Disney Illusion Island Preview – Disney Illusion Island Has No Combat And A Metroid Map

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. The game was demonstrated in action, which answered many questions as well as presenting some new ideas. One, you can play it alone. Even though the animations of the characters are different, Mickey, Donald and Goofy still have the same gameplay. They don’t run at different speeds, or jump at different heights. This isn’t Super Mario Bros. 2. You will experience the same thing regardless of who you are (Donald was an early contender in the cutscenes).

The biggest surprises we saw, however, were blink-and-you-miss-it during the presentation. While Minnie was riding in airflows as she made her way northward, we saw her progressing through the area. However, they did not see any enemies. Dlala did not stay on the scene for long and instead paused the game, revealing a massive, Metroid-like map. To find out more about these details, and others, we spoke with Dlala Studios’ CEO & creative director AJ Grand-Scrutton. Check out this interview.

That map was my biggest surprise. Is Illusion Island Metroidvania, or is it? You feel about the term?
It’s a great question. The answer to that question depends entirely on the space. Metroidvania is a structural influence on us, and it would be foolish not to acknowledge this. You can unlock the abilities and get to new content by making it a seamless join. We love many Metroidvanias and their influence is huge. 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. While we have some Metroidvania influence, there are also a few things that I believe were influenced by the Mickey games of the ’90s and other modern titles like Rayman Legends. This is almost the same platform influence that Metroidvania has.

You can’t fight enemies in this world, you have to run from them. What about combat?
It’s that simple. We have always valued the joy and freedom of movement. 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. It’s a brand new world with these characters. But, it didn’t feel right that this wasn’t a large evil world. This world is about Mickey and her friends. When all these people do is hang out at their houses basically, I did not want characters jumping on top of each other’s heads. The story didn’t fit it and the character’s vibe didn’t fit.

We were able to unlock the ability once we got started. 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 to be a Castle Of Illusion 2 sequel? Is the Illusion word only associated with Mickey’s video games?
It’s kind of an homage, I think, is the best way to put it. In our hearts, we always viewed it as our spiritual successor. This game was made because we loved those games. Although it’s not a sequel, you will see some of the same imprints in this game. Players can throw a rope at each other in multiplayer. This is reminiscent of the World of Illusion moment when Mickey and Donald were working together. There are some seesaw-type mechanics. 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 still had Quackshot and Castle of Illusion from my youth at my work desk. Although we are not a mechanical sequel, this game exists only because of the games that came before it.

Dlala creates all of the cutscenes. This is your first Mickey Mouse animation. What do you think?
You sound like you know what you are doing, even though you have to say it. I’m sitting here ready to correct you, but you’re 100 percent telling the truth. It has been extraordinary. The voice actors are authentic. It was amazing to see them reading our script. It doesn’t have any words, is it? 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. It was 30 to 35 minutes worth of animated cutscenes. This is roughly the same amount as the original season. 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.

Is there a connection to the animation shorts about Mickey? Did those serve as a guideline for how to approach modern Mickey and the rest of his family?
Apart from the fact that all of us are Mickey Mouse, we have no other commonality. In terms of tone and style, I believe we are both inspired by the same things. These new shorts have a lot of inspiration from Mickey’s earlier years. He was still quite cheeky. Mickey is an icon of hope and joy. But he’s also great at slapstick. You can see this a lot more when we look at some early material, such as Lonesome Ghosts Steamboat WillieI feel that the shorts were influenced by these 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. There is no connection between them. You don’t see any connection between us. Those Mickey Mouse shorts were made by kids our age, who loved Mickey Mouse growing up. This game is made from people who love Mickey Mouse and all of them are kind of watching it come together.

Is this how the game came about? Is Disney looking for a platformer game? Do you have a pitch for Disney?
It’s always been collaborative from the beginning. We obviously had an existing relationship with Disney years ago, but we were making Battletoads.

Which relationship was it?
We had previously looked at a title together, but it didn’t come to be. Then, we decided to move on to something new and started Battletoads. About a year later, Battletoads was released. We decided that we would reach out to Disney and ask if we could have a discussion. And that ended up being this really lovely two- or three-hour call where we were talking about where is Dlala is as a studio, what we’ve been doing, and Disney was talking to us about what they’ve been doing.

There wasn’t like a firm agenda, but they kind of just ended that call with us all kind of going, “Hey, should we think about maybe doing like a Mickey thing together?” It wasn’t like we said bye, and I went off and just focused on a pitch. The pitch was a collaborative effort that lasted for a while. I was thinking about this the other day… I don’t even really remember a formal greenlight or anything to that effect. It was just kind of like, “Cool, we could do this, and we could do that.” And then the next thing I know, I am on a call with you talking about the game that is about to be released.

They will hopefully know by now, right?
Yes, it has been approved, right? This just happened naturally. And for us, we love those old Illusion games, so we knew we wanted you to do something with platforming, but we want you to try something for four players that’s bigger. I don’t think we’ve ever really thought about it until those conversations where we were like, “What if we just did a big thing with a seamless world? What about if the loading screen you get when you press start is the only loading screen you see unless you opt into one?” It just became this wonderful project than it should have been.

It sounds almost like marketing spin, but it isn’t. We have had the privilege of working together and have been able to access things we didn’t expect. It was a pleasure to collaborate with Disney writers, who either wrote the TV scripts or assisted us in finding the voice actors for our characters. We’ve just had this relationship where we chatted every day because we liked each other. In these publishing situations you may be forced to attend meetings you do not want. Whereas with this, we requested meetings we didn’t have to do just so we could be like, “We drew some cool pictures. Have a look!” This was a long-winded answer to a very simple question you asked, but it kind of just came about through serendipity. It was just the right moment for us. The right time was right for Disney and we were equally excited about creating a Mickey Mouse-themed game with our partner.

What is Disney’s approach to new characters? This is how it works. What is the best way to create Uncle Steve (a canonical Mickey Universe character who appears in Illusion Islands)?
I won’t lie to you – I like to stay away from the word ‘canonical’ at all costs. It’s scary to use that word when working with Mickey. To be honest, I’d love to tell you it’s a really horrible and painful and torturous process, but I think, because we speak so often, Disney has been fully aware of what we’re trying to do with the story, and we show them character designs, even when they’re just these scratchy little things, or we give them a shotgun blast of paper. There isn’t much back and forth with notes, or any other similar activity. Disney has always collaborated. It is almost natural.

We were able to say, “Hey, that’s what we are looking for.” They will attempt this. They will say, “That’s amazing!” It’s even a favorite of theirs to assist us in identifying those characters. How to create a character who will interact with Mickey and his friends. They’re there before you know what. They are everywhere in the world. Disney has seen it, Dlala has seen it, but there’s no kind of like, “Okay, to Dlala, here are 25 forms to fill out.” It’s just kind of like a natural thing. Like we’re one big team, as opposed to, like, a publisher/developer formal sign-off.

All the characters functionally control and move the same – I assume that is a way to appeal to younger, less experienced players?
It’s not for kids, but family. It’s not a kids’ game. It is a family-friendly game. This means that it can sometimes be quite difficult. It involves some complex platforming. We give you the ability to personalize the experience. Every time you start the game on the character select screen, each player can individually set their starting health. If you are a younger player or just enjoy reading, it is possible to set yourself up to have infinite health right from the beginning.

Charlotte would be my best friend if I were to play with her. [Nangle, marketing manager, Dlala Studios]If we have three or more hearts, it might be a good idea to play and balance. To make Grant’s life easier, I prefer Grant to have inexhaustible health. Other options are also available, including slowing down certain elements in the world to allow younger players and players with slower reaction speeds to enjoy the game. Those players looking for a punchy platforming challenge can still have it.

My first reaction to the very first time I saw Illusion Island was, “This reminds me of Rayman Origins.” I love Rayman Origins and Legends. These games are a big inspiration. These games are just one of many that Illusion Island has inspired by platformers.
Rayman Games are in the pool. These are the new ones. These are the best. Rayman is one of the greatest 2D platformers. It’s just amazing. It’s like a food mixer. We love that it has the IIlusion series as well as Magical Quest. There are many classic Genesis- and SNES-era games in it.

Mickey Mania? Does that count?
[Points to Grant] He loves Mickey Mania. Magical Quest I believe was his. Yours, Mickey Mania. There’s a lot of that in there. These are truly masterpieces, just like the Rayman games. These games are beloved by us. They are a joy to play. They are also great at four-player collaborative platforming. This title was inspired greatly by the many games that we played.

Disney Illusion Island will be available exclusively for Nintendo Switch users on July 28, 2018.