How The Disney Infinity Star Wars: The Force Awakens Is Different From The Movie

If you’ve ever used a Disney Infinity play set, then you know that the interactive game’s narrative doesn’t exactly stick too close to the script when it comes to adapting other IP’s. According to the game’s director, that can be a tricky balancing act, especially when you’re talking about play sets for properties like Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

It you haven’t heard about Star Wars: The Force Awakens, it’s a real small movie that will probably show at a couple of theaters throughout the holidays. Also, you have no need to worry, as we won’t be spoiling anything here. So feel free to continue reading without raising the shields.

In a recent interview with Shack News, Disney Infinity director Vince Bracken discussed the process of bringing a property like Star Wars: The Force Awakens into the game universe. For starters, Bracken explained that Infinity is primarily targeted at youngsters, which is something that must be kept in mind throughout the development process.

First and foremost, we always have the kids in mind. We feel like it's a kids’ game and we want it to be a kids game, so it's easy to stay there. We don't have a lot of trouble. One of the things is, we keep things very toy-like. So whenever you’re interacting or shooting things, they don't die, they fall apart. That’s important to us. Any of the darker elements, we just didn’t include, like... you know...

As for the playset itself, it includes a quartet of characters including Rey, Finn and Poe, as well as the sinister (though not too sinister, since it’s a kids’ game) Kylo Ren. Players will get to visit locations from the film universe, including Jakku and even the Star Killer base. But when it comes to the big story beats, the development team actually did not have the movie to serve as a blueprint.

Bracken explained that he had not seen the film until opening night, but that the team worked closely with LucasFilm in order to make sure that they hit all of the major points without being “too scary or too serious for the little guys.” The team had to dance around some plot points too, so as to avoid major spoilers and keep the game and movie more distinct.

As for the future of the Force Awakens play set within Disney Infinity, Bracken said it has an outline, but he’s not ready to discuss it yet. Again, it felt like he was avoiding potential spoilers for the film, so maybe there’s a chance we’ll see some lesser characters from the movie get a side story in the game? Whatever it is, hopefully it’s enough to fill the void between now and Episode VIII.