W.S. : I think we're offering plenty of novelty in Disney Epic Mickey. Our core gameplay offers players the chance to do things they've never been able to do in a game before. And, for many – if not most – people who play the game, all that “retro” stuff will be new and fresh and different, so there's novelty there as well. But the bottom line is that our approach to the characters and locations and situations isn't retro at all, at least I don't think it is. I don't see a lot of risk here.
When you work with stars as Mickey Mouse and its friends/foes, I suppose you can't always do what you want. Can you give us an (or several) example of idea you wanted to include and that, in the end, you (or Disney) have thought that it was going too far for a game based on Mickey Mouse.
W.S. : All creativity happens within constraints. I mean, if you put magic into Deus Ex, the fans would revolt – and with some justification! You don't put a 747 in Red Dead Redemption. Similarly, there are some things you don't do with Mickey Mouse and some things that have no place in Wastland. The key thing is that no one would WANT to do those things. So, rather than dwell on what we didn't do, I hope players will focus on what we did do and judge us on those things.
Did Disney impose you to include some specific elements or characters (other than Mickey, of course - laugh)?
W.S. : Honestly, Disney didn't impose anything on us. Not a thing. In fact, the Disney Interactive execs who pitched me on the idea of doing a Mickey Mouse game went to almost humorous pains to make sure we didn't feel any pressure to do or include specific things. Obviously, it would have been foolish to make a Mickey Mouse game that didn't include Mickey himself but Disney did a lot more “making things available” if we wanted them rather than “imposing things” as if there were some corporate mandate.