The next talk that we had today was taken by Warren Spector, who is an absolutely fantastic man who has been in the games industry for a long time now. He is a game designer who is very heavily influence on cartoons of all types and also Disney, in which he got influenced from as a child all the way through his life. He has recently opened up his new academy of gaming as well in which he will help in lecturing and passing on his skills and wisdom and this has been called the Denius-Sams Gaming Academy. Along with the influence from cartoons themselves he also likes the fact how games are adapted from cartoons and he wants this to be influenced in his work.
Warren Spector grew up watching a lot of different Disney films and all of the cartoons that accompanied them. He was very influenced by Disney's dark side and was very inspired by the cartoon Looney Tunes. During his early career he started off by making table-top board games, one in particular based upon Bullwinkle and Rocky.
But the main game in which he is now the most proud of, even though the critics aren't, is Disney's Epic Mickey and Epic Mickey 2. During his career he has always wanted to create a game that included musical aspects, just as the Disney cartoons had done, and he got this chance in the second installment in Epic Mickey with a fantastic theatrical element in the middle to try and draw the hero in, which is probably a trap in the end.
It all Started With A Mouse
As said above, it all started with Mickey and even now 80 or so years on he has changed not only visually but his character has too, in a way in which he has taken over many different roles throughout each of the different films, cartoons and games. During the creation of Disney's Epic Mickey Spector wanted to make him a hero and they looked at many different concept art pictures in which were taken from older versions of his character, mainly influenced by the 1928 version of him.
A lot of problems in designing came from Mickey's ears, as they are designed to be seen in full from every angle that he is stood on whether it be from the side or not. When thinking about it, it really doesn't make sense but this is how we have always seen him so it looks correct, but this did become a problem in the design process and 3D ears just didn't look right.
The main elements of Mickey, going by Disney's standard character guide are:
- Loyal
- Smart
- Friendly
- Persistent
- Enthusiastic
- Mischievous
Game Mechanics
Working with what Mickey is made of, ink and colour, Warren Spector was able to use this in the general gameplay to use paint and thinner to be able to create and wipe away scenery in the world. A way in which they were able to create the movement of Mickey is by using old copies of the animations and then superimposing the models of the new Mickey over the top so that they can perfect the actions he would take and getting these visuals right:
- Balancing the visuals and gameplay
- Player controls
- Camera positions
Character evolution is used throughout any game in the industry and it is important to show this as players like to see how the character has developed over the years. Pretty much everything about Disney's Epic Mickey was taken from previous sources and its all about looking at the older versions to be able to improve the new one.
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