Disney Lorcana has just released the new set, Shimmering Skies, the first to be launched simultaneously Down Under and the rest of the world. It feels good to be in the mix, with ANZ receiving the first five sets of the trendy new TCG within just a couple of months. We’re already seeing the game come to life, not just with the beautifully designed imagery but with the core gameplay, too.
We had the opportunity to sit down for a chat with Ryan Miller, Brand Manager and Co-Designer from Ravensburger, about how Disney Lorcana has evolved so far, the new set, and what’s in store for the future with the newest TCG craze.
A new TCG needs a dedicated, passionate team, and Miller tells me that he started designing games when he was 11. “My friend at school told me about Dungeons and Dragons and I got so excited about it, but I couldn’t afford any of the books and so I just started making up my own games,” says Miller. “Even to this day, I’ve got an old notebook with a terrible Starfighter Combat game that I made when I was like 13 or 14.” From a young age, his Grandma would take him to Disneyland, and even at a young age, he could sense the immersion, and his love of Disney truly began.
Before landing in the world of designing board games and TCGs, Miller pursued a career in law enforcement, joined the U.S. Army, and even worked as a prison guard for a few years. But he always had the urge to want to work for Wizards of the Coast, as their little game Magic: The Gathering had grown into something huge. Sure enough, he began working as a Magic: The Gathering judge, judging tournaments five nights a week, before starting his own company and creating a Warhammer 4Ok TCG back in 2001. After gaining more experience, he finally got the job at Wizards of the Coast he’d always wanted, as a designer.
Working on Duel Masters, M13 and even the first set of Commander Decks gave Miller a solid baseline, and then pumped out some more games in a freelance capacity. That’s when he met the team at Ravensburger, where he worked on a game based on the popular 80s movie The Princess Bride. From Ravensburger’s history with Disney’s Villainous, they felt that the company was a perfect fit to design Disney Lorcana… and the rest, as they say, is history.
One of the best parts about Disney Lorcana is how it mixes and matches characters from different Disney worlds. “It is kind of an embarrassment of riches when it comes to how much we have to pull from,” says Miller, grinning. “But we also take it very, very seriously. These are important characters and important stories, and they are beloved and it’s important for our players and our fans to understand that we love these characters too. I mean, it’s more than just these IP’s. They’re part of people’s identity, myself included. It’s part of who we are.”
“…we’re not going to change their moral compass. So, we’re not gonna make an evil Mickey.”
Miller goes on to explain that when it comes to changing or reimagining characters it can be a slippery slope, and that they work with Disney very closely to ensure there are guardrails in place around how characters are handled. “I think one of the key ones is that we’re not going to change the core of a character… we’re not going to change their moral compass. So, we’re not gonna make an evil Mickey.” He mentions a specific example, Gaston; in the Rise of the Floodborn set. “He’s still arrogant. He’s still buff. But now he’s got this added thing where he’s slightly smarter than he was before, and by slightly, if you look at the card, he has a plan drawn out on a chalkboard. So you might think oh wow, it’s very intricate, but if you actually look at his plan on the chalkboard, it’s the same plan from the movie. It’s the exact same plan. The ‘smart’ thing is that he has written it down. So we have a lot of fun with the characters like that, but we always do it with respect and reverence because we know that not only do we love these characters, but so many people do and we want to make sure that we respect that.”
I asked Miller what the process is like taking loved characters and figuring out what their personality might be in different scenarios. While it started off relatively humbly, Miller says, with a couple of people working on design and story, now it’s a whole team of people; a whole design team, a whole narrative team, a huge art team that all work together, and marketing involved as well to help choose which franchises are in each set. All that aside, Miller says Ink is a big factor. “So there are six colours of ink, and each colour has its own personality, both in the story and in the mechanics of the game. For example, Steel Ink is very strong and packs a big punch. Ruby Ink is very daring and it just kind of doesn’t think, that sort of thing. So when you look at these through the lens of these different Inks, many characters kind of already fit in several of them, right?”
Miller says Aladdin is an example of a character that easily fits into Ruby because he’s daring and doesn’t often think about consequences. But he is also Emerald, which is all about being flexible and doing things on the fly, changing your plans. He also fits into Amber, which is more about caring, heart and teamwork. “So there are places where they naturally fit, but then the fun is taking a character that doesn’t normally fit in an Ink and put them in there. A really good example is the Winnie the Pooh card we have, Honey Wizard. So here is Winnie the Pooh, who naturally fits in several Inks, but not necessarily in the Ink of magic, which is Sapphire. But now he is a wizard that uses honey magic.”
This ties in nicely with the design philosophy of Disney Lorcana; with so many cards, so many characters, and so many references, that’s all part of the fun. “Our creative team and our narrative team write what’s called an art description, and it’s usually a pretty quick little text to description. In this case, it might have been as simple as we need Winnie the Pooh, but he’s a wizard and he uses honey magic. It might have been that short. Then the artist takes that and they add their own style and their own ideas to it and send us back a sketch. In this case, this artist comes back with this piece that just blows it out of the water, it was so good.”
Working with hundreds of talented artists, he says, allows for moments of pure genius, and he’s proud that the game is already just flooded with amazing pieces of art. “It’s easily the most beautiful game I’ve ever worked on, and it’s just been an honour to be a part of.”
Disney Lorcana, so far, continues to be one of the more approachable TCGs out there, with its whimsical, nostalgia-filled style and mechanics that aren’t too intense (yet). The recent set 3 and set 4 introduced some new twists like Locations. I spoke candidly with Miller about the risk of Disney Lorcana getting too difficult the further it goes down the rabbit hole, so to speak.
“I think the question really is about how we look at the sets and we make them,” he begins to explain. “One of the things we must never forget is that every set is somebody’s first set. Every single set that comes out is somebody’s first set, and we gotta make sure that when they open a pack and they flip through the cards that they aren’t overwhelmed.” He adds that when designing a new set, they look at it through many different lenses; the competitive player, the casual player, the Disney fan and the newcomer. Basically, the idea is that when you fan a booster pack out after you’ve opened it, they can’t be overwhelmed with lots of cards, with lots of paragraphs on them.”
“We’re looking at this as a long-term game. We want this game to go on forever, right? What that means is, that you might be tempted to put in all sorts of instruments, but we have to make sure that we carefully portion that stuff out. One of the things that we decided early on is that we didn’t want to put brand new mechanics in every single set because we had an eye towards our new players and also our Disney fans who have never played a trade card game before. We want to take care of those folks as well.”
As a slightly more seasoned TCG player, I have found Disney Lorcana to be updating at a good pace, in part because Australia has received four sets within two months, and the fifth is right around the corner. Miller says that the tournament environment is healthy and robust, changing just enough that it keeps people excited and interested in what’s coming out. He says it’s a real balancing act, and the game mustn’t get too heavy and start buckling under its own weight too quickly.
“We really want those moments for experienced gamers like yourself, skill-testing moments,” Miller continues. “How do you play the cards, the order in which you do things… and a big thing, just which cards to use as Ink, I think that’s a big skill testing moment, but the nice thing is, if you’re a newer player, you don’t have to worry about it as much. You can just play your Princess deck, or play your Moana deck, and it’s still very fun. If you want to, you can look for those more strategic gameplay options and decisions, but you don’t have to if you don’t want to.”
“…making games is like that feeling you get when you buy someone a gift and you can’t wait for them to open it.”
In September, we are seeing the release of Disney Lorcana Gateway, designed to be a great entry point for players of all ages and skill levels, which Miller is excited about getting into player’s hands. “If you’ve never played a trading card game before, basically you start with a couple of 30-card decks and you play a few games with just the very basics, it’s characters and like two or three actions and that’s it. Then at several stages of the game, you open a pack that adds cards to both decks, and those introduce new things; like one pack will have item cards in it and another pack will have songs. By the time you’ve gone through all four packs and played all these games, you’re learning as you go”.
Shimmering Skies is out now, which is arguably the perfect entry point for players. Miller cheekily mentions that it includes some of his favourite cards so far. “You may have noticed a lot of Sword in the Stone cards; that’s my favourite movie of Disney. I definitely abused my power to get Sword in the Stone cards in the game! There’s King Arthur that I really love. We’re doing different art stuff for them. It’s also the start of a new storyline”.
“In Shimmering Skies, King Arthur has called a celebration to celebrate the defeat of Ursula. It’s really about fun and lightheartedness; so from a mechanical standpoint, it doesn’t add any new really big mechanics. We’re also hoping to get a lot of new players because of the launch of Gateway, so we wanted to create an awesome set. Shimmering skies itself is a reference to the fireworks – the magical fireworks of the celebration. So we’re just very excited for people to get their hands on it, making games is like that feeling you get when you buy someone a gift and you can’t wait for them to open it”.
It’s no secret that I’m hooked on Disney Lorcana. Talking with Miller about it is incredibly easy; this isn’t an executive in a boardroom, this is somebody who loves what they’re working on and is putting their whole heart and soul into making it amazing. “It’s that excitement that you’re just hoping that they love it, hoping they open it and have a good time with it. That’s my job. Every quarter we get new stuff coming out and I just hope that everyone opens it and enjoys it… lots of smiles and lots of folks having fun again together.”
With an ethos like that, it’s hard not to love it, and we’ll certainly be keeping an eye on what the future holds.
Disney Lorcana – Shimmering Skies is out now. Thanks to Ryan Miller and the team at Ravensburger for taking the time to chat with us.
About the Author
Luke Mitchell
he/him
Luke spends his time making radio, playing video games, binge-watching TV, getting unreasonably invested in wrestling, hosting bear events and hanging out with his beautiful pets.
