We had a quick chat to Adam Creighton, producer on Epic Mickey, and he had plenty to say about the state of third party development on the Wii, and expanded on why he thought Epic Mickey would do well – despite the well-documented struggle other high profile titles have gone through on the console.
“We’re honestly expecting it to do really well,” claims Adam. “Mickey has a really broad appeal and it’s a very solid game.”
Responding to scepticism regarding the team’s decision to release Epic Mickey on the Wii, Creighton was keen to reaffirm the fact that the team at Junction Point had made the correct choice.
“I think there’s a perception that third party games don’t sell on Wii,” began Adam, “but I think we’re going to do fairly well. It’s been very well received in all the previews we’ve seen, and we expect that to carry through from a retail perspective.”
But if that’s the case, why are other third party publishers are fleeing the Nintendo Wii at an alarming rate?
“I don’t know!” Laughs Adam. “To be honest, and I’m totally speculating here, there might be a ‘next gen is where it’s at’ vibe with publishers. Developers might not see the Wii as a suitable platform – but you’ve seen Epic Mickey and it’s looking absolutely gorgeous.
“We’ve had some dedicated time on the platform and we have some really smart people working on the game. I think we have something really special; not only to play but to look at.”
Epic Mickey is a gorgeous looking game, but is that a result of the distinct art style. Have Junction Point used a distinctive art style to overcome the tech deficits?
“In some ways, yes,” says Adam. “We chose an art style and we used the Wii to try and make that art style work. So it was less about limiting ourselves with the hardware and more about testing the limits of what the hardware could do to try and match our vision. There was a lot of back and forth to try and match the look and the feel of the gameplay with the art. We had these original ideas and they matured over time, but we think we’ve really got there with the final product.”
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