring their theme party A-game.
From maleficent masquerades and skull decorating competitions to an epic Monopoly-themed celebration, our Engagement Committee devised great company-wide events and bonding experiences. Whether donning our most spooktacular wears or dipping into the Community Chest, we had a blast connecting with colleagues within and across departments!
Sugar ShackSummer PartyHalloween PartyEnd-of-Year Monopoly Party
We’re ready for an eventful 2024.
Hot on the heels of a well-deserved two-week holiday break, we’re more than ready to tackle 2024!
A priority of ours this year is to find exciting new ways to bring Reflectorians together and ensure they’re afforded the right conditions to professionally thrive. Not only are we moving to a new space (still conveniently located in the heart of downtown Montreal!) but our Talent and Culture team is hard at work devising promising career advancement programs. We’ll also continue to give back to the communities to which we belong.
On the product side, we are ramping up ongoing efforts to expand a popular Bandai Namco IP and bringing our next video game to life! If you’re interested in joining a diverse group of creators passionate about video game development, design, and innovative storytelling, check out our current career opportunities and apply today.
We had a chat with Senior Director of Animation Teppei Takehana, an industry veteran who joined us in 2022. Get his thoughts on Reflector culture, how he got here, and what makes working in Montreal unique.
How and why did you end up joining Reflector?
I was working in Paris when Reflector reached out and offered me the role of Director of Animation. Taking the job was a big decision! After all, it’s not easy to pick up and move your family overseas.
But the company did a fantastic job of demonstrating Unknown 9: Awakening’s potential. They showed me the studio’s creative vision, its unique approach to game design, and the ways it supports its employees. The fact that Reflector was part of Bandai Namco Europe was also a plus!
How is working at a Montreal video game studio different?
The biggest difference is the international aspect. I’ve worked in Japan and in France, but in Montreal, there’s so much more diversity. I get to collaborate with people who have different personalities, skills, ideas, backgrounds, and thoughts on game design.
There are challenges—language barriers, for example—but this kind of teamwork gives rise to new lines of thinking and alternate ways of doing things.
What led you to work in the video game industry?
I’ve always loved video games—I’ve played them since I was little. I grew up in France and moved to Japan to study video game creation at the Konami School in 2002
I chose the Artistic branch, a general field, with zero idea I’d end up in animation. I started out learning how to build 3D characters, create concept artwork, et cetera. But after attending a master class on animation through meme creation, I was hooked.
After that, I honed my animation skills as an intern and then as a Junior Animator working on Metal Gear Solid 3 before taking on the role of Lead Animator of Cinematics for Metal Gear Solid 4. I eventually returned to France, where I worked in a leadership position on Beyond: Two Souls. In this role, I had the opportunity to improve the production pipeline between the motion capture studio and the animation team. Plus, I got to meet Elliot Page and Willem Dafoe! 
In 2016, I made the move to a new company in which I was given the chance to build my very own animation team—an incredibly exciting experience, to say the least! By 2022, I had been promoted to Animation Director, managing a team of 40 and working on numerous production lines simultaneously, each with its own unique art direction.
By the end of that same year, I joined Reflector Entertainment x Bandai Namco Europe and began work on Unknown 9.
What does a typical day at Reflector look like for you?
It starts by chatting with the different creative teams—Art, Game Design, and Level Design. Animation is at the intersection of these departments, so everyone’s got to be on the same page. We discuss tasks, prioritize problems, and clarify our milestones. Then, I brief my team on what was covered.
I spend a lot of time conducting animation reviews and feature reviews, and I work with technical teams to help evolve Reflector’s production pipeline. Sometimes I prep motion capture initiatives as well. 
No matter how busy my days get, I always try to carve out some time to play video games. Right now, I’m playing Armored Core VI and Streetfighter 6.
What's your favorite part of your job and why?
I love creating animations…when I get the chance! What I love most about my role of Senior Director is interacting with so many different people with different specialties, whether they be game design, programming, or artwork. 
What do you find special or unique about Reflector's animation team?
My team has a high level of professionalism and a great sense of humor. Everyone is open, up for any creative challenge, and always willing to go above and beyond for the sake of quality.
What advice would you give to someone starting out in video game animation?
What separates a good animator from a great one is truly understanding the physical aspect of anything you are animating. It’s not enough to assume—test things out for yourself. Go out and run 100 metres, observe the physical effects, and you’ll be ready to animate someone sprinting!
Video game animation comes with a lot of technical and gameplay constraints, so you’ll often be asked to modify movements you produce. To succeed, you must understand them extremely well. So, practice, practice, practice!
If you could shadow anyone at Reflector for a day, who would it be and why?
I would shadow Christophe Rossignol, Unknown 9: Awakening’s Creative Director. He has a global view of everything going on with the video game—he gets feedback from every department. And since a single decision can have a colossal impact on the game, it would be fascinating to see what goes into the calls he makes.
In two words, how would you define the culture at Reflector?
Challenge and originality! 
Want to work with Teppei and other folks with a passion for game development? Check out our current career opportunities and apply! Â
As transmedia storytellers, one of our primary goals is to create an immersive experience for our audience, but what is that, and how do we do it?
In the context of telling a given story, you could say immersion is about minimizing the gap between the part of your mind that entertains fantasy and the part that experiences reality. It’s about creating a storytelling space where the audience feels they’ve momentarily inhabited the story. Â
There are many ways to achieve this, like engaging multiple senses, creating photorealistic 3D environments, or inspiring a meaningful connection to your characters. Different media provide different opportunities for immersion.
Achieving immersion through fictional podcasts.
The Unknown 9 narrative universe promises stories of mystery and the paranormal. It’s all about what exists in the shadows, what’s just out of sight. Â
There's no more powerful tool for conjuring images of indescribable danger than your imagination. As storytellers in an audio-only medium, if we can use words and a soundscape effectively, the audience then mentally leans into the story, providing the visuals in their mind’s eye, effectively co-creating the immersion with us.
How transmedia extends immersive storytelling experiences.
That’s the end of the story for most scripted fictional podcasts. But Out of Sight is part of Unknown 9’s fictional transmedia universe,which presents us with even more opportunities to create immersion.
By offering interconnected stories in multiple formats, audiences can hang out in our universe more often. For instance, a true fan might play Unknown 9: Awakening during their free time in the evening and listen to the Unknown 9: Out of Sight podcast while exercising. They could even read the Genesis Trilogy on their commute to work! Â
Taken together, these stories immerse you in different complementary aspects of the narrative universe, giving it depth and a life of its own in your imagination. And then, just like that, you realize that you too Believe in the Unknown.
Reflector’s Unknown 9: Out of Sightpodcast
Written by Jessica Kincaid and released in March 2020, Reflector’s fictional podcast, Unknown 9: Out of Sight,is part of the larger Unknown 9 universe that brings this all-new entertainment franchise to life across multiple platforms, including comic books, novels, a video game, and more. Â
Season 1 of the scripted audio drama follows Blake Elrich (Jorge Cordova), an urban explorer with a haunted past, as he travels the country in an old RV with co-host and producer Lazari (Reyna de Courcy). At every stop along their journey, our duo encounters an inexplicable occurrence. What’s more, they’re beginning to suspect that someone is leading them to each strange case. Events intensify when an enigmatic figure emerges, terrorizing whole communities. Blake and Lazari must now race to undo the damage that's already been done and prevent a terrifying force from emerging.
All nine episodes of the Out of Sight podcast are available for listeners on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Youtube. Â
What the team behind Out of Sight has to say:
1. How different was it to work on a podcast compared to other media?
Each medium has its own set of challenges and rewards. When thinking of the podcast medium, the most different aspect is really how to embrace the audio format and make the narrative feel like it can only be told through a podcast. We believe the creatives developing the series have delivered on that experience to the point where an adapted version of Out of Sight wouldn’t be anywhere near the same.
2. What was the most exciting part about hearing the episodes coming to life?
Whenever you can give an actual voice to a character who has only existed in text, it’s exciting. Hearing Blake and Lazari come to life, how Jorge and Reyna really owned these characters, it’s really something special.
3. How did you cast the actors?
In addition to using conventional casting channels, our production partners tapped into their wide network of regular collaborators. The rapport that a lot of the performers came into the studio with is part of the magic that you hear as the podcast’s story unfolds.
4. Where does Out of Sight fall within the narrative universe’s overall story?
Without getting into too much detail (spoilers) Out of Sight is firmly rooted in the modern-day events of the Unknown 9 universe. There’s no specific order you need to consume the stories in, so whenever you stumble upon the adventures of Blake and Lazari is the right time to be listening to them. BUT it is important to listen to the series in order, starting at Episode 1.
5. What is the deal with Lazari?
You’ll have to listen to the podcast to find out. All questions will ultimately be answered. Or will they?
6. What can you say about what’s next for the investigative duo?
As storytellers, we don’t want to spoil anything. All we can say is that their RV has been spotted around town, which means they're likely to return to the airwaves with more tales of the impossible soon!
We are thrilled to unveil our new logo, which marks an important milestone in the evolution of our studio. It is with great pride that we present this new visual symbol that embodies our identity, our vision, our commitment to our core values, and our affiliation with the Bandai Namco group.
The process of creating this logo was filled with reflection, inspiration, and creativity. It's an evolution of the previous one and represents the incorporation of Reflector Entertainment as an integral part of the larger Bandai Namco family.
The original wheel (or Möbius strip) representing the gateway to our slogan, "Jump into our world," has now become a spiral ring.
The solid and full left part refers to the Reflectorians, a group of passionate individuals with different yet complementary areas of expertise. This part has been thickened compared to the old logo, reflecting the experience acquired over time.
The right part, on the other hand, relates to the transmedia expertise brought by our team of dedicated professionals, which is essential to ensure the successful development of an intellectual property (IP). The spirals are now in color, with a scheme similar to that of Bandai Namco.
"It was important to showcase the studio's evolution over the past years and reflect the significant milestones achieved since its inception," explained Pascal Hamelin, Art Director (and Reflectorian since the studio's launch) and the designer behind the new brand image. "This logo is closely tied to Bandai Namco, highlighting our collaborative work with the group and our shared values."
Indeed, the four vibrant colors of blue, green, yellow, and pink also represent the diversity that is of paramount importance to Bandai Namco and Reflector. By creating unique and entertaining products and services that connect people and communities, we are working to create a better future for all through entertainment.
This new logo reflects our evolution as a company, as well as our continued commitment to shaping the future of entertainment. It symbolizes our ability to innovate, adapt, and remain creative in a constantly changing world, while upholding the values that define us.
Following June's graduation gala, Reflector unveils a behind-the-scenes documentary diving into the creation of the environmentally-themed video game.
Today, Reflector Entertainment presents a behind-the-scenes look at the production of Lorekheim: Rise of a Fallen World, a video game created by eight students from ISART Digital Montreal's Class of 2022, as part of their graduation project.
For the third year in a row, Reflector teamed up with ISART Digital—the international graduate school specialising in video game design and development—as part of its annual mentorship program to support the students in delivering their end-of-year graduation projects. In previous years, Reflector staff have acted as a mentors for the games Blossom and Palaka—the latter developed to address the needs of neurodivergent people—an important cause for the students, the studio, and the teaching staff.
This year's goal was to provide a gaming experience that would raise awareness about the fight to save the environment and prove that video games can be both educational and entertaining. To accomplish this, many Reflectorians from various departments volunteered to assist the group in the production of their game.
“Reflector Entertainment is proud to support the creation of video games through its partnership with ISART Digital School: said Christopher Cimbaro, technical and artistic director at Reflector and mentor to the team. "We are committed to training the next generation of the video game and entertainment industry in developing as well as participating in important societal causes and issues."
A theme with societal value
Like last year, Reflector decided to challenge the students. The idea of touching on the environmental cause immediately resonated with them as well as the educational team.
"As part of its educational mission, ISART Digital defends ethical values, but also societal values, whether in the choice of themes imposed on certain group projects, or in the context of its daily teaching, said Azad Lusbaronian, director of ISART Digital. We believe that our students will be better professionals if they are enlightened on subjects of collective interest. In this sense, the partnership with Reflector helps fuel our students' thinking on topics that ultimately affect us all."
In Lorekheim: Rise of a Fallen World, the player takes on the role of a guardian of nature whose goal is to restore the vital balance of the world of Lorekheim by purifying a corrupted antagonist that is endangering it. As in our reality, the player must responsibly invest the resources he draws from nature or risk corrupting his environment.
"We're really proud of the work our team has done. It's a subject that we immediately liked, that affects us every day, and that we don't fully appreciate" said Joanna Bendaoud, who focused on the art direction aspects in the student group. "We are truly grateful for the guidance and support of Reflector Entertainment in making this important project possible."
Insights and support from local experts
Reflector enlisted the help of trusted specialists to better equip students with basic environmental knowledge, ensuring that every element included in the game was accurate and true.
“It is an important signal to see these young people, who are part of this industry, take an interest in environmental issues, explained Hugue Asselin. We were able to set up a customized training program, offering specific guidelines that could be useful in their professional life, which is about to begin.”
The AQPERE team was in charge of the follow-up during the production of the game to ensure that the information presented to the players was sound.
Lorekheim: Rise of a Fallen World is available on the itch platform.
For the third year in a row, Reflector Entertainment has partnered with ISART Digital—a private institute that trains students for careers in video games, teaching them 3D-FX animation, music, and sound design—as part of its annual mentorship program.
This type of program provides students with unique opportunities to expand their knowledge and skillets as they prepare to carve out future careers in the video game industry. It also connects them with professionals in the field before they graduate.
Looking back on two years of collaboration
In 2019, Montreal's ISART Digital and our studio teamed up for the first time to create an end-of-year graduation project called Blossom, which was imagined and developed by six students (one of which joined the Reflector team following graduation!). For our 2020 mentorship initiative with ISART Digital, we chose to focus on a more inclusive gaming experience, which saw a team of eight students embark on the development of Palaka, a video game adapted for a neurodivergent audience, specifically those with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD).
This year, Reflector’s mentors are once again supporting a team of ISART students in the development of Fallen Worlds. The team, composed of eight talented students, was given a theme: the environment, resource management, and the climate crisis we are currently facing.
This year's mentorship program focus: the environment
We believe that video games can help raise awareness about social and environmental issues. They are powerful educational tools that go beyond entertainment, which is why Reflector considers it important to educate the industry's next generation on societal issues in the hopes of creating leaders of change.
The goal of this project, in addition to supporting the next generation of game creators, is to reflect on our actions, to educate, and to encourage progressive thinking as we try to minimise the impact of climate change. As such, we drew on local experts to help support the students in their research and development.
What's more, a Montreal-based video production team was their to document the adventure in the most eco-friendly way possible, showcasing the entire game creation process.
Join us this Summer to discover more about the complete project!
