Tron: Identity director Mike Bithell reveals that familiar characters from the movie franchise aren't going to be featured in the game. Tron offers a multitude of microcosms inside the franchise universe, which allows the game developer to branch out of the main storyline. This means Bithell Games can keep within the borders of the larger ecosystem and culture of the influential franchise easily. Much of the game is still unknown, but it's known that Tron: Identity combines a visual novel style with puzzles and elements of traditional adventure games. It offers an original storyline and hand-crafted character art that bring the programs and places alive in a familiar extension of the Tron universe.
The Bithell Games-developed Tron: Identity was announced at the Disney's and Marvel Games Showcase at D23 Expo. The surprise announcement from the Disney and Bithell collaboration included a short teaser with a Tron identity disc loading up and nearly finishing before a 2023 release window announcement. Game ZXC spoke with Bithell Games' Mike Bithell and Disney Pixar Games producer Heidy Vargas at D23 about the history and characters of Tron: Identity.
Bithell Games' Mike Bithell's first instinct was to protect invaluable intellectual property when creating something new. The history and background behind the franchise provide immense opportunity but also responsibility towards the originators and the fans. It is a combination of adding to the universe while recognizing was has been built before.
The characters and the storylines might offer different perspectives, but everything happens in the world where Kevin Flynn originally got stuck in one of the servers and where Sam Flynn sought to release him. The authenticity needed to be all the way there when adding content to such an established franchise.
So we've got this enormous culture that we can kind of set stories in and tell these interesting narratives. While it doesn't have characters from the movies running around, these characters have legends, that stuff is a kind of a cultural backbone, mythology here. And that's a really cool way of exploring that. It's a cool angle to tell very fresh, new stories with new characters, but still be building on what went before and explore the themes that have been raised before.
While the Flynns are not visually present in the game, they are experienced through the backstory of Tron. The story takes place 20 years after Flynn escaped, on a different server. In this Grid, the forgotten inhabitants are experiencing an unprecedented crime. This mystery has been tasked to a detective program called Query to be solved. The world inside the Grid has evolved centuries-worth in the 20 years, and crime has flourished. As a visual novel game, it features a unique approach to the franchise, which is what Disney wants out of its video game collaborations.
Disney's Vargas also confirms that the introduction of a brand-new storyline, a different Grid, and new programs allows the creation of a diverse set of characters. It was important that the John Wick Hex developer Bithell Games included also strong female characters in the games. These new characters are integrated seamlessly into a familiar environment and given rich histories that reflect the Tron universe. These characters are also a precursor of what is to come next. According to Vargas, this is just the beginning of the collaboration between Disney and Bithell Games, and more games are to come.