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Epic Mickey 2 - new trailer, screens, addition of inkwells and franchise's future

by rawmeatcowboy
13 November 2012
GN Version 4.0



GamesRadar: Does adding the inkwells make it harder or easier to come up with new puzzles because you have more to work with other than just paint and thinner?

Warren Spector: Generally speaking, when you're making a game designed to give players the power to decide for themselves how to interact with the game world, having a variety of tools, a variety of game systems like inkwells, is a good thing – both for players and for designers. But it's a bit of a mixed blessing for the level builders. I mean, if you offer players timed invisibility, say, you have to make sure that ability is supported in the levels. And it wouldn't be very useful to be able to make yourself invulnerable for a while if there were nothing to fight or nothing to damage you.

On the flip side, the more things your player can do, the more inspiration there is as you conceive a level. Overall, I guess there's a bit more complexity for the level builder--you have to make sure all the game systems are useful and, ideally, equally useful--but the effort is worth it. And, at worst, it's a mixed blessing. Oh, and by the way, we don't use the word "puzzle" at Junction Point – that implies a single-solution problem and we frown on that! Every game problem or challenge (our preferred terminology!) should be solvable in a variety of ways!

GR: Where would you like to see this franchise go?

WS: Everywhere! Just everywhere! I'd like to see us make more games where we explore what the heck the Cartoon World really is and what the heck the Real World means to cartoon characters. I mean, think about it-- the Wastelanders talk about Walt and about the love of an audience, but who IS this Walt guy? What do they know about him? What IS an audience and why does this "audience" have such a profound effect on them? It'd be fun to dive into that. I'd LOVE to see Oswald in his own games. I want to see Mickey and Oswald cartoons, a Disney Epic Mickey feature film, a DEM theme park attraction, Beetleworx toys, I have ideas about ALL of that. Maybe I'll get to work on some of that stuff, maybe not, but the sky's the limit in terms of the potential of the world and characters we've created at Junction Point.

Full interview and more screens here