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Disney Dreamlight Valley characters are chosen with one thing in mind

There's a whole lot of potential Disney Dreamlight Valley characters, but Gameloft confirms it focuses on one thing when adding fresh faces to the life game.

Disney Dreamlight Valley characters are chosen with one thing in mind: A white cartoon woman with black curly hair and a red dress with gold trims stands with one hand up in front of an entrance to a tree

As we continue to see new Disney Dreamlight Valley characters flood into Gameloft’s ever-expanding life game, the developer has revealed that there’s one criterion fresh faces must satisfy in order to call Disney Dreamlight Valley their new home.

What’s a life game without a cast of adorable, lovable characters? Nintendo’s Animal Crossing was full of wonderful woodland creatures that made you smile day in and day out, and Disney Dreamlight Valley is looking to follow in its footsteps.

So far we’ve seen fan favourites like Lilo and Stitch’s titular blue miscreant arrive in the Valley, as well as more traditional characters like Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse himself. The next Disney Dreamlight Valley update cycle is set to add Encanto’s Mirabel Madrigal and The Lion King’s Simba, and in the wake of the announcement the team over at Comicbook asked Gameloft how it selects which characters will be added to the cosy game’s fairy tale universe.

Lead producer on Dreamlight Valley, Manea Castet, states that “the biggest rule is, is [the character] adding something to our story?

“After that we also ask ourselves ‘is it a well known character or not?’ But we really don’t want to focus only on top performing or [best] known characters. We also have characters that will be just perfect in [a specific] role. So we want to fix that, then we also discuss a lot with Disney, talk about their upcoming plans, and what’s happening. Also, it’s a dialogue with them to make sure we have a variety of characters for the game.”

Disney Dreamlight Valley characters are chosen with one thing in mind: A black woman with long hair wearing Minnie Mouse ears stands with a small Latin American woman with curly hair wearing a traditional Latin white shirt in front of a blue house with a big brown door

Given that Disney now owns both Star Wars and Marvel, Comicbook asked whether or not we’d see the likes of Darth Vader or Black Panther make it into the Valley.

“We are closing no doors,” Castet states, but highlights that the team’s focus is on “Disney animation and Pixar” characters. Given that Disney has a pretty extensive catalogue of cartoon icons, it looks like we won’t be seeing any of the company’s relative newcomers appear in the game anytime soon.

This is something I’m totally in agreement with – while I’d love to be able to befriend Deadpool, I think Marvel is better left as it’s own universe within Disney; running parallel to traditional Disney and Star Wars, but not intermingling with them. After all, you can always make friends with the Merc with a Mouth in Marvel’s Midnight Suns, as seen in our Deadpool DLC preview.

Instead, I’m looking forward to kitting out my character’s kitchen with some new Encanto and Lion King-inspired Disney Dreamlight Valley recipes; after all, what better way is there to welcome someone to their new home than to cook them some yummy food? If you’ve already befriended all of the current Valley residents, though, we also have a list of the best Disney games to whet your whistle until the next update.