Disney’s ‘Tron’ is a movie steeped in the history and culture of video games. It is, and I say this without hyperbole, a film as important to arcade culture of the ’80s as any game was. It set a tone, it created or popularized a lot of computer terminology, and it gave us the first pop culture image of a game designer: Kevin Flynn.
Kevin Flynn was cool. Kevin Flynn made badass games and fought the man to maintain his rights to them (seriously, more of that film than you remember is concerned with copyright and IP ownership). He annihilated games in the arcade in front of throngs of fans – oh, and he owned the arcade in which he did so. He was an icon. And I wanted so very much to be him when I grew up.
I’ve had thirty-nine years on this earth. I’ve played games, and I’ve made games. For macroeconomic reasons I do not own an arcade, but I did get to build an amazing team of creatives and work with them to bring you Disney’s Tron: Catalyst, which was released on Xbox this week.
Tron: Catalyst is a celebration of the Tron franchise, but even more than that, it is a celebration of games. One mantra was repeated more than any other on the team: “This is a world created by a game designer”. We let that north star guide us to Vertical Slice, a city with game design built into its very source code.
I don’t want to give away all the game’s secrets, but an early one is the glitch loop. You’ll get caught in, and control, a time loop. Doing so lets you relive the events you’ve encountered, making changes, finding new paths and messing with the rules. It’s like playing a game where god mode is the default. Because of course it is, this is a world created by a game designer.
We also have some fun with your expectations of a game set in the world of these beloved films. You won’t make it out of this game without being sent on an escort mission or engaging in a little out-of-nowhere stealth. I grew up playing that magical subset of licensed games which used the verbs and settings of film worlds to create truly original and interesting games. I wanted this game to have perfect Light Cycle control, I wanted it to give me full access to Disc-based combat, and yes, I wanted to kick that Disc out of the air and back at enemies whenever it made strategic sense (and often when it didn’t).
Tron: Catalyst also tells a new story. If you’re a fan of Tron: Identity and the Tron films, you’re going to find a lot of familiar threads and themes weaved in and expanded on. If you’re new to the Arq Grid, then we’ve built the game to immerse you in the rich culture and politics which define it. A handy codex lets you research any topic that comes up too. What does a society of AI programs left to their own devices for thousands of cycles evolve into? And what do they think of us? As Flynn would say, “Bio-digital jazz, man.”
I hope you dig our game. I’ve been designing it in my head since the 1980s, and I’ve been building the team to make it since the 2010s. We’ve worked hard, alongside our friends at Disney and Pixar Games and Big Fan Games, to craft a compelling, engaging game which immerses you into a neon world like no other. I hope you enjoy its stories, its characters, and its opportunities for Light Cycle combat. I can say with absolute certainty that we made the game we wanted to.
We did it because Flynn would.
TRON: Catalyst
Big Fan Games