How the power of 700 goes into one Epic Mickey 2
Warren Spector recently told GamesIndustry.biz that over 700 people worldwide were working on his next game, which of course turned out to be Disney Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two. To us, that seemed unfathomably vast -- it's larger than Capcom's estimate for Resident Evil 6 by 100 heads. So, in order to get a handle on it, we asked Spector how that roster breaks down.
"'Breakdown' is a good word for it, actually," he joked. "The internal team size at Junction Point is about the same as it was on the first game. To have any chance [with an AAA game] -- I'm not saying we did succeed or will succeed, that's for you guys to decide -- you need 150-200 people these days. You just can't do it with less."
The Junction Point team, he explained is about 160 people, close to the first game's peak roster of 180. "When you take into account all the people who are executing on your storyboards, doing your CGI stuff, then add all the people who are doing your 2D full-motion video ... " he added, "we have the internal story moments are told in 2D cinematics. Those are done by another company.
"When you add in all of that -- the voice talent, the support we get from Disney on the administrative, the business side -- when you add all that together, it really does add up to over 700 people around the world. And they're all over the world: Canada, Shanghai, Bulgaria, the UK -- it's pretty insane." The UK contingent includes the Blitz Games team working on the HD versions.
The core development for the game, Spector emphasized, is all taking place at Junction Point in Austin. "Understand that the design was done in Austin, TX," he said. "All the quests and all the maps were first built here; the game was made in Austin, to be clear.
