The Tron series hasn't had the best luck over the last decade but Tron's got a brand new detective game on the way called Tron Identity created in part by Mike Bithell. With the original Tron movie becoming a cult classic, Disney tried its hand back in 2010 to revive the Sci-Fi series with Tron Legacy, a flashy legacy sequel before that style of film was all the rage. However, Tron Legacy never really hit it big at the box office, and as a result, neither did its tie-in video games. However, Disney isn't shy of giving a popular IP another chance.
Just announced at the Disney and Marvel Games Showcase, Tron Identity was described as being a puzzle game with visual novel elements in between the puzzle segments to continue the narrative. With such a big IP, most fans would believe Disney would want a big developer working on the title, but in a neat surprise, it's being entrusted to Bithell Games, a studio led by popular British game designer and podcaster Mike Bithell.
Who Is Mike Bithell?
A relative newcomer to the world of video game development, Mike Bithell first made the rounds online in 2010, when he developed an early version of the game Thomas Was Alone, and released it on Kongregate for free. In just the first week, this prototype of Thomas Was Alone garnered over 100,000 plays. With the success of the prototype, Bithell was hired by Bossa Studios in early 2011 to make a full version of the game.
Bithell's first big game, Thomas Was Alone, released in June 2012, and quickly became one of the most well-known Indie games of all time, as well as one of the most critically acclaimed, earning nominations for several gaming awards. After leaving Bossa Studios in 2013, Bithell worked on a Robin Hood-inspired game called Volume, which released in 2015 to generally favorable reviews. A year later, Bithell released a VR game named EarthShape, which featured the voice of beloved British comedian Sue Perkins, who US fans will likely know best from The Great British Bake Off. In 2017 and 2018, Bithell released two shorter, narrative-driven titles named Subsurface Circular and Quarantine Circular respectively. Despite being quite the departure from his previous works, these two short games scored extremely well with critics, who heavily praised the game's dialogue and characters.
In 2019, Mike Bithell had his first dabble with a popular license, becoming the lead developer of John Wick Hex. Inspired by John Wick's calm in the face of death, John Wick Hex uses unique tactics mechanics whereby each action costs a certain amount of time, forcing the player to be just as calm, collected, and methodical as Keanu Reeves' beloved assassin. John Wick Hex also scored pretty highly across the board, though the game's fluidity and overall presentation were criticized a little.
While Mike Bithell has been fairly prominent in the gaming industry for the last decade or so, often seen discussing the monumental barriers placed in front of Indie devs, he may be most well-known for his appearance as co-host of Play, Watch, Listen, one of the most popular gaming podcasts of the last few years. Debuting in November 2019 with an episode about Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, Play, Watch, Listen brings together four gaming industry experts, Alanah Pearce, Troy Baker, Austin Wintory, and of course, Mike Bithell. Over the last three years, the four co-hosts have discussed pretty much every big event in the pop-culture landscape, from the cost of modern video games, to accessibility options in God of War Ragnarok, workplace harassment, composing video game soundtracks, developing Indies, and everything in between. Mike Bithell is one of the most passionate voices in the industry right now, and he seems like the perfect fit to be leading Tron Identity's development.
Tron Identity is set to release in 2023 for PC.