Despite it having long disappeared from US cinema screens, Wreck-It Ralph has only just made his way across the Atlantic to the UK in the past month. To celebrate his arrival we take a look at the development of two apps from Disney Publishing: Wreck-It Ralph Storybook Deluxe and Hero's Duty, an interactive comic book that fleshes out the back story of Sergeant Calhoun and others from her virtual world. Shane Lindley and Carlotta Quattrocolo, multimedia producer and executive editor respectively at Disney Publishing Worldwide, agreed to tell us more about the apps and the development of the world of Wreck-It Ralph.
GeekMom: Where did the initial inspiration for the Hero’s Duty and Wreck-It Ralph Storybook Deluxe apps come from?
Carlotta Quattrocolo: Everything started during a meeting with the Studios. We were looking for new opportunities to work together (Publishing and Studios) and we agreed that the characters involved in the Hero’s Duty storyline had great potential to be exploited in new stories. And considering the target age of the game and the themes involved we decided to go with a comic format to be used both in print and digital with an interactive version.
Shane Lindley: We wanted to make a Storybook Deluxe unlike any other, where we worked hand in hand with the filmmakers to tell the story of Wreck-It Ralph in a fully interactive format that really pushed what a mobile device can do. As soon as we saw an early screening of the film, we knew we had to make the fully realized version of Sugar Rush, with Gumball Alley, Ice Cream Mountain and all the other locations!
GM: Are you a big video game players yourselves? If so what games have you enjoyed playing in the past? CQ: I’ve never been a big player. When I grew up I was more involved in building my Robin Hood LEGO’s or reading. And every time I tried to play with the big video games of the time I failed miserably and decided to get back to my bricks and books.
SL: Yes! I grew up with Sega and Nintendo, but now I find myself playing a lot of games on my iPad like Where’s my Perry?
GM: Did the prequel information from the Hero’s Duty comic always exist or was it a later addition to the overall story? CQ: The comic story was created by our Global Magazines team based in Milan with the help of a scriptwriter who usually works on all of our graphic novels and comics based on movies. We sent some concepts to the Studio, got their feedback and suggestions and the final story is the outcome of the great collaboration.
GM: If Hero’s Duty were real, it looks like a game that would be aimed at an older audience than Wreck-It Ralph’s audience; did you feel that you had to tone down the concept at all to fit the younger viewers?
CQ: I think that Disney movies are usually for families of all ages. Taking the game outside of the context would definitely position it for an older target. That’s one of the reasons why we decided to use comics and not a picture book, which are usually developed for a younger target. However, we need to consider that the movie is set in an arcade and you would expect to find games for different audiences so that all consumers would find something to play with.
GM: Do you think Hero’s Duty could ever be fleshed out into a stand-alone video game and brought to market?
SL: Totally! That’s the awesome thing about video games – if you can imagine it, you can create it!
GM: Do you have anything else you'd like to tell us about working on Hero's Duty and Wreck-It Ralph?
CQ: Writing or supervising the creation of a product related to a movie is always great, especially when it’s as powerful as Wreck-It Ralph. However creating a prequel such as Hero’s Duty is even better as you can put something of yourself in the story and feel part of a much bigger creative process than just the retelling of the original story. In this case, as the cherry on top of the cake, we also worked on an interactive version of the comic that allowed us to use the technology, animation and sound/music to recreate the experience and atmosphere of the movies in an app.
SL: Of all the apps I’ve produced, Wreck-It Ralph Storybook Deluxe is one of my favorites. It has more animations, interactivity, music, dialogue, and SFX than any other app of its kind. It was a tremendously ambitious project that I am really proud of our team creating, and we couldn’t have done it without the help of Rich [Moore - Director of Wreck-It Ralph] and the Studio team.
And some questions from the GeekMom kids:
Why didn't you include more of Sonic the Hedgehog?
SL: He’s so fast, we had trouble keeping up with him!
Where did the Sugar Rush idea and all the characters come from?
SL: Eating lots of candy and playing plenty of Japanese video games. It’s a tough life being an app producer!
Hero's Duty Interactive Comic and Wreck-It Ralph Storybook Deluxe are available on the Apple App Store and Android market for $1.99 (£1.49) and $6.99 (£4.99) respectively. Copies of both apps were provided free for this interview.
