So I had a couple of meetings with John Lasseter, and several of my animators and programmers and producers have gone out to Pixar to meet with them and learn about their methods. But it was more about helping us to figure out how we’re going to reach families, how to make a game for everyone the way they make movies for everyone. It wasn’t about what players can do in, say, mission three, it was about defining the lines you can and can’t cross, and how they do they create the magic that makes their movies appeal to everyone.
And there were some critical things that came out of those meetings. One major story element I changed as a result of conversations with John was that I had Oswald being a villain and Mickey redeeming him from villainy. John said, “Noooo, don’t make Oswald a villain.” And we talked for a while and came up with the idea of Oswald being a resentful older brother instead. That was a critical story development moment. There’s a world of difference between resentment and villainy. We’ve got moments of real humour and emotion because of this shift. I learned something there.
Was the game your idea, or did Disney come to you?
Disney came to me. It was one of the most flattering moments of my career.
I was out pitching a fantasy role-playing game, and one of the publishers I pitched was Disney. I knew they wouldn’t be interested in the kinds of things that I’d been doing in video games. Sure enough, I’m sitting around a table like this one, filled with senior vice presidents, and midway through my pitch they start looking at their Blackberries and typing. It turned out they were texting each other, asking whether they should talk to me about the Mickey game.
So they pitched me on the idea. I was trying to be cool, but I mean come on. I was in once they said Mickey. And once they said Oswald, well, that was it.
And think about what this says about video games in our culture. Mickey hasn’t appeared in a story in about 15 years. And now he makes his return in a video game? And Oswald hasn’t appeared in a new Disney story since 1928. Disney only reacquired the rights in 2006. And where do they reintroduce him to the world? In a video game. I don’t think that would have happened ten years ago. It would have been a movie or theme parks. It just says so much about video games. And about Disney, and how they embrace the challenge of new technology.
I’m just honoured they chose me. And once they brought up Oswald I told them there was no one who was going to make this game but me.
[He looks at the screen and sees that Shawn is playing another black-and-white side-scrolling level.]
This is interesting. You travel from land to land by jumping through screens. This is based on a 1928 Oswald cartoon. We let Mickey test himself against challenges Oswald faced. This is from Oh, What a Night, which is a fairly late Oswald cartoon. It’s been getting great response from people. They love that old-school platforming vibe.
The music is fantastic.
God, I’m glad you said that. When you think about video game music, what do you think about? You think about hard heavy metal or techno music. I sit watching movies with my wife—and Pixar movies in particular, with their Randy Newman songs—and they tug at your heartstrings. And I tell her that some day I want to do a game that’s worthy of a score like that. And this is it.
The guy doing the music is Jim Dooley—I love giving him props. Did you ever watch the show Pushing Daisies? He won an Emmy Award for best original score for that. If you had told me three years ago that I’d be working with an Emmy Award-winning composer on a video game score I’d have said you were nuts. The guy is incredible.
