Disney's Illusion Island dev talks about the lessons learned from developing Battletoads
AJ Grand-Scrutton was glad the team learned some tough lessons with Battletoads as it let them create a better experience with Disney's Illusion Island.
Disney’s Illusion Island sees the company’s iconic characters take to a Metroidvania-esque genre, with the added splash of co-operative play. We sat down with Dlala Studio’s CEO and Co-Founder, AJ Grand-Scrutton, to discuss what goes into handling such a massive and well-known mascot like Mickey Mouse and what the studio learned from its time developing Battletoads.
When it comes to developing a game like Battletoads, the team was extremely excited about what to do. As it turns out, this excitement was a double-edged sword and one of the tough lessons that Grand-Scrutton learned during development.
“Battletoads was definitely one of those where we got very, very excited about everything and we tried to put everything in. Production told me the whole time we don’t have time for this or we can’t do that,” Grand-Scrutton said. This overextension ultimately hurt the game’s focus, and as such, ensured the team were more prepared for Disney’s Illusion Island. “The big difference is when we got to the pre-production on Disney’s Illusion Island, we instantly down-scoped.”
Grand-Scrutton goes on to state that production gave him a lot of insight into how long things would take to develop, like the various biomes. This led to him downsizing the game from five biomes to the three.
The interview with Grand-Scrutton is full of insights into how the team approached developing Disney’s Illusion Island, so make sure you check it out. You can find more developer interviews on our dedicated Shacknews Interviews YouTube channel.
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