Highlights
- Disney's Illusion Island is a new game from Dlala Studios featuring beloved characters like Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck in a Metroidvania-style adventure.
- Working with Disney was a major highlight for the creative director, who felt honored to be trusted with these iconic characters. Disney allowed Dlala to have creative freedom with the story while ensuring the core personalities of the characters remained intact.
- Animation played a crucial role in maintaining the identity of each character, with the animation team creating movements that represented the essence of each character's personality.
Illusion Island is the newest game on the market from Dlala Studios, known most recently for its 2020 release of Battletoads. The title tells a new story featuring the beloved Disney characters Mickey Mouse, Minnie, Donald Duck, and Goofy in a Metroidvania-style platforming adventure full of creative maps, epic boss battles, and fun abilities. Those who want to join along in the fun of Disney's Illusion Island can get their copy for Switch now.
Recently, Game ZXC had a chance to talk with creative director AJ Grand-Scrutton on the topic of working with Disney and how he and his team put their minds together to tell a new story featuring these classic characters while still remaining true to their identities.
New World, New Story, Same Characters Everybody Loves
Illusion Island opens with The Fab Four—the moniker chosen for Mikey, Minnie, Donald Duck, and Goofy—receiving an invitation to the village of Monoth. The four believe they are letters from each other inviting the whole crew on vacation, but upon arrival, they realize they have actually been summoned to aid the town in recovering three stolen magical tomes.
To recover the books players will adventure through three unique biomes, giving chase to the thieves who have stolen them and fighting “epic boss battles” to retrieve what has been taken. The maps feature Metroidvania-style traversal with a slew of fun, interactive abilities that players can enjoy by themselves or in co-op with up to three additional friends.
“It is one of the biggest honors of my entire life, let alone career. To have been trusted with four of the greatest characters ever created is not something any of us have taken lightly.”
Grand-Scrutton recalls working with Disney as a big highlight of his career. Being able to work with such big household names was both exciting and an honor, something that only “a handful of people in the last near-100 years can say.” And despite Disney being such a monstrous force in the zeitgeists of nearly every community around the world, its grip on the production process was surprisingly less tight than one might imagine.
Of course the core personalities of each character had to remain the same—if some major, out of character change were to be made, Disney definitely would not have allowed it. But outside of that, Dlala were more or less able to do what they wanted with the story. Grand-Scrutton even recalls a few times when his team had proposed an idea they thought would be shot down, but much to their surprise Disney had their backs, allowing them to implement some pretty cool features. This was also aided by constant communication with internal Disney employees, such as lead writer and narrative designer Chris Painter at Disney games, who helped guide the hand of Dlala’s team to ensure the personalities of The Fab Four were upheld within their new story.
“One of our three pillars for the project was “Authentically Disney, Distinctly Dlala”. That meant that this had to feel like a true Disney experience, but we had to make sure it was the type of Disney experience that Dlala would make.”
In addition to the character writing, animation also played a crucial role in helping maintain the identity of each of the Fab Four. Dlala’s animation team worked tirelessly to ensure the game was rife with fresh animations, making sure that each animation was unique to each character’s disposition while also ensuring it portrayed how that member of The Fab Four would move within a space.
One way the team achieved this was by assigning each character an object:
- Mickey - Bouncy Ball
- Minnie - Paper Airplane
- Donald - Slingshot
- Goofy - Slinky
The animation team was able to ensure that every character’s movements represented the essence of their personality, and they went on to create several unlockable abilities with this in mind. For example, Minnie being graceful like a paper airplane, or Goofy’s movements feeling dopy as if he’s constantly trying to catch up to himself in the way a slinky does.
Illusion Island’s fun, new approach to The Fab Four is something that everyone can enjoy. Whether it’s alone, with friends, or with one’s family, Dlala provides an experience that is fresh yet familiar thanks to the care it has taken to deliver a new story while maintaining the beloved identities of these classic characters.
Disney’s Illusion Island is available to play now on Switch.
