Spector Says Critics "Misunderstand" Epic Mickey

[Tirmoggles]

As pointed out earlier, I think the problem here is that Epic Mickey had to come out for the Christmas season. Perhaps the camera problems and the time it would take to fix them were weighted against how much cash they'd lose if they didn't have it out in time for the season, with all those parents and grandparents looking to buy a game for their kids ('Oh, look! This looks safe! It's Mickey Mouse!') and suddenly the game was good enough.

Hopefully the Duck Tales game won't have this problem.

 

[Mr. Omega]

I almost feel sorry for the team that made this. You have a good concept, a good world, a good story, but it falls pray to the worst sin a game can commit: It was BORING. Camera issues aside, there were far bigger issues. I'm sure making a world of creation and destruction sounded good on paper, and was a technical marvel, but it just wasn't worth the tedious gameplay.

 

[Formica Archonis]

Spector, the driving force behind the game, said the real problem is that reviewers just don't get it.

I'm suddenly reminded of http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/3/24/

"There has never been a game, ever, where if you give it to me for 30 seconds, I can't break it. I mean, I will break a camera in any game ever made," he said in response to criticism about the game's camera view.

And I can break any car that fast by running it into a wall. That doesn't make me a good car designer, it makes me a bad driver.

Not saying that there's not a lot of camera issues in other games, but come on.

 

[Sartan0]

Hopefully the Duck Tales game won't have this problem.

There is going to be a new Duck Tales game? (Goes to look)

As someone who has played through part of the game I think the reviews are spot on for the most part about the controls but you can use 'mouse look' and 'center the camera' to make the game more then playable. There will still be some blind jumps so if that sort of thing drives you crazy stay away. If not the rest of the game is loads of fun. IMO.

 

[Xaio30]

Sounds like the EMO excuse.
"You don't understand me, so leave me alone!"

 

[Ironic Pirate]

Oh, I see, I wasn't supposed to be having fun. It makes so much more sense now.


When you fuck up, admit it and try to fix the problem. Don't pull this shit.

 

[raze2001]

Spector, the driving force behind the game, said the real problem is that reviewers just don't get it.

I'm suddenly reminded of http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/3/24/

"There has never been a game, ever, where if you give it to me for 30 seconds, I can't break it. I mean, I will break a camera in any game ever made," he said in response to criticism about the game's camera view.

And I can break any car that fast by running it into a wall. That doesn't make me a good car designer, it makes me a bad driver.

Not saying that there's not a lot of camera issues in other games, but come on.

There is also a big difference between breaking something and something being broke when you bought it.

 

[Thunderhorse31]

Er, Warren? Can I call you Warren? Let me explain a little something to you.

You made a platformer? On the Wii?

You made a Mario competitor.

 

[The Masked Donut]

It's odd, my understanding of the reviews have been quite favourable. It's not like Kane and Lynch 2 where it's either bad or you despise it. This game has highly favourable reviews, and most of the score deductions are purely technical.
I've yet to play it, but what excites me about it is that it isn't like any game I've played before. It's ironic that the most original game of the year stars Micky Mouse.

 

[wammnebu]

you are right mr spectre it is not a game the brilliant design makes it an interactive work of art
...so take a screenshot and hang it at the metropolitan instead of having us pay $40 for the mistake of thinking it was a game

 

[Exort]

Didn't they also say this when Kane and Lynch 2 also didn't get good reviews?

No, they said it is because people don't like how the story ends.

 

[Drake_Dercon]

This is one of the issues that's supposed to come up in playtesting. Honestly, camera hostility is not a foreign concept and can be a problem in any game, not just platformers. It doesn't matter whether you're understood or not, when I can't see what I'm doing, it's a problem. Sure, it's hard to make a third-person camera workable, but it's a problem you're expected to solve when you put enough time, effort and money into a game to merit all that hype. I'm not expecting something perfect, but this is a serious problem.

 

[Keldon888]

I get what he's saying, I really do. He is saying he made an action-adventure game a la Zelda. And made it a bit more platformer-y than Zelda games but not close to Mario games.

And as a result he gave it an action adventure style camera, which while that my be best in line with the tone and style of it, as the reviews are showing, it is not best for the payers view of gameplay(not tone and not style, but nuts and bolts jumping and stuff).

I can't fault him for making the choice he did, he wanted it to follow his vision for the game and you can't argue the man doesn't have vision. But I just didn't flow and he seemed to miss that Platformer camera trumps action-adventure camera at all times, which is why the Zelda style camera only has platform tricks as complicated as "push block, now jump off block."

Nice try, and it's still a good game, but he should have definitely chosen camera effectiveness over theme in this case.

 

[Togusa09]

1. If people misunderstand a game, it's the devs fault for not making it in a way to put the player in the mindset to correctly understand it.
2. You'd think someone would have come up with fairly open reusable camera code by now. If it were posisble for all 3rd person games to reliably have a good camera, it'd be great.

 

[Jumplion]

I have yet to play Epic Mickey, and unfortunately I doubt I will since I'm not much of a Wii gamer, but his is the worst thing a creator can do to his/her creation, going to the critics "Bah! You just don't understand it!" I'm reminded of a recent Extra Credits video that said something similar to "don't do this".

And frankly, saying "camera work is hard!" is a pitiful excuse at best.

Specter, you've just lost some brownie points from me.

 

[Andy Chalk]

I think I see what he's getting at, but if he's right then I suspect what he's really got a problem with isn't misunderstanding but simply misplaced expectations. A game that I think suffered from similar problems (and that I bring up because I have actual, first-hand experience with it) is Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, which many reviewers took issue with because it wasn't a very good RPG. But it wasn't an RPG at all, it was an action game in a fantasy world setting with a very thin veneer of RPG elements. But many gamers went into it expecting a first-person RPG and were disappointed when it didn't work out that way.

Could the same thing be happening to Epic Mickey? Could reviewers be dumping on the game because they expect an SMB2-style experience and don't get it? I haven't played it so I have no way to judge, and even if that is the case, it doesn't excuse what are apparently some fairly fundamental flaws in the game itself. If the camera sucks because it's not designed for a platform game, but the player doesn't notice that he's not actually playing a platform game, well, that's on you, not him.

 

[MediocreNed]

I have a question for people who played this game, was the camera similar to the 3d sections Super Mario Galaxy games?

If yes I can see where the reviewers are coming from. If not please tell me in full detail what the camera is like, or better yet explain it in a video.

 

[MediocreNed]

Double post