Epic-Mickey posts (Subscribe to this feed)

When Mickey Mouse makes his triumphant return to the world stage in Disney Epic Mickey, he'll do so without his trademark squeaky voice. The mouse will still speak in the game, but all speech will be rendered as text bubbles. And it's not a technical limitation, but an artistic one.

"I made the creative decision that characters wouldn't talk in the Cartoon Wasteland," Warren Spector explained to The Cut Scene. "It was entirely a creative decision because [he begins speaking in a high-pitched Mickey voice] As soon as I start doing this, I've lost most of my potential audience. [resumes natural voice] If I'm trying to re-introduce this character to an audience, there are certain connotations with that voice that I'm going to have a hard time overcoming." When he does speak in a future game, he'll probably be an affable Everyman voiced by Nolan North (our guess).

Oswald, Spector said, won't need much consideration, due not only to his relative unfamiliarity to modern audiences, but also due to the properties of the character itself. "If you watch the existing cartoons," Spector said, "he's such a special character. In many ways, he's a funnier, more cartoon-y, more modern guy than Mickey is."

During a London event to showcase Disney Epic Mickey, developer Warren Spector revealed that his initial pitches to Disney were for two very different titles; hinting one -- in many ways -- may have been a spiritual successor to Deus Ex. The other title, according to The Cut Scene blog, was a "big fantasy" story the developer and his wife unsuccessfully pitched to DC Comics.

Prior to the announcement of a new game in the series, Spector said he had previously attempted to acquire the Deus Ex license from publisher Eidos, but was unsuccessful. Since then, Spector's Junction Point Studios has been acquired by Disney Interactive, revealed his latest title and hinted at more from the Epic universe.

While Spector says there are still stories in the Deus Ex universe he would like to tell, the upcoming prequel, Deus Ex 3 -- helmed by developer Eidos Montreal -- will be the first title in the franchise without the original creator's watchful eye. "That story is not done for me," Spector said. "Deus Ex was very much a game of the millennium." Sadly -- with another team on the project -- it appears Spector's dream of continuing the Deus Ex conspiracy personally have indeed come to an end, for the time being.

[Via GamePro]

In the ongoing media blitz that Disney Epic Mickey (yes, it's really still named that) has been receiving over the past few weeks, the game's creative head Warren Spector has been decidedly candid. First, he spoke about the difference between the game's concept art and in-game graphics, then he discussed its roots on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, and just this week, in a talk with 1UP, he confirmed his hope that the game would spawn two more adventures.

One hitch – those games have yet to be approved by his new overlords at Disney. "In my head, I've got two more planned ... those games have not approved and who knows if we'll ever see them," he said. "I had three games planned for Deus Ex and you see where that got me." As far as other titles that Spector's Junction Point Studios were working on before being acquired over two years ago, Spector confirmed that Disney has officially dropped the lot of them. Wait, even Ninja Gold?! Yes, even Ninja Gold.

If you're anything like us, you may have felt a bit ... underwhelmed by the recently released screenshots of Warren Spector-lead project Disney Epic Mickey, especially when compared to the magic-filled concept art leaked so many weeks ago. Speaking to 1UP in a recent interview, Spector says he works on creating concept art that will find the metaphorical "line" by "pushing past it." For him, it is a question of finding the boundaries for not just himself and his development team, but also Disney. "I know where my lines are, but I don't know where Disney's are."

He additionally teases, "Some of what you saw was beyond the line ... some of it was early design ideas that are no longer relevant ... some of it is stuff that's still in the game, and I'm not saying what." If the recent steady stream of information on Disney Epic Mickey continues, we'll likely see at least a few of those original concepts in their current form at a point in the not-too-distant future.

While the family-friendly Wii seems like the starting point for a Mickey Mouse relaunch, the decision to make Disney Epic Mickey a Wii exclusive wasn't automatic. In fact, it wasn't even the original plan. "The reality is that we started Wii development in 2008," Warren Spector told Official Nintendo Magazine, "but before that we were a PC, PS3, and 360 title."

When the issue of a Wii port was raised, Spector told Disney that it wasn't going to work. "It needs to be its own game. A lot of the design ideas just won't work on the Wii, we need to give the Wii its dues." In response, Disney Interactive's Graham Hopper suggested that the game simply be a Wii exclusive, thus solving the problem of a subpar Wii port and addressing Spector's desire to focus on a single platform. That single platform just happened to be none of the ones for which the game was initially planned!

Gallery: Disney Epic Mickey

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In a new feature titled "Anatomy of a Screenshot," Game Informer dissects in-game screens and details the situations found within. The first title to receive the treatment is the recently revealed -- but long rumored -- Epic Mickey, from Warren Spector and Disney. The screen above details the upcoming Wii-exclusive title's heads-up display (HUD), showcasing Mickey's "persona" status, special items and details on the world around the classic Disney hero.

Also, it points out Mickey's "iconic" ears ... you know, in case you missed them.

As promising as Epic Mickey is starting to sound, we're secretly pining for a different Disney-based offering helmed by Warren Spector -- something of the billed, winged and web-toed variety. We speak, of course, of DuckTales, which recently came up in a Game Informer interview with the ghostly developer. "I want to do a DuckTales game," Spector mentioned. "I can't convince anybody at Disney to let me do a DuckTales game. How can that be?"

We don't have an answer for your query, Mr. Spector. Perhaps we no longer live in a world where mallards can bounce through lunar canyons on walking sticks. Perhaps you can take us back to that beautiful time, someday. You know, when you're not busy fusing Mickey Mouse and Bob Ross.

[Thanks, Koshi.]

Game Informer's slow trickle of Epic Mickey deets has turned into a full-on firehose today, as the site has published a massive five-page feature on the game's environments, concept art and character animations. The feature not only talks about the developmental process for animators and designers at Junction Point Studios, but also delves into the game's world a bit, showing off screens of the cartoon objects and inert objects populating the land. The former are things the player can create and erase in the game, whereas the latter are permanent objects in the game world that the player cannot affect.

There's even some really odd stuff to look at -- like a robotic Donald Duck and a video of Mickey Mouse shadowboxing. Looks like we can cross one item off our list of Sentences We Never Would've Imagined Ever Having to Write.

The Game Informer preview of Junction Point's Epic Mickey is out, revealing not only the game's art style and Mickey's retro-inspired look, but details of the storyline and characters as well -- definitely worth picking up the mag to see, even if it means another trip into GameStop. One of the most interesting details isn't really in the game, but about the game.

The antagonist, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, almost wasn't included -- kinda hard to be epic without a bad guy, you know? "Disney didn't own the rights to Oswald," designer Warren Spector explained to Game Informer. The Epic Mickey project was apparently of such importance, though, that Disney CEO Bob Iger made a deal with NBC Universal and "traded Al Michaels, a human sportscaster, for the rights to a cartoon rabbit." For what evil purpose was Universal keeping Oswald locked away? We may never know.

At Game Informer's website, see the first look at Epic Mickey's environments, along with more of that wonderful concept art.

In this time-lapse video (after the break), a Junction Point character artist draws more of the incredible concept art that has made Epic Mickey not just a licensed Disney game, but something that gamers are freaking out about. The sketch depicts Mickey Mouse facing off against a gruesome, but still recognizably Disney-esque, Beetleworx monster (a name given to many mechanical creations in the game), which seems to bear the head of Hades from the Hercules movie.

This sketch may be the closest we've come to seeing Mickey's new design -- although it lacks the elongated limbs of the Mickey from the Game Informer cover. Is it just us, or does his face look a lot like Sonic the Hedgehog's?

Here's a great example of why it's tough serving two masters. Game Informer has totally re-engineered its web site, and one of its first big scoops was a teaser image and info on Epic Mickey, which was touted as a Wii exclusive.

When that last detail was removed from the website, however, it sent the internet into a tizzy of speculation, with some assuming the change put the exclusivity in question. Enter our good friend, the fact: Game Informer has today reconfirmed that Epic Mickey is only coming to Nintendo's box, a revelation that it was hoping to save for the magazine. If only the accursed internet hadn't noticed!

We're impressed with GI's new site and wish it all the best as it tries for a stronger web presence alongside its mag; however, we're equally interested in how the team deals with the growing pains from aligning the print and online offerings.

It appears that Epic Mickey might wind up on more platforms than initially suggested. 1UP is reporting that GI's original post on the November issue of the mag has removed all mentions of Wii exclusivity, a potential sign that the deal is not yet cast in stone -- or, at the least, that other consoles are being considered. And why not?

Frankly, we'd like to see it ported to every console in existence, not just because we're big Warren Spector fans, but ... okay, it's because we're big Warren Spector fans. Huge.

We can't seem to stop waffling on Epic Mickey. At the start, Warren Spector's involvement was enough to pique our interest. But we couldn't help but be a bit disappointed to see that Wii exclusivity might keep the game from being the graphical masterpiece we'd hoped for. But now, after reading a few details about the game scooped up by Eurogamer, we're right back on board.

The game reportedly revolves around forgotten Disney characters who, after years of being ignored, have grown bitter. None more so than Walt's first cartoon creation, Oswald the Rabbit. He's the one who spread all of the evil black goo around that you see above. Mickey will apparently have to use paint, thinner and erasers to draw his way through the world, which makes the Wii exclusivity a lot easier to understand.

Okay, so the black goo all over the world isn't the most original, but disgruntled Disney characters trying to wipe out Mickey? How cool does that sound?

(P.S. Captain EO as a villain. We demand it.)

Considering the amount of concept art and leaked details we've heard concerning Disney Interactive Studios and Junction Point's upcoming collaboration, this might not come as a shock to you, but the cover of the next issue of Game Informer confirms the existence of Epic Mickey. Details are slim, but we now know that it'll be a Wii-exclusive action title and, based on the paintbrush grasped by the iconic rodent on the cover, we suspect it will incorporate the illustrative elements mentioned by an anonymous informant back in July.

Hopefully more details will surface when Game Informer's interview with Warren Spector goes live later today. For now, revel in the fact that the title is real -- and based on the art seen on the magazine's cover (the full version of which is posted after the jump), it might just deserve its "epic" designation.