How The Lion King’s Scar update will shake up Disney Dreamlight Valley

What happens when your throws The Lion King’s Scar — a lion who literally killed his brother for power — into the idyllic world of Disney Dreamlight Valley? Chaos, that’s what. Gameloft’s challenge is to navigate character relationships in a variety of Disney and Pixar universes. But so far, that’s included things like teaching Frozen’s Anna about tacos and pizza, or introducing WALL-E to The Little Mermaid’s Ariel, so they can trade their found items. Scar’s story is slightly different.

“How does that character interact with, say, Remy?” Disney Dreamlight Valley senior world designer Josh Labelle asked. “Scar is the chaos element in the village.”

Disney Dreamlight ValleyLaunched in early access earlier this year. However, there were some issues like game-locking bugs or scarce resources. However, the game managed to overcome these hurdles. more than 1 million players in just over a week. There is more content to come. The Scar will be available this fall. The rest will follow. Disney Dreamlight ValleyToy Story will be getting an update, featuring new characters and a Toy Story refresh. This is expected to happen in the fall.

Interview with Labelle and Polygon Disney Dreamlight ValleyNicholas Mainville, creative director of Dreamlight Valley spoke out about how he blended characters and worlds inside the new environment.

[Ed. note: This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.]

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Polygon: What do you think of this? Disney Dreamlight ValleyDo you know someone who would appreciate it?

Josh Labelle We, the team and the players. Disney Dreamlight Valley is an invitation to reconnect with your inner child, and reconnect with all the Disney properties that you love — to get to live among them.

What audience were you thinking about? At first, I assumed the game was only for children. But, once I began playing the game, my perception changed. I feel like I’ve left behind Disney characters.

Nicholas Mainville: We were aiming for a target demographic of young adults, the goal being to be able to be a bit more serious about some subjects that we’re tackling. But it’s still meant to appeal to a younger audience as well. While we’re trying to have young adults like us who grew up with the Disney movies, and maybe lost touch with them over the years, Disney Dreamlight ValleyIt aims to bring back the inner child and to inspire younger generations to love the same characters.

Labelle: The best thing about the announcement of the game was my close friends, who discovered I was working on it. These friends are big lifesim fans as well as Disney lovers and were thrilled to finally be able play it. My other friends were also excited for me to play it with their children. I actually have some friends who are playing with their kids — one who is playing it with his two young daughters. That’s what’s really exciting about it, that you can connect to it on different levels.

One of my best friends was raised loving. The Sword in the StoneThe classic characters [like Merlin], so for him it’s exciting to interact with them. These characters are not familiar to his children, so this is the first introduction. But they’re really excited to meet WALL-E and hang out with him, to meet Moana and hang out with her.

You can play it with your friends, but just like when you watch Disney or Pixar movies, there’s things that might go over the heads of kids, that the adults watching will appreciate. The game should work in the same manner, we hope.

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How do you believe the game works? Is it possible to combine so many IPs into one life?

Mainville: Our first step was to create our own IP, Dreamlight Valley. That’s our own world, our own story that benefits from these rich characters that have a place to interact with each other. This really does help.

The pure joy of the Disney team shines through in the game. It is easy to see and appreciate the passion we feel for these IPs. Fans would not know the details of some movies.

Labelle: We worked closely with Disney on the narrative aspect. This was especially important because it allowed the characters to see the Dreamlight Valley world from their perspectives. It is important that we respect each character’s world. Merlin is able to refer to this magic world within his own frame, but there are other characters, who may not be familiar with the magical realms. For them, it’s a more exciting experience being in Dreamlight Valley. Understanding these roles and playing by them has been a challenge, but I think it’s why it works.

Mainville: Although we are familiar with the characters’ stories, there are still many things that can be learned about them. Dreamlight Valley broadens the characters’ universe. So if you love a character, let’s say WALL-E, you can go on a different adventure with him that you haven’t experienced anywhere else.

I’d love to hear more about these rules and how you decide what a character would do — or not do.

Labelle: Keep in mind the movie from which a particular character was taken. If you’re talking with WALL-E, WALL-E isn’t going to be able to explain to you how some curse works in the Valley,Or how some magic enchantment wOrks. If we want to have some component like that in a quest with WALL-E, we have to find a way to do it that’s going to respect that. Often it involves talking with Merlin, who is the only guy in town who really understands what’s going on with magic.

There’s a lot of things we try to respect with regards to characters from Moana or Frozen. They come in from worlds where their technology is at a certain point, and we don’t want to violate that. If we’re having you take a photograph of a certain character from Frozen or Moana for example, we want to have them react in a way that’s true to the world they come from. They’re not going to react to your camera in a way where they completely understand what’s going on.

Do you know of any Disney and Pixar characters who are not allowed to be photographed?

Mainville: So far we’ve got the best players. More are on the way. We have a huge roadmap and we’re working closely with Disney to choose which characters we’re going to bring in. We’re really focusing on Pixar and Disney classics. Everything’s kind of on the table.

How do you make sure you’re writing these characters in their voices, while making them interact with characters from other worlds? Take WALLE and Ariel as an example.

Labelle: Disney provides a lot to us in this regard. We really look at every line of dialogue to ensure that it’s true to those characters and their experience. It has been a great collaboration. In order to make these characters feel real, I’ll sit down again and view the films. Sometimes I’ll take a scene and put it in screenwriting software. This allows me to get the voice quality, as well as the words that they use. I’ll make a vocabulary sheet that says, In the movie, Ariel speaks these words. I’ve never heard her use these words, so maybe stay away from them. That’s kind of the way we do it. It’s always going back to the source text of the film and listening, really listening, to the dialogue.

When we’re having them interact, we throw in that chaos element of what the characters wouldn’t understand about each other. That is what we need to do.

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It was something I liked about being a blogger. A bit too rudeThe characters. It’s refreshing. Where do you know when to draw the line on what’s OK or what’s too much?

Labelle: It’s funny. Although I enjoy seeing mean decisions in games, I don’t often make them. That’s basically true across the board. I’ve seen data on other games where it’s like, 10% of people will pick a mean choice. Mass Effect, for instance, had the exact same breakdown when it came to Renegade options. The mean choice is rarely chosen by people.

The principle behind the mean choices is that the text must be very funny. For a lot of players, that’s going to be the only part they’re going to see. They’re not necessarily going to see the reaction if they choose it, because people want to be nice, which is kind of a good thing.

There is more freedom to interact with villains. The villains can be pushed a little more and they will react with glee. With the hero characters, we try to make it so that it’s a bit sassy. It’s not disrespectful to who the character is. It should reflect something about the character. If the pleasant choice is more modest or helpful, then the mean choice may be slightly braggadocious.

And when people do select those options, we take the time to get you back on the path of the conversation; you smooth over the rude thing you’ve said.

Mainville: A broader view of the game is that we wanted Disney Dreamlight ValleyIt is a game that allows players to let loose and show their individuality. That’s true of the character customization and all the options that we have provided, but it’s also true with the dialogue choices. The great thing about Disney films is the fact that they have heroes and bad guys. It embodies that concept in dialogue choices where you can really express yourself as a mini villain in some choices, but mostly as the hero of Dreamlight Valley, because in the end, you’re there to save it.

Labelle: For players, it can serve as a good frustration valve. A player can feel what? Scrooge wants me to tell him what I should do now.It can be great to know what to do. You’re asking me to to do what now? too.

Let’s talk about what’s coming next — the game is in early access, so there must be a bit. What are players to expect?

Mainville: It is clear that we have a long road ahead. There’s an update coming soon, with the continuation of the main story and [The Lion King’s] Scar. After that, we’ll have an update with Toy Story. But there’s a lot more to announce for next year as well.

Labelle: With the next two updates, there’s a lot of exciting narrative stuff. Two big secrets have been revealed. And, you know, with Scar, that’s a very exciting character. Scar represents the chaos in the village. We talked about the characters and their different frames of references, and with Scar, you’re throwing a lion into Dreamlight Valley — and particularly a lion like Scar. Is that how the character will interact with Remy? That’s going to be a lot of fun.

Do you have a timeline? Disney Dreamlight ValleyWill you be unable to access the site as soon as possible?

Mainville: We don’t have anything to announce yet, but we will have more information on that in the near future.