Disney Infinity aims to bring open-world gaming into living rooms using familiar Disney characters in Toy Box modes. The game brings both property-specific gaming and sandbox gameplay and hopes to give life to properties long after their release. Imagine your favorite Disney characters playing alongside each other in different worlds, not tied to specific intellectual properties.

We sat down for an interview with John Vignocchi, executive producer at Disney Interactive Studios during Disney’s fan convention, D23 Expo. We discussed Disney Infinity, what it took to get the game to market and what to expect for its release and beyond.

Where does the inspiration for Disney Infinity come from? We saw a bit of the Toy Box gameplay in Toy Story 3?

The guys at Avalanche Software, based out of Salt Lake City, have been a part of Disney since 2005. They are a great, awesome studio and they first started working with Disney on Meet the Robinsons, Bolt and then eventually came to work on the Toy Story 3 game. Inside the Toy Story 3 game, there is the mode of play called the Toy Box mode, our first foray into open-world gaming. And Journalists and fans out there noted the most fun mode of play was the Toy Box. So as the team was wrapping up Toy Story 3 and an entirely other team began finishing up Cars 2.

The Avalanche team developed an engine called Octane, and it has been development for the past decade. The team has spent time nurturing it and adding layers of functionality over time. For example with Toy Story 3, the team introduced streaming into the entire thing, so it is not your typical level-based gaming, and in Cars 2 we introduced all driving mechanics. So the Toy Story 3 team transitioned to working on the spiritual successor to the Toy Story 3 video game, and it was going to be a brand new open world Toy Box experience. But instead of being in Woody and Jessie world, which was what it was in Toy Story 3, we were going to go to Star Command, Buzz Lightyear’s home.

While that work was happening we had a management change, with John Pleasants and Jimmy Pitaro, Co-Presidents, coming on board. John sat down with all the different game chiefs and said “Think Big” and asked, “What is the biggest idea you can think of?” At this point we were working with Pixar on these projects, so we went to Pixar and said, “We’ve got an idea. Rather than do a one off video game, like we’ve done previously, what if we were to make a true platform”. As new events happen within Disney’s IP we can support them inside of this platform. To become something bigger than what we were currently doing.

So we were doing these one off video games based like Tron, or another game on Tangled. It involves a whole new game, all new engine, new animation, new gameplay mechanics, new relationship with filmmakers, new marketing, it’s really tough. You are starting from scratch each time. So like Tron, we were working with the guys from Propaganda, new engine, and new mechanics. And the way these types of games are played, people will play them and say “Well I’m done” and they may never pick up the game again, with all the work that goes in to the games feeling lost, not just for the developers but for the consumer.

So in Infinity our idea was if you could get everything on a common engine and technology you can expand, and not only just for our team but potentially other teams outside. So then you can begin contributing to the content and with what this engine could do we can grow Infinity over time. And from an investment standpoint, company and consumer, it is a great way to build a product. Now as a consumer I know when I buy something for Infinity, I know I’m adding something new to my game. It’s kind of like Legos, I know when I go buy a Lego gas station or Lego Death Star, whatever it is, you build those, at the end of the day you are buying bricks that work with each other. So every time you buy a new play set, yes you get a brand new 6-7 hour game experience but you get a bunch of toys, new characters and you can play with them however you want to and always be adding value.