A new interview has shared some further insight into the character selection process in Disney Dreamlight Valley. The magical life-sim adventure game has been out in early access since last September and has seen amazing success in terms of its player base so far. However, the game’s popularity isn’t simply down to the fact that it hosts an array of well-known characters.
As spotted in PCGamesN, a new interview in Comicbook with Disney Dreamlight Valley Lead Producer Manea Castet and Gameloft Marketing Lead Claire Llewellyn shared some further insight into the game’s character selection process. As the game recently revealed in its early 2023 roadmap, some new Disney characters will be joining the valley’s villagers as of next month. Heading into the game first will be Encanto‘s Mirabel and everyone’s favourite snowman, Olaf from Frozen. However, as explained in the interview, new characters are selected for Disney Dreamlight Valley with a couple of specific purposes in mind.
Castet explains that primarily, characters are chosen for their potential to contribute to the game’s wider narrative. “The biggest rule is,” Castet explains, “is it adding something to our story? We want to tell a story with Disney Dreamlight Valley, like with as you know, the main story, but also the realm, side story with each character having their own little story after you unlock them from your realm. The very first question is, is it adding something within the story we tell?”
A character’s popularity isn’t necessarily an important factor when they’re being considered for addition to Disney Dreamlight Valley, as Castet elaborates. “After that, we also ask ourselves, is it a well-known character or not? But we really don’t want to focus only on top-performing or top-known characters. We also have characters that will just be just perfect in this role, in this game.” Disney also plays a role in the selection of characters, with Castet explaining that the company works alongside Gameloft to ensure a variety of faces are included in the game.
There’s plenty of exciting new content heading into the game in the first part of this year, as the new roadmap reveals. Players can also hopefully expect to see some storage solutions making their way into the game, as the developers have also acknowledged this is something high on the list of players’ priorities.
Disney Dreamlight Valley is available now in Early Access. It’ll launch in full as a free-to-play title in 2023. It’s available on Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store. It’s also available on Xbox Game Pass.
