Disney's Tron Disc Battle

After the success of Pixie Hollow, Disney was eager to give us another Online Virtual World, and their next big summer film was Tron. The team was excited to trade in flower pedals for lightcycles.

Disney added the extra challenge of wanting to make the first AAA game inside the browser. It was also the first product Disney shipped using Unity.

  • December 17, 2010
  • Disney Online
  • Multiplayer Online Game
  • Unity
  • Creative Director/Art Director

Digital Destruction

Disc Battle was a tournament style multiplayer game where the objective was to destroy your opponent with deadly digital discs. Players were matched together based on their skill level, and proximity of login times.

The tournaments took place in larger glass chambers which are interlacked together. Players must ricochet there discs to take out their opponent, as well as pick up powerful bonus abilities.

Production Insight: Motion Capture Animations

We were extremely lucky to have the raw motion capture data from the movie. Our character rigs were set up to be able accept the joint rotation values from motion captured actors. We had different animations for male and female characters.

In order to allow characters to aim their discs as they run, we had to blend the player controlled movements with the base run animation. If not handled properly, the appearance of natural movement can be compromised.