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Disney's Epic Mickey

Platform:  Wii

Tools: Scene Designer, Lua script, SketchUp, Confluence (wiki)

Duration: 10 months

Team Size: Boss Fights - 10 at Avalanche

Role: Game Designer - Boss Fights

Metacritic: 73

I was brought on to work with the lead designer and producer at Junction Point in the design and creation of two major Boss Fights for Epic Mickey. To do this, I was given a small team to direct at Avalanche Studios. Many firsts were experienced on this project including:

  • Managing a small team
  • Working as an outsource group with a core dev team in another state
  • Learning Lua Scripting and how to use Scene Designer to implement,. SketchUp was used to visualize design concepts.
  • Taking boss fights from design to implementation and final ship of the project
Featured
Choice and Consequence were pillars of the game as well as the boss fights.
Choice and Consequence were pillars of the game as well as the boss fights.

As a major gameplay pillar of Epic Mickey was Player Choice, each fight needed at least two solutions; one using paint (good) and another using thinner (evil). Both the Petetronic and Hook fights would have two main paths the player could take, with the Hook fight having three. 

“When everything coalesces, as with a glorious boss fight against an animitronic Captain Hook, Disney Epic Mickey is the equal of any game this year. The fight exploits everything that is good about the game: Mickey can choose whether to straight up fight robot Hook on the deck a large and beautifully detailed sailing ship, or to climb through a maze of sails, painting and thinning as he goes to create a path toward the imprisoned Sprite (Tinkerbell, though she is never named), who will return with Pete (no, not Peter) Pan and vanquish Hook.”
— gamerant.com
Featured
Nintendo classic boss fights were studied in the design and ramping of our fights.
Nintendo classic boss fights were studied in the design and ramping of our fights.

I researched Nintendo's boss fights in popular IPs and used them as templates. Much was learned in doing so:

- Putting bosses into phases allows clear ramping:

     - Phase 1 is simple and easy, teaching the basics of the loop required to push the fight forward.

     - Phase 2 ramps a behavior to add complexity for the player, but the goal remains the same. 

     - Phase 3 is the most difficult, layering in another behavior, but maintains the gameplay goal of Phase 1.

As difficult as the process was on Epic Mickey, I have a fondness for both of the Boss Fights I worked on. This is mainly because this was an intense period of personal and professional growth as well as a time that I worked closely with very talented people at Avalanche. While these boss fights were difficult and could have used more time to tune and polish, the greater success was the chemistry and cohesion of the team at Avalanche. 

Petetronic Boss Fight (Paint Version)

Captain Hook Boss Fight (Paint Flow)

Imagery and videos © DISNEY and their respective owners