Tag Archives: junction point studios

Disney has confirmed its closure of Epic Mickey developer Junction Point studios.

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Disney Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two has been confirmed by the Associated Press and now a tweet from Geoff Keighley.

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Shots from a what appears to be a Disney survey, suggest the firm is determining whether or not there is sufficient interest in developing Epic Mickey 2.

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Don’t call it Epic Mickey, for God’s sake. Walt’ll come out of cryogenesis and freeze your ass.

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Epic Mickey is out next week on Wii, and for those who plan on picking it up will see a section of the game Warren Spector is surprised made it into the final version at all.

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Warren Spector believes that due to games being available for every preference on every medium, the industry is currently in a “Golden Age”.

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Warren Spector has said his studio, Junction Point, is interested in further exploring the story of Epic Mickey once the original game is released.

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Some new footage for Epic Mickey has appeared on the internet, showing some of the scenes you’ll be able to get your hands on when it’s released on Wii this autumn.

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Junction Point Studios has released three Epic Mickey videos from E3, showing the spunky mouse battling pirates and walking around on a steamboat.

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Warren Spector has said the maps in Epic Mickey were inspired by Zelda, Mario and Deus Ex.

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Oh Mickey’s concept art, you so fine. You so fine you blow our minds. Hey Mickey’s concept art! Hey Mickey’s concept art!

Your actual screenshots, on the other hand, not so much.

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Just how epic is Epic Mickey? Too epic for a mere one game, it seems, as cyberpunk-master-turned-steampunk-maestro Warren Spector already has a couple Epic Mickey sequel ideas bouncing around in his noggin.

“I don’t do anything that isn’t extensible,” Spector told 1UP. “And I will certainly feel like that I have not done my job if we can’t make other games in this world with these characters. In my head, I’ve got two more planned.”

However!

“In the business world of reality, those games have not approved, and who knows if we’ll ever see them. I had three games planned for Deus Ex, and you see where that got me.”

The man makes a good point. More through the link.

Don’t get us wrong. We’re thrilled that Mickey’s been taken back to the drawing board, but we’d still love another Spector-directed Deus Ex. And hey! So would Warren Spector!

“There were and still are ‘Deus Ex’ stories I would like to tell. That story is not done for me,” he told Variety’s Cut Scene blog. “[For the sci-fi game] I sort of filed the serial numbers off. ‘Deus Ex’ was very much a game of the millennium.”

Eidos, however, has plans of its own for the Deus Ex franchise. And though Spector attempted to scrounge together some cash and purchase the license, Eidos refused to sell.

There’s more through the link, including some tidbits on Junction Point Studios’ early days. Read it. Impress your friends with your knowledge of useless videogame trivia!

Warren Spector has said that he would personally like to see more than just a game for Epic Mickey, as the revamp of the mouse harbors loads of possibilities.

These possibilities include comics, films, and turning it into a franchise.

“I’ve had some discussions with people and really, really want to see some comics and cartoons and feature animation built around this,” Spector told Kotaku. “There have been discussions about all sorts of things talking about other possibilities around this project. I really hope it’s going to happen and I’m going to keep beating on that drum.

“I certainly have big plans. Have they been approved? No. But I have had a lot of discussions about what is going to happen next. In my mind it’s already a franchise [and] I really can’t abide the thought that it will be OK or mediocre. We are going after Mario and Zelda, Ratchet and Clank, we all aspire to that.

“I don’t always succeed, but we’re always shooting for the moon. I’m a man of many motos, and one of them is fail gloriously.”

Epic Mickey may not remain a Wii exclusive, Warren Spector’s told CVG.

HD versions are “a decision that other people in the Disney organisation are going to make,” the developer said in London yesterday.

Spector added, however, that he’s enjoying single-format work.

“Right now we’re a Wii game and I’m happy to be able to focus,” he said.

“It’s interesting – it’s kind of fun to be able to focus on gameplay and not have to worry about modern shader stuff.”

There’s more through there. It transpired last night that the game started life as a multi-format project. Hold onto the dream.

Epic Mickey was originally in development for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360, Warren Spector told Official Nintendo Magazine.

“The reality is that we started Wii development in 2008, but before that we were a PC, PS3, and 360 title,” said Spector. “It’s burned in my brain – Graham Hopper [Disney Interactive boss] pulled me into my office one day and said ‘What does it take to deliver on the goals we have for this product? And I said, well, you need enough time and enough money to be competitive. And it’d be awfully nice if we could focus on one platform.

“At that time we were talking about a Wii port and I was begging people – no, we can’t just port to the Wii, it’s not 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. Graham looked at me and said ‘What do you think about a Wii exclusive?’ And I went ‘Holy cow – yeah!’

“They walked away from three other platforms – no other publisher on the planet would have done that. It was a magic moment for me. No-one has even mentioned other formats since that point.”

Interesting. Hit the link for the rest, and since you are slapping links around head on over to CVG for some more new screens – just in case you didn’t get enough with ours.

During the London Event for Epic Mickey, Warren Spector took the stage to chat a bit about gameplay details along with the history of the antagonist, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.

After inadvertently destroying the magical land the sorcerer created, Mickey is pulled from home, kidnapped, and dropped off in the Cartoon Wasteland he created where he must figure out where he is and how to harness the abilities he has acquired.

There, he rediscovers Oswald along with other things and cartoons he knew back in the 30s and his main goal is to make the Wasteland better since he destroyed it, all the while trying to get back home.

The Wasteland is a place where Disney’s forgotten and rejected ideas go. It’s full of rides, people and places that want to be remembered. There’s the Gremlin Village based off an old ride at Disney World, along with 2D platformer segments inspired by classic cartoons like Clock Cleaners and the Lonesome Manor, which is reminiscent of the Haunted Mansion.

Gameplay has you wielding magical paint and thinner to re-shape the world, both of which give you creative or damaging effects, with the dynamic choices you make consequentially affect the environment, interactions with other characters, and Mickey’s appearance and abilities.

The game is being described as a “platformer meets RPG/adventure” with paint and thinner mechanics where everything is sketched and painted. As an example, if a bookshelf of flying books is blocking your way, you can just erase it – but you can’t use it as a platform or gain information unless you repaint it.

There’s loads more past the break.

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During the Epic Mickey event today in London, Warren Spector and Disney announced more details regarding the game, along with the announcement that Oswald the Lucky Rabbit will be the antagonist in the game.

Apparently, the sorcerer Yen Sid (from Fanatasia) “creates a beautiful, whimsically-twisted world where Disney’s forgotten and retired creations thrive” and Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, his children, and other retired Disney characters and creations live there.

When Mickey curiously stumbles upon Yen Sid’s map of the magical land, he inadvertently devastates Oswald’s world and his mistake pulls him into the Cartoon Wasteland to “face the destruction he unknowingly created” along with the resentment Oswald has been harboring for him since Mickey’s creation in 1929.

“Mickey is an adventurous and rambunctious mouse,” said Warren Spector, creative director and vice president of developers Junction Point. “I want to bring his personality to the forefront, place him in a daunting world and connect his spirited character with video game players worldwide.

“Ultimately, each player decides for him- or herself what makes Mickey cool.”

Screens from the game are posted past the break.

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Warren Spector’s explained the reasoning behind bringing Epic Mickey exclusively to Wii, saying the game’s simply the right fit for the console’s audience.

The below quote’s taken from a massive – and excellent – Game Informer interview:

GI: Why the Wii?

WS: Well, think about it. Would you really want to tackle convincing Halo or Grand Theft Auto players that they want to be Mickey Mouse? Would you really want to do that? In terms of finding a congenial audience, let’s go for a platform that’s known for Mario and Link and now Sonic. Come on. Honestly, with the unit sales on the hardware, it was kind of a lucky happenstance. We made the call to go to the Wii long before it was clear that the Wii was going to be, at least for now, the best-selling platform.

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. “Look at the normal maps and shaders.” We don’t have to do that kind of stuff. It’s the right platform for this project, for sure.

Definitely have a read of that piece, Saturday people. The game’s out next year.

Game Informer’s posted up heaps more artwork, shots and movies from Junction Point’s Epic Mickey. Take a look.

There’s five pages’ worth there, all to do with the game’s graphics, design and animation. “Epic” is definitely the word.

It’s out on Wii next year.