Warren Spector has just confirmed the development of Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two. The new game will continues after the events of the first game and is slated to be presented in the form of a musical, rather than a straight up action game.
Spector tapped Jim Dooley and Mike Himelstein, the composer and lyricist who wrote the music for the upcoming "Dorothy of Oz". The duo will be crafting original tunes—lyrics and all—for Epic Mickey 2.
"I'm such a geek about musicals," said Spector at his talk at the most recent GDC. "I love the co-op and next-gen stuff, but for me, when a character breaks into song, which they do on a regular basis in this game, it's magic."
The AP reports that Walt Disney's archive director Becky Cline convinced Spector to include Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Mickey's predecessor in animation history.
Spector says that players will be able to drop in and drop out of the game whenever they like by taking control of Oswald whenever someone else is playing. Oswald, who's Mickey's helper, is by the mouse's side every second of the game.
"He's not just a multiplayer character. He's a helper, whether you're playing alone or with a friend or family member," said Spector.
Spector has also addressed the issues that beset the quality of the first game. Notably, the camera has been entirely worked and has been a major priority for the studio since day one.
"We've had a team working on the camera from literally the day we finished the first game," said Spector. "They'll be working on it until the day we ship the second game. (There have been) over 1,000 specific changes made to the camera. Our goal is that you will not have to touch the manual camera controls even once to play through the main story path of this game."
Source: Associated Press
