Last year, fans of the sci-fi classic Tron got a new entry to the franchise in the form of Tron: Identity, a visual novel puzzle game by Bithell Studios that was lauded for its story but critics felt was too short. Now the studio is unveiling its next game set in the universe, Tron: Catalyst, which offers more action gameplay and an intriguing time loop dynamic.
In a back room at Gamescom 2024, I sat on a couch opposite Mike Bithell, creator of Thomas Was Alone and founder of Bithell Studios, as he chatted about the ethos of the game as I watched a developer play through an early section of Tron: Catalyst. Set in one of the digital worlds full of “programs” (characters) made famous by the series, Catalyst is an isometric action game taking place after Tron: Identity, which occurs thousands of in-computer years after the last film, 2010’s Tron: Legacy.
While the original Tron film and Legacy were focused on the isekai-like wonder of humans getting stuck in the games they created, Catalyst follows more recent media, like the 2012 Tron: Uprising limited animated series, that explore what happens when the digital world is left to mature on its own. As Bithell explains, Catalyst’s setting is based on the idea that the digital world’s creator, Kevin Flynn, created a world for the programs liberated at the end of Legacy — a separate grid where they would be safe.
“So the grid’s basically been allowed to evolve on its own for a very long time without user intervention, and what does that do to that society? What’s happened in terms of factions, in terms of their belief in the users, what’s involved in that world?” Bithell said.
Catalyst follows Exo, a program on the run from the authorities and dashing around the city attempting to get her disc — the glowing multipurpose ring used for data and combat — upgraded. As an action adventure game, players will have a variety of combat moves for melee attacks and parries, as well as the iconic disc throws made famous in the movies.
“The disc is the core of our combat system, but what we do with that disc and where we push the disc’s abilities as you play through the game, that’s where it gets interesting,” Bithell said.
Seeing your character from above makes it easier to see good angles for hurling discs through crowds of enemies, and the glowing city comes alive all around Exo, bringing back vibes of Supergiant Games’s turn-based indie game Transistor, which was also set in a world of humans and programs. Indeed, Bithell singles out Supergiant’s hit Hades as an influence on integrating Catalyst’s other quirk: Exo is stuck in a time loop.
“In terms of thinking about the incorporation of story in particular, Hades was definitely a game that blew me away and kind of blew my mind on how we could use recursive storytelling,” Bithell said.
When Tron meets Groundhog Day
Exo is able to restart her day at any time, which gives her some breathing room to learn how to escape her fate: her code is slowly disintegrating, giving her access to more abilities but giving her a sense of urgency. In the demo, Exo gets caught at a guarded checkpoint when her disc reveals she left town, so after fighting her way out, her first task is to wipe the disc’s data so it won’t trip alarms when her day restarts. And whatever upgrades you pick up will stay too: “With this Groundhog Day idea, the only thing that has persistence in this world is your disc,” Bithell said.
The game is not a roguelike, Bithell emphasized, but players will have a limited time each “run” before resetting the day. In revisiting areas, players will pick away at the world and increase their mastery of a space. Deeper into the game after she’s learned more about what’s going on, she can approach repeated events and make different choices. For instance, around the back of the club Exo visits is a group of thieves breaking in, and later there’s an opportunity to “find a different angle on this interaction to get a bit more context,” Bithell said.
Players will still unlock shortcuts to make the loops a bit easier to bear, and they can use light cycles to roam around the world and “derezz” (or kill) enemies using its light trail.
Getting Tron right — by talking to the original Tron’s director
While the game realizes the Tron fantasy of fighting with discs and riding light cycles, Bithell is also pleased to contribute his studio’s story to the Tron franchise. Disney takes the franchise incredibly seriously, he said, and connected him with creators who’ve been working on Tron for 40 years to consult for the game.
“I’ve been lucky enough to talk to the director and writer of the original movie [Steven Lisberger] and get feedback and discuss stuff,” Bithell said. “That’s amazing being able to have access to those generations of people who’ve been playing in this world.”
Part of that was getting the look of Tron right, which took some trial and error — specifically for lighting. There’s a specific feel to the way Tron’s cities and buildings are lit with roots in the environment itself, Bithell said, mixing a minimalist or brutalist angular architecture with long trails of light. Aside from making its disc-throwing action easier to handle, part of the reason Catalyst’s camera looks down from above is to embrace the importance of Tron’s cityscape of slanted lines and lights — it’s always been an architectural franchise, Bithell said.
Likewise, the composer of Catalyst’s music who returns from Tron: Identity, Dan le Sac, is referential to iconic audio from earlier Tron projects like Legacy’s beloved Daft Punk soundtrack but fits the new game’s story set in its own grid: “We’re going for something that feels reflective of what you’ve heard in Tron before, but feels like it’s been left alone for a millennia and developed its own culture,” Bithell said.
In-game footage of Exo on the light cycle.
The end result has pleased fans in play tests, Bithell said, noting that he’d see some ride the lightcycle for minutes on end. But there’s more to figuring out Tron than simply fulfilling its fantasy, and it took breaking down what Tron was.
“Tron is a Western pretending to be sci-fi,” Bithell said, recalling a eureka moment of discovery during development. “Nobody phones each other, no one logs on to the internet. Ironically, Tron is about a world without computers, and that realization helps your stories and get you to understand who are the archetypes [players should run into].”
Bithell Games’ previous Tron romp Identity was geared around its main character Query, a detective, uncovering why Flynn hadn’t returned to this new grid he’d created. But Bithell himself declined to explain what Catalyst’s story will be about, only coyly describing its communal setting in the new grid.
“I’m very interested in the idea of community and characters working together — I mean, right back to Thomas Was Alone, which was my game that got this whole thing rolling,” Bithell said. “I’m interested in what it is to look into this world and whether it’s going to make you want to save it.”
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