What Could’ve Been: Epic Donald Was In Development/Never Made

I’m a huge fan of Epic Mickey. When the game was released on the Wii, I thought it was one of the coolest Disney games ever. Warren Spector, previously developer on Deus Ex, loves Disney and you can tell just by playing Epic Mickey. He and his company, Junction Point, developed a sequel to Epic Mickey and then Disney shut the developer down. Spector has always talked about how he would have loved to have done a Ducktales game, but it was only hinted that they might have been working on something. No concrete details were ever given on a Junction Point Ducktales game. Now, its been revealed by Patrick Block, a Disney illustrator, that some concept work was done on an Epic Donald game!

Two sequels to Epic Mickey and then Junction Point and Disney parted ways. I always thought it was a shame that Warren Spector didn’t get to do more games for Disney. Spector has always talked about his love for the Disney ducks and it seemed like he wanted to do a game with them.

Mr. Spector did, however, write some Ducktales comics! But he has never been able to create a Duck game. So when it was revealed by Patrick Block the other day that an Epic Donald game had been in development, my heart broke a bit. As much as I liked the first Epic Mickey game, I think Spector and his team would have done an amazing Epic Donald game! And the concept art thats been revealed makes it look amazing.

Here’s a message from Patrick Block:

” Greetings!

Walt Disney comic and gaming conceptual artist Pat Block here.

In 2012 I had the very great pleasure and honor of working with Warren Spector and Junction Point on a follow up to Disney’s Epic Mickey and Epic Mickey II.

The game was to feature Donald Duck, Duckburg, and the assorted classic world clan. I worked hard on a “Carl Barks” based Duckburg, puling scenes of the town from his comics and doing my best to keep a 1950’s feeling spirit about the game world.

Sadly, this was about the time Disney decided to switch over to it’s current gaming, more tablet oriented gaming focus.

While we were fully paid for our conceptual work on the project, to date, it has not been made.

With the new DuckTales project in the works, I have hopes we still might see the game, with some of our work, get made.

I hope this helps!
Very best, and thanks for the interest in our duck stuff.

Patrick ”

I am blown away by the drawings and Mr. Blocks words. I think it would have been such a fun game. It looks like it would have taken inspiration from Ducktales and the comics of Carl Barks. Whew. Just think about it! What if the game had had Uncle Scrooge, Launchpad, the nephews (very likely since they were in the concept art), and, dare I dream, Darkwing Duck too?! Who knows what Disney Ducks this game might have included…

Now with Disney focused on lending their properties out (and mobile games), Epic Donald just seems like a dream that’ll never come true. But still, we can dream right!? Maybe we should pester Disney about this game too?? The new Ducktales cartoon should hopefully make a title like this more feasible!

What do you think of Epic Donald? Would you have loved have played it?! Let us know your thoughts in the comments!

UPDATE: Go here to find a few more illustrations for Epic Donald. Like this one of Donald and Uncle Scrooge:

sigh. Man. Disney. Sometimes, you really let me down.

Source: Nintendo Everything