Behind the anonymous facades of the Quai Pierre-Scize (Lyon 9), creators incubate discreetly. At the house of Ocellus, bright floors overlook a small pond where koi carp swim. Mouse or joystick in hand, a rather young and mixed team designs the video games of tomorrow.
Ocellus Services is renowned worldwide for the artistic touch it has given to the biggest video game studios. But today, Cyril Corallo, its founder and director, finally realizes his dream: to launch his own creative studio, Ocellus Games.
A patient learning from Miami to Ljubljana
“We feel educated enough today to get started, without taking too many risks,” says the man who waited “ten years” to mature his project. “I’ve always wanted to make my own video games, but I’m not a businessman, I’m an artist, an engineer with a passion for creation,” he explains. An artist with a strategy in mind, launching Ocellus Services in the United States in 2011. For five years, Cyril Corallo learned everything on his own, with the best companies. Success came quickly in a sector “with colossal growth, of 23% per year”, he says.
Cyril Corallo could have been satisfied with his American success. But as a good gamer, he wanted to go to the next level. “One day, we were asked to work for one of the biggest brands of mobile games for children, which had 3 or 4 billion downloads at the time, in Slovenia. We had to do a visual overhaul of their brand, and create games. The move was fruitful. Then the Asterix license contacted them to work on its games. “So we went back to France, to Lyon. And there, Supercell, the biggest mobile game company in the world, is approaching us…” Ocellus now manages the artistic part of their live games, while developing with them a dozen brands that will be released in the coming years.
Ocellus Games is recruiting freelancers
In June 2022, on the strength of his experience and reputation, Cyril Corallo decided that the time had come to create Ocellus Games. With, here too, a specific strategy: “These will be small independent teams, where there will only be programmers and game designers, and perhaps an artist or two. A major recruitment campaign has been launched, “internationally but mainly in the Lyon region”, to complete a workforce that wants to remain on a human scale: Ocellus currently has 40 employees abroad and 40 in France.
Cyril Corallo is looking for confirmed profiles, and above all perfectly independent, “who take ownership of what they do. We try to build a unique creative ecosystem, with a lot of synergy between the two companies,” he explains. Because Ocellus’ ambition is to create “iconic games”. To know ? “Games that impact global culture, like Street Fighter or Candy Crush, on console and mobile. We want to reach as many people as possible, for people to recognize our touch and expect our games. With the same artistic quality as for its Fortnite or Square Enix customers, that goes without saying.
“Video games are one of the biggest industries in the world, it’s more than concrete and metallurgy combined, more than cinema, and it’s constantly growing,” says Cyril Corallo. He points to his phone: “Today, everyone has a console: 65% of the video game market is on mobile, that’s what’s growing the most. “Strengthened by its independence, its “very good” turnover with Service, the director assures that it is above all “Ocellus Games that will bring in money. A game that works, for us, is 30 million euros in revenue per year minimum. Otherwise, we don’t release it…”