Platform:
Switch
Publisher:
Disney Interactive Studios
Developer:
DLALA Studios
Release:
Dlala Studios recently shared an extensive hands-off presentation of its upcoming game, Disney Illusion Island, where we got a chance to see some of the game's early cutscenes and a substantial gameplay demo. Seeing the game in action answered a number of questions and presented a handful of intriguing new ones. For one, the game can be played alone, and though their animations differ, Mickey, Minnie, Donald, and Goofy all play the same. It's not a Super Mario Bros. 2 situation where they all run at different speeds and jump different heights. No matter who your favorite character is (Donald being an early contender in the cutscenes we saw), you will have the same experience.
The biggest surprises we saw, however, were blink-and-you-miss-it during the presentation. We watched Minnie progress through an area riding on air flows while making her way north, but she did not engage in combat with any of the enemies. And in one quick instance, which Dlala did not linger on, they paused the game briefly to reveal a gigantic, detailed Metroid-esque map. To find out more about these details, and others, we spoke with Dlala Studios' CEO & creative director AJ Grand-Scrutton. You can check out the interview below.
The biggest surprise for me was seeing that map. Is Illusion Island a Metroidvania? How do you feel about that term?
It's a great question. That term, it really depends on the room, you know? I think it'd be silly to shy away from the reality that, structurally, we're super influenced by Metroidvania. It's a big seamless weld, there are gates that are locked off by abilities, and you unlock those abilities to get through there and open up new content. So, we love a lot of Metroidvanias, and they had a big influence. But I think a big difference is Metroidvania is quite combat focused, whereas our main focus here is platforming.
So while Metroidvania influenced our structure, it’s much more influenced by a lot of traditional platforming. So as strange as it sounds, what we've really created is like this big open-world platform experience, where it's all about the joy of movement and mastering those mechanics. I think that whilst some classic Metroidvania is an influence on us, I think we took a lot from the classic '90s, Mickey games, and modern stuff like Rayman Legends, as well. I think it's kind of just as much platform influence as the Metroidvania side of things.
When there are enemies in the world you just have to get away from them rather than fight them. Is there no combat in the game?
That's exactly it. From the start, the joy of movement was important to us. And at the same time – and this is a super fluffy, creative-director kind of answer for you – but Mickey and friends didn't necessarily scream combat to me. We've got this brand-new world and these new characters, and what didn't sit right was this isn't like a big evil world. This is a world that exists about Mickey and friends. I didn't really want the characters to come in and just start jumping on people's heads when all those people are doing is hanging out in their houses, basically. It didn't really fit the vibe of the story; it didn't really fit the vibe of the characters for us.
And as soon as we started getting in the abilities, that's what the game was to us. The platforming magic – those abilities – that's where we were having fun. Even in our thought processes where we sat in a room, and combat almost, whenever it was in a conversation, it was almost like this side thing of us being keen, “Ah, we probably have to put combat in the game.” And I think at some point, we're just like, “Why do we have to?” Who's sitting there saying, like, “We have to do this.” And I'll say that Disney supports us doing that [laughs]. We just looked at it, and we realized, you know, if the game doesn't need it – and it doesn't – the game isn't sitting there going, “I’m missing something,” then let's trust our guts and build this experience around the movement.
Is Illusion Island considered a Castle Of Illusion sequel? Or is the word Illusion just associated with Mickey video games?
It’s kind of an homage, I think, is the best way to put it. We always kind of viewed this as our spiritual successor in our minds. We made this game because we love those games. It's not technically a sequel to any of those titles, but you can see a lot of that imprint in the game. In multiplayer, players can drop a rope to each other, which was very inspired by those World of Illusion moments when Mickey and Donald work together. We've got a kind of seesaw-style mechanics in some areas. But more than anything, to be honest – not just this game – but I think a lot of us, especially Grant [Allen, lead designer] and myself… we probably wouldn't be making games if we hadn't played Castle of Illusion, World of Illusion, Magical Quest. I actually had my childhood copy of Castle of Illusion and Quackshot at my desk at work. We're not a mechanical sequel, but this game only exists because those games came before.
Dlala is making all the cutscenes. You are creating new Mickey Mouse animation. How do you feel about that?
Even hearing you say it, it sounds like you're wrong. I'm sitting here ready to correct you, but you're 100 percent telling the truth. It's been amazing. We have the authentic voice actors. I got to watch them read our script. There aren't really words for it, right? Like, it's one of those things where I don't think we ever dreamed because you don't sit there as a kid and go, “One day, I'm gonna get to make a Mickey Mouse game! And basically do an entire season of shorts for it!” Because it just doesn't seem believable. We basically got to do 30 to 35 minutes of fully animated cutscenes, which is the same length as the first season of The Wonderful World of Mickey Mouse. And we got to wrap it in this brand new world with all these new characters we've created, and they're all playing with Mickey, Minnie, Donald, and Goofy, and it's absolutely surreal. Even at this point, it genuinely feels like I'm lying to people when I say it.
What is the relationship to the new Mickey animated shorts? Were those the baseline for approaching modern Mickey and friends?
We are completely unrelated, besides the fact that we're all Mickey Mouse. I think, in terms of style and tone, we're both very inspired by the same stuff. I think the new shorts are very inspired by the early stages of Mickey when he was quite cheeky. Mickey is very much this beacon of hope and joy, but he's also this wonderful slapstick character. We see that a lot more in some of the early stuff, like Lonesome Ghosts and Steamboat Willie, and I think the shorts are influenced by those same moments. Obviously, our designs – we both obviously loved the white base version of the character and that classic kind of Mickey look.
We love those new shorts, and there are elements to our game, without us giving spoilers, that give nods to all of Mickey's heritage, and it includes those modern shorts, as well, as we see them as kind of a key part of the timeline of what has come before. But there is actually no direct connection between us. Those Mickey shorts are made by people of our age who grew up loving Mickey Mouse, and this is a game from a bunch of people who grew up loving Mickey Mouse, and I think you're kind of seeing that all come to fruition together at the same time.
How did this game come about? Was Disney in search of a platformer? Did you pitch to Disney?
I keep saying it's been collaborative since before day zero. We obviously had an existing relationship with Disney years ago, but we were making Battletoads.