14 DAY TRIAL // Warren Spector from Junction Point Studios had an interview with Game Informer and it was all about Epic Mickey. The project is one of his children, so it represents quite a bit of his own ideals and wishes. The title is a result of all the game-design ideas he has had in the past few years, put together and tied with a big bow and ribbon. "The central game play mechanic of Disney Epic Mickey is paint and thinner," Spector said. “It's basically drawing and erasing; it's making the world whole, or making it go away."
"[If] you peek behind the walls you see that they're flats held up with 2x4s," Spector added. "And so I wanted to create – of all the games I was pitching since I left Ion Storm, were about creating a world that was more than a movie set, where you could scratch beneath the surface and there was more going on there. And so this whole paint and thinner mechanic really plays into that because you can dynamically change the world to suit your needs. So dynamically changing the environment to solve problems is kind of what it's about."
The decision to make the game a Wii-exclusive would seem like a punch in the gut, since the whole purpose behind any title designer's motivation is to share their "baby" with as many people as possible. Other platforms could have attracted even more gamers, but Spector did make an excellent point regarding his decision. "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." And you have to agree with him there, the two markets don't really overlap that much.
Also, according to him, sales weren't at any point part of the decision process. "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," he told Game Informer. It's nice to see that some people still see game molding as an art, and not just a lucrative business.