Rayman creator Michel Ancel leaving games industry to work on wildlife sanctuary

Renowned video game designer Michel Ancel is stepping away from the games industry after over three decades to work on a wildlife sanctuary. 

Ancel is best known for creating the Rayman franchise. He acted as the lead designer on the first two games in the series, and also directed later entries including Rayman Origins and Rayman Legends.

He spent the vast majority of his career at Ubisoft, overseeing the development of other notable titles including Beyond Good & Evil and Peter Jackson's King Kong.

Announcing his career pivot on Instagram, Ancel explained his two current projects -- Beyond Good and Evil 2 and Wild -- are in safe hands, and offered a bit more insight into what his next venture entails. 

"Today is very special for me. After more than 30 years, I’ve decided to stop working on video games and fully focus on my second passion: Wild Life," he wrote. "My new project takes place in the real world and consists [of] a wild life open sanctuary dedicated to education, nature lovers and wild animals.

"Many of you might want to know what will happen to Wild and Beyond Good & Evil 2. No worries, for many months now the teams have been autonomous and the projects are going super well. [There'll be] beautiful things to be seen soon."