A portion of a 1up interview with Warren Spector...
1up: (laughs) I want to know what your ideal DuckTales or Uncle Scrooge game would be; what history would it follow? Would it be the newer Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck? Would it be the older Carl Barks stuff? Would it be the adaptations that were seen in the cartoon? What would your ideal version of that game be?
WS: I don't want to get too specific here because I really do want to do it. But I'm a huge fan of Carl Barks and I particularly like his longer-form adventures. He was a master at one and two-page little vignettes, but he was also pretty masterful at the 24-page -- or even longer -- epic adventure. And I think that's the quality of Barks that I would want to maintain; that sense of epic adventure, that sense that anything is possible in this world, that magic exists, that dinosaurs still exist somewhere... That a duck can be Indiana Jones, basically. That's what I'd want to keep.
I think the DuckTales TV show did a pretty good job of that; I think they lost some of the adult sensibility -- there were things going on in Carl Barks' stories that clearly appeal to kids, but went right over their heads. And that sort of Looney Tunes/Carl Barks -- there's stuff for adults and kids -- I'd want to go back to that. But a lot of what Barks did I don't think would play with kids today because I think the pacing would be a little too slow. I don't think you need to update the characters; the Disney characters are timeless and classic. I think what you have to do is put them in relevant settings, things that people care about today. And so I would probably be looking for some slightly different contexts, some slightly different types of stories; faster pacing, but still going for that sense of epic adventure.
In terms what kind of game I would make -- let's just say it probably wouldn't be Like Disney Epic Mickey. I have other ideas for what you could do in a DuckTales universe. Maybe I'll get to do something.
Full interview here
1up: (laughs) I want to know what your ideal DuckTales or Uncle Scrooge game would be; what history would it follow? Would it be the newer Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck? Would it be the older Carl Barks stuff? Would it be the adaptations that were seen in the cartoon? What would your ideal version of that game be?
WS: I don't want to get too specific here because I really do want to do it. But I'm a huge fan of Carl Barks and I particularly like his longer-form adventures. He was a master at one and two-page little vignettes, but he was also pretty masterful at the 24-page -- or even longer -- epic adventure. And I think that's the quality of Barks that I would want to maintain; that sense of epic adventure, that sense that anything is possible in this world, that magic exists, that dinosaurs still exist somewhere... That a duck can be Indiana Jones, basically. That's what I'd want to keep.
I think the DuckTales TV show did a pretty good job of that; I think they lost some of the adult sensibility -- there were things going on in Carl Barks' stories that clearly appeal to kids, but went right over their heads. And that sort of Looney Tunes/Carl Barks -- there's stuff for adults and kids -- I'd want to go back to that. But a lot of what Barks did I don't think would play with kids today because I think the pacing would be a little too slow. I don't think you need to update the characters; the Disney characters are timeless and classic. I think what you have to do is put them in relevant settings, things that people care about today. And so I would probably be looking for some slightly different contexts, some slightly different types of stories; faster pacing, but still going for that sense of epic adventure.
In terms what kind of game I would make -- let's just say it probably wouldn't be Like Disney Epic Mickey. I have other ideas for what you could do in a DuckTales universe. Maybe I'll get to do something.
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I admire Spector's passion but I really don't think he's a great game designer. He seems to focus on elements that don't make the game more fun to play. I found Epic Mickey to be a total bore. It seemed like it was too focused on paying tribute to forgotten characters and movies, and not focused enough on being fun to play.
i could see that , Barks is always going to be the reference , and jones actually took from him not the other way around . Still , i can't really say i'm that interested in the context of the game rather than the mechanics .
I personally enjoyed Epic Mickey, while the paint/thinner mechanic certainly could have been far more ambitious.
I would really like to see a Duck Tales game, but unfortunately, I can already more or less predict that if he did it, there'd be a ton of whiners who wouldn't realize or care from the get-go that it wasn't being done as an homage to the CARTOON, but to the old comics that inspired it. And as soon as that title screen fired up, and they DIDN'T hear "Duck Tales, oooooh ooooo!", they'd s*** the pants, and the internet flame wars would be alight.
Sometimes, I gotta tell ya, I really hate this new generation of gamers. The "internet age" of gaming. There is so much bitchiness and entitlement syndrome, that sometimes it gets outright depressing......
Exactly what I thought as soon as I read that Spector wanted to make it more based on what Carl Banks did with the comic. I think that is probably what has fueled fans wanting the game in the first place; nostalgia for the cartoon and actually nostalgia for the NES game as well.
It's probably why Disney has been turning him down because the audience for a Ducktales game is already niche but if he's trying to pitch the game as something that doesn't even draw upon nostalgia that the 20-30 something gamers have that actually want to play the game, he's trying to make a game that's a hard sell even harder.
If he wants to go in that direction, it's shouldn't be called Ducktales though because that is just asking for backlash. Call it "The Epic Adventures of Scrooge McDuck" or "Scrooge McDuck: Treasure Hunter" or "Duckcharted: McDuck's Fortune".
I get the feeling he would name it "Disney Epic Scrooge."
I felt it was more a tribute to Disney Land rather then forgotten characters and movies. Besides Oswald, the Mad Doctor and the Gremlins, there wasn't really any important references.
And I seem to think Spector has a lot of passion and ideas, he's just not very good at following through and making them happen.
@TheBitBlock
Yeah, I got that impression as well... He certainly doesn't understand Nintendo's concept of designing from gameplay first. Spector brought in Disney first, Disney rides, Disney memorabilia, Disney characters, and tried to make a game around them, and it was sorta wonky. Things like lighting and platforms didn't supplement the gameplay at all, it felt counter intuitive. I mean, it wasn't all bad, and the concept of paint and thinner is a good one, but the solid foundation of gameplay wasn't there, and because of that, the fun was harder to find.
I would love a Gex style Duck Tales game - where you traverse, explore and do quests in different themed worlds with different abilities and styles of gameplay.
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