The Disney Epic Mickey Think Tank 2004 in the credits for Epic Mickey.
The Disney Epic Mickey Think Tank 2004 was a meeting that took place during summer 2004 where the idea for the game Epic Mickey was born. It consisted of seven undergraduate interns that were tasked with "making Mickey Mouse cool again", preserving his family-friendly charm while also bringing him back to his more mischievous roots. The team developed the idea for an alternate universe involving many of Walt Disney's forgotten characters and worlds that Mickey would be transferred to by the then-called Phantom Blot (later changed to the Blot), featuring Mickey's jealous brother Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. After the idea was pitched, Disney eventually acquired Junction Point Studios to develop the game, with Warren Spector as the Creative Director. According to a member of the Think Tank, the final game preserved their original concept, while improving and perfecting on it for "for the game console that made the most sense for Mickey’s gameplay mechanics", the Nintendo Wii.
Sources
- Matthew Stringer on his contributions to Epic Mickey - https://www.behance.net/gallery/7290945/Epic-Mickey-Think-Tank
- Sean Vanaman on his contributions to Epic Mickey [1]
Trivia
- Sean Vanaman was one of the people responsible for the idea pitch for Epic Mickey. Sean Vanaman would go on to write for a few Telltale games, including Telltale's The Walking Dead, one of the most critically acclaimed games of all time. He also went on to write for the game Firewatch.