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[SirPenguin]

Just got the chance to read the interview. Great stuff all around, the guy is insanely happy about this game. It also sort of reveals the game has been in "proper" development for over 2 years. The enthusiasm he has for this game is inspiring!

I'm still having a hard time understanding the direction of the game, though. They ask him outright what the tone of the game is and he answers it'll be "dark and twisted", going on to say he wants to take familiar concepts and characters and music and twist it so it shocks people. In the next breath he says, "I bet a lot of fans are really gonna be upset with me about this, but I really want to do something lighter", saying how he doesn't want something "dark and heavy" and wants people to play the game with a smile on their faces. Then to top it all off he says he wants to scare kids.

I guess all that contradictory stuff could lead to an interesting design, but I worry that trying to do too much will make it seem silly or contrived. Imagine the surprise people had when seeing the screenshots after the artwork...only imagine that and the converse happening throughout the entire game

 

[beelzebozo]

I'm still having a hard time understanding the direction of the game, though. They ask him outright what the tone of the game is and he answers it'll be "dark and twisted", going on to say he wants to take familiar concepts and characters and music and twist it so it shocks people. In the next breath he says, "I bet a lot of fans are really gonna be upset with me about this, but I really want to do something lighter", saying how he doesn't want something "dark and heavy" and wants people to play the game with a smile on their faces. Then to top it all off he says he wants to scare kids.

it's a tough balancing act, but i'd argue that something in the film world like NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS pulls off that hat trick nicely. it's dark and twisted, a different take on familiar themes and settings, but it's also light, puts a grin on my face quite often, but has the ability to scare the hell out of young'uns i think.

 

[KefkaTaran]

Just got the chance to read the interview. Great stuff all around, the guy is insanely happy about this game. It also sort of reveals the game has been in "proper" development for over 2 years. The enthusiasm he has for this game is inspiring!

I'm still having a hard time understanding the direction of the game, though. They ask him outright what the tone of the game is and he answers it'll be "dark and twisted", going on to say he wants to take familiar concepts and characters and music and twist it so it shocks people. In the next breath he says, "I bet a lot of fans are really gonna be upset with me about this, but I really want to do something lighter", saying how he doesn't want something "dark and heavy" and wants people to play the game with a smile on their faces. Then to top it all off he says he wants to scare kids.

I guess all that contradictory stuff could lead to an interesting design, but I worry that trying to do too much will make it seem silly or contrived. Imagine the surprise people had when seeing the screenshots after the artwork...only imagine that and the converse happening throughout the entire game

My best guess/hope is that he means it'll be more dark/twisted than you'd expect from Mickey Mouse but also, in the end, a lighter, happier game than you'd expect from Warren Spector. Something everyone in the family can enjoy but that will hopefully freak you out or make you think a bit more than what you might expect from a Disney cartoon.

 

[Linkified]

I'm still having a hard time understanding the direction of the game, though. They ask him outright what the tone of the game is and he answers it'll be "dark and twisted", going on to say he wants to take familiar concepts and characters and music and twist it so it shocks people. In the next breath he says, "I bet a lot of fans are really gonna be upset with me about this, but I really want to do something lighter", saying how he doesn't want something "dark and heavy" and wants people to play the game with a smile on their faces. Then to top it all off he says he wants to scare kids.

The way I viewed it as was like Doctor Who its entertaining for adults but not scary, however epsiodes like Blink have shown it certainly scares kids. :lol

 

[EatChildren]

I'm still having a hard time understanding the direction of the game, though. They ask him outright what the tone of the game is and he answers it'll be "dark and twisted", going on to say he wants to take familiar concepts and characters and music and twist it so it shocks people. In the next breath he says, "I bet a lot of fans are really gonna be upset with me about this, but I really want to do something lighter", saying how he doesn't want something "dark and heavy" and wants people to play the game with a smile on their faces. Then to top it all off he says he wants to scare kids.

I think with this statement he's really just referring to the titles he's known for, which for most part feature pretty dark, sinister, and adult themes.

He wants to make Epic Mickey dark and twisted, and he wants to scare kids like old school Disney, but he also knows it's not going to be some mind fuck M rated blood bath of prostitutes and murder.

For follows of Spector this will be new ground, and for some no doubt disappointing as they want something more in line with his other stuff. But at the same time, he's still going to do what he does best, just within reason of the Disney franchise.

I doesn’t need to be one extreme or the other. I feel that some people (not you) had this same problem with the whole steampunk horror artwork and how the screens didn’t match it. It’s like they expected some very drab, dark, and sinister M rated game. It was never going to happen, and it is possible to find a very nice balance in the middle.

As has been said, something like Nightmare Before Christmas is a good example of what he’s probably going for. Enough twisted creepiness to unnerve, but presented in a light hearted way.

 

[TreIII]

Seeing Spector's passion for Scrooge and Donald made me utterly smile. Those really were some great comics.

After he gets done with a "Ducktales" game (because I definitely see that as next on the list)...I wonder if he and Tad Stones should get together for Darkwing Duck. The terror that flaps in the night, in an open world/sand-box St. Carnard, and delightfully twisted by Spector and crew?

I like the sound of that already...

 

[Panajev2001a]

I... I actually tend to agree, but Don Rosa "just" compiled everything Barks wrote (and drew) and tried to make it work in a consistent universe, with every (unnecessary) detail explained. The latter would be nothing without the former, and it works as a whole.

I think that "just compiling" is very reductive of Rosa's work. Rosa added a lot.

 

[SirPenguin]

"Coming Soon-- Check back later this evening for the update! "

Assuming evening for them is around 5:00 - 7:00, we can expect the next update in about 4 or 5 hours

 

[JCreasy]

Sometimes.... some crimes... go slipping through the cracks

thank you thank you THANK YOU

haven't seen that in like, 20 years

YOU WIN!!!!

 

[RocketDarkness]

Sometimes.... some crimes... go slipping through the cracks

I don't remember what I used to think they said in the lyrics, but I just realized it was saying "these two gumshoes". :lol

 

[JCreasy]

Tailspin - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ReyS9i9BJg&feature=related

Darkwing Duck - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2UFFzPsSsg&NR=1

 

[RadarScope1]

Damn, those are all some really catchy songs. Actual pop songcraft went into making those!

 

[kodt]

Well I hope this game is good because after seeing the screens in the Game Informer I was extremely unimpressed. The teaser art looked so... well... epic, the screens looked pretty bad IMO.

 

[Regulus Tera]

Darkwing Duck - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2UFFzPsSsg&NR=1

No actual articulatable reason for this aside from it's related and I happened across it just now.

 

[JCreasy]

^^ Daaammn where is that from ^^

 

[Stormwatch]

Wow, that is really weird looking. I wonder what the characters from Ducktales would look like as humans...

 

[Choppasmith]

Yeah kinda makes me wish for a new DWD series. As blasphemous as it sounds, those designs would look great in motion. Though Darkwing with Duck just wouldn't work.

Ducktales and Gummi Bears - the golden age of Disney on television, pretty bad that they've got crap like Hannah Montana or Kim Possible nowadays.

Hey! HEY! >:<
Kim Possible deserves better than to be mentioned in the same sentence as Hannah Montana. KP is the one cartoon from the early 2000s that I think hearkens back to the classic Disney cartoons from the 90s. I know it's easy to do with the Female lead and Teenybopper intro, but the actual writing, animation, and characters is pure gold.

 

[ROFL]

Did you guys see Warren's blog update?

http://junctionpoint.wordpress.com/

 

[Walk-Out Basements]

off topic - yeah all those disney shows - ducktales, darkwing, chipndale, talespin are some of the best cartoon shows ever made - and sometimes they all played back to back - everyday after school - i ended up starting my homework around 4pm and then one of them would come on and i would end up doing my homework after 6 pm.

BUT you are all forgetting another Disney show -

back on topic - i recently got my oswald dvd - DID YOU KNOW that after walt left universal some of the animators who worked with on oswald ended up working at Warner Bros, doing the crazier-than-disney looney tunes...that explains oswald removing his rabbit foot and bad attitude.

I would like to take this opportunity to personally thank Mr. Spector on making both Mickey and Oswald relevant again (especially Oswald, since the Disney company has had a hard time trying to re-introduce him back into the limelight in a clever way). I am sure Walt would be proud. (posted on Warren Spector blog)

 

[Datschge]

I think that "just compiling" is very reductive of Rosa's work. Rosa added a lot.

But Don Rosa never added anything for the sake of adding something, instead he took every tiniest hint of some adventure or memory by McScrooge in a Barks work to build a fully fleshed out new story upon. So he's expanding on what's there without breaking anything and making similar references to National Geographic stories as Barks did. He kept the universe consistent, and I didn't mean that in a reductive way at all. (Otherwise I probably would not have any issue with DuckTales which treats Barks' universe as loosely as virtually any other Ducks author besides Don Rosa does.)

I admire Rosa’s work a lot, but reading it is a little too much work for me to flat-out love it.

>=(

 

[Linkified]

I would like to take this opportunity to personally thank Mr. Spector on making both Mickey and Oswald relevant again (especially Oswald, since the Disney company has had a hard time trying to re-introduce him back into the limelight in a clever way). I am sure Walt would be proud. (posted on Warren Spector blog)

:lol

The Disney Company just re-acquired Oswald February 2006. The character was in WDW and Disneyland on the day they got him back - they are selling black and white plushies of him as well as the usual merchandise. Plus they weren't looking for a clever way to reintroduce him. Igewr needed to get him back to get the remaining Disney heirs his blessing for the future plans he has/had for the Disney company.

 

[The Hermit]

From Warren's blog:

# Chernabog: Scary, scary, scary!
# Maleficent: Scarier, scarier, scarier!

Yay!
I expect/hope great scenes with them!

 

[Walk-Out Basements]

:lol

The Disney Company just re-acquired Oswald February 2006. The character was in WDW and Disneyland on the day they got him back - they are selling black and white plushies of him as well as the usual merchandise. Plus they weren't looking for a clever way to reintroduce him. Igewr needed to get him back to get the remaining Disney heirs his blessing for the future plans he has/had for the Disney company.

yea i know. but kudos anyway to Mr. Spector for doing it in way thats not just blatant capitalism. For me, Mickey is back on his game, I love the vintage look and more than that his old attitude that laypeople are unaware of. I saw the oswald dvd in the disney store back in 2007 for 20 bucks but i was like who in the sam hill is that, then only last week did i have to order it online for a premium, shipping was like 20 bucks alone. i mean sure japan had oswald fever before us (2004-2005) but thats only cause they live in the future.

 

[SirPenguin]

Pretty sure this is tonight's posting. It's not on their Mickey page yet, but it's on the front page.

http://gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2009/10/26/Anatomy-of-a-Screenshot_3A00_-Epic-Mickey.aspx

Edit: It's an "anatomy of a screenshot". Namely, 4 of them

Second edit: Make sure you click the actual screenshots to get a HOLY SHIT HIGH RES edition of them. I guess we're about to see if the game looks better than it did in a small and grainy magazine scan

 

[Fimbulvetr]

Nice, the Spatters make me think of Psychonauts for some reason.

 

[GWX]

Those HD images are taking forever to load.

:/

 

[Danthrax]

I guess we're about to see if the game looks better than it did in a small and grainy magazine scan

bad news

Spoiler

they still have a year until release — hope remains!

[edit] That 2D platforming segment looks awesome. unf unf!

 

[comedy bomb]

Looks nice. Can't wait to see it in motion.

 

[markatisu]

I love The Bunny Kids

Graphics look fine, with a year to go and clean things up I think this will be great in motion

 

[beelzebozo]

the 3d sections that give way to focused 2d sections is very much MARIO GALAXY, which is a good thing indeed

 

[jett]

holy crap that looks ROUGH. Rough enough to think wtf are they thinking releasing those screens.

 

[Femmeworth]

holy crap that looks ROUGH. Rough enough to think wtf are they thinking releasing those screens.

Yeah. Hopefully they are really old and not representative of the final product, but I'm not holding my breath. >_>

 

[SpacePirate Ridley]

Well, there are a lots of textures that really seem placeholders.

 

[Black-Wind]

Yeah. Hopefully they are really old and not representative of the final project, but I'm not holding my breath. >_>

They look fine to me for a game with like a year before it's release . . .

 

[DeathbyVolcano]

I'm not going to lie, they don't even really look like real screenshots. Mickey looks photoshopped into most of them. They all look very placeholder to me, like the environments were created real quick to show the press and that's about it. I still think this game is way far off, even more than a year to be honest.

 

[The S-Word]

Yea i agree with Jett. Um i was wondering if someone was going to address how bad this game looks so far... it doesn't look appealing at all graphically i dunno

 

[Thunder Monkey]

Well poo poo on you guys too.

I think it looks awesome. It might be the Disney blinders I have on, but aside from some "iffy" textures I'm loving the look so far.

 

[SirPenguin]

Man, it breaks my heart to see some of these textures. Like, look at those flowers on the ground!

And yeah, I know it's early and they have plenty of time to fix it. But if they weren't happy with what they have then I honestly don't think they'd be showing it off like they have been. Those are some rough, rough screenshots. And if these aren't going to be indicative of the final product then I definitely wouldn't allow a magazine to heavily analyze and scrutinize them like this.

This, coupled with the comments from Spector (It was about going where the audience is and going somewhere where they’re going to accept a visual style that is more cartoony than people are used to seeing and where we don’t feel obliged to throw in every shader on the planet), definitely doesn't bode well

 

[KTallguy]

I like the style they are going for, and it's a good idea to basically ape everything that Mario Galaxy has.

That being said, I hope they can push the art a bit more. The game looks a bit bland. Kingdom Hearts has much more magic.

 

[FoneBone]

holy crap that looks ROUGH. Rough enough to think wtf are they thinking releasing those screens.

I know. I'm not assuming it'll look like this a year from now, but the screenshots are so underwhelming compared to everything else that's being released about the game... I really think this needed more time in the oven before the unveiling.

 

[GDGF]

Needs a dose of that rim lighting that helped make Mario Galaxy look so good.

 

[Dragona Akehi]

holy crap that looks ROUGH. Rough enough to think wtf are they thinking releasing those screens.

I agree there. There's a disconcerting disconnect from the little animation clips (which were fantastically done) and these screens. While I'm hoping that the animation movie is more representative of the game, they were tests... so I'm not so positive on that.

 

[SirPenguin]

Just look at those flowers. I can't even get over them.

I loved the animations and the art style grew on me. But those textures...man.

I'm thinking the 28th we'll be seeing a trailer. I can only hope that shows some cool things

 

[SuperJay]

Looks like it's made by Red Fly Studios. ...unfortunately, I'm not a fan of their style (neon? ugh). Here's hoping it cleans up and looks a bit different in a year.

 

[Hiltz]

Now that we know a bit more about what Epic Mickey is about and what it looks like I can't help but have mixed feelings about the whole thing. Perhaps it is because there's still much that has not been revealed and/or maybe it's due to the seemingly early build of the game and the fact that the concept art didn't exactly match our expectations of what most of us imagined Epic Mickey to look like.

Like I have said before, I am still interested in the game and its concept and given Spector's track record, I have faith in his abilities but I can't say the same abut the developer given that it has yet to prove itself. Make no mistake, Epic Mickey has potential to be a good game but I'm still waiting to be convinced that it is going to be as good as Spector says it will be.

The game's graphics and art style have been underwhelming in my opinion. While it is good to hear about the interesting behind the scenes of the project and hearing about Spector's love for Disney as well as his desire to make Epic Mickey a great game. The thing is, I just can't shake the feeling that the hype surrounding Epic Mickey has made it out to be the next best thing since sliced bread and quite frankly, I don't buy it,at least not yet anyway. It seems to have been a bit too glorified and I don't think Epic Mickey is in a position to deserve all this attention, at least not yet anyway. Of course, that can all change IF by perhaps, Oct. 28th, Epic Mickey will offer something to really give us a reason to care and say "Damn, Mickey is back and I want this game badly."

For now, I'm just going to step back and watch things unfold instead of making the assumption that this game is going to be good just because Spector says it is along with the fact that this is Mickey's big, ambitious return to video games.

 

[Azure J]

Needs a dose of that rim lighting that helped make Mario Galaxy look so good.

So true. I believe everything is going to get better with time, but seriously, a game like this would really benefit from that lighting technique.

 

[Jasoco]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3q2WTDsKnk&NR=1

Love Goofy Movie. Wish it got more love from Disney.

 

[RocketDarkness]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3q2WTDsKnk&NR=1

Love Goofy Movie. Wish it got more love from Disney.

I am down with that.

Apparently those Powerline songs (the singer in the movie) actually have full versions on the soundtrack CD. Sweetness.

 

[WordAssassin]

I am down with that.

Apparently those Powerline songs (the singer in the movie) actually have full versions on the soundtrack CD. Sweetness.

They do and they are fucking amazing songs. I tracked down the artist they got to write and sing them, and the two songs he did for Goofy Movie are EASILY his best work.

 

[mclem]

I wonder if he and Tad Stones should get together for Darkwing Duck. The terror that flaps in the night, in an open world/sand-box St. Carnard, and delightfully twisted by Spector and crew?

I like the sound of that already...

Crackduck?