Disney has another nostalgia-inducing dev diary-style video for its upcoming Skylanders competitor Disney Infinity. This one explores the notion of play, with lots of black-and-white or otherwise old-looking clips from Disney films or of people just generally having fun. Play is creative, and you can make up the rules, and who cares if it doesn't make sense, and so on.
Of course, all of these clips are leading up to a look at the Toy Box portion of the Disney Infinity game. Whereas the game will have levels that players have to solve in a particular way, the Toy Box is more of a free-play mode. The inspiration came from the Toy Story 3 game, which represented that different characters could coexist because they were toys.
We get to see some prototype footage of the game, with the basic idea of no structured gameplay, just a big island world with lots of different toys in it. Apparently, kids loved it, seeing what combinations of toys could do. Eventually, that prototype became the Toy Box.
The team hopes that Disney Infinity will give players the opportunity to play for hours or even days, which is presumably something a lot of game creators would like but seems especially apt here given the freedom the Toy Box will provide. Of course, kids will want to increase that freedom by buying – or getting their parents to buy – more of the play sets that will give them more virtual toys to play with.
Disney Infinity is due to launch for PC, PS3, 360, Wii U, Wii, and 3DS on August 18.