At BlizzCon 2023, Blizzard released the newest entry to the Warcraft universe, Warcraft Rumble. It was taken as an idea that a machine in the Hearthstone tavern basement creates mini-figures based on the Warcraft universe that fight on scale models of zones throughout Azeroth. Warcraft Rumble is going strong with regular updates and additions one year later.
At the Warcraft 30th Anniversary stream, the next phase of the mobile game was revealed, with changes to leaders that can now have two affinities and the game coming to PC. As part of the 30th Anniversary stream, we got to sit down with Jeremy Collins, the Art Director, and Vik Saraf, the Executive Producer and VP of Warcraft Rumble, to talk about the past year and what fans can expect moving forward.
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Launching a new game in such a beloved franchise is no small feat. Like its older brother, Hearthstone, it feels like a game you’d find at a local game store. In one corner, people are playing Hearthstone; in another, others are fighting Warhammer 30k armies and Warcraft Rumble minis in their respective sets. That idea was a major factor in developing Warcraft Rumble to get multiple factors right. Collins described several art team members as “Mad Scientists” who printed minis on their 3D printer on day one of development.
This goes into the feel of the game; Collins told us, “In the game, we wanted people to be able to feel like they could pick up and touch the art on their screen and make it feel like a real mini that they were virtually holding in their hands. So one of the things that we had was an old art lead on the project which made a giant foam version of Hogger’s map that was to scale with the size of the minis. And this gave us a really good idea of how big the rumble machine actually is.”
Not only to get the size of the machine right but to understand what is needed to get a good feel for the players and how they’d experience the game. “If I’m reaching over into the field to drop a character, how far do I have to reach? Like, all of that stuff was solved by that physical model,” added Collins.
Changing up a major function of a key piece of a game mid-game is a massive change. This is best exemplified by adding three new leaders covering two factions and changing up a previous one, Sylvanas, to Horde and Undead. What seemed tricky about this change was how balancing changed with an update on this scale.
Collins described playtesting as the key to ensuring these new leaders weren’t overpowered. “That really comes down to playtesting. I am just making sure that whenever we introduce a new set of mechanics, like with what you’re talking about right now, split leaders, we play with the units that are non-split leader units as much as humanly possible. We have a great QA group that does a lot of really, really good testing of the game plays with every single combinatoric that you could possibly imagine for each of the three leaders.”
Collins emphasized that an easy way to balance new mechanics is through gold costs. “We need to make sure that the utility that the unit provides also matches the gold cost. And so we have a bunch of levers internally that we end up pulling. If we do get into that situation where we feel like, ‘Oh, that one combination is a little bit too overpowered,’ we can pull those levers and even that out, or we’ll probably buff something else, somewhere else, so that it balances out. At the end of the day, the fun and gameplay are the part that we’re most concerned about.”
So what about PC? What work has gone into the PC version? In summary, it will be very similar to any other Blizzard product released on multiple platforms. Saraf confirmed that “It will be cross-play. So, if you are logged into your Battle.Net ID on mobile, you log into that same Battle.Net ID when you launch a PC client, and your progress is saved and stored there. It’s pick-up and play, no matter what platform you’re on. There is a nice native feel when you’re playing the PC version. Doesn’t mean that the mobile phone doesn’t have it itself, but it’s a different experience that does feel somewhat special playing the PC version.”
Collins weighed in on the updates to the art and environments players may notice while playing on PC. It’s not the same screens stretched out, but it will conform with the type of monitor you’re playing on to give you a better sense that you’re playing on an arcade cabinet at the bottom of a tavern.
Collins also gave an insight into what exactly went into making this possible, “What we ended up doing was is we unlocked the map camera as far as we can to keep the gameplay in the center of the screen, but let you see extra art on the sides of basically all the maps. So you will see a more artified, wider version of most of the maps that you’re not used to seeing in mobile version of rumble. We’ve also unlocked the textures so that when you’re using a graphics card that has dedicated V RAM, you can really unlock the potential of the game. So the units will have a vibrancy to the textures that you that you’ll definitely see on the PC version of things.”
As for any unused space, that will also be filled up to make the game feel more alive on the PC version. As Collins described, “It is wider now, but on the space where there isn’t gameplay, you have all the guts of the machine. Which is like the gearworks, and the embers rising up from the creation chamber at the bottom of the machine. So it actually it’s almost like when you put on the Yule Log on Netflix for Christmas or something like that, and it’s just playing on your TV.” I don’t know about you, but I cannot wait to get an animated background of all the machines running to distract my ADHD-rattled brain while working.
Finally, we looked back at some of Warcraft Rumble‘s sibling games and if some of their additions could ever make their way to the machine in the future. Specifically, like Hearthstone adding Starcraft cards and Warcraft having several crossovers with Overwatch and Diablo, could some of those sister properties ever make an appearance? Saraf confirmed that “nothing’s official right now. It’s certainly becoming more of a thing, as we’ve seen with some of our games. So, I wouldn’t rule that out for this game. We don’t have anything official right now, like on the roadmap, but it could happen soon.”
Since this interview, I have dived right back into Warcraft Rumble, and it’s been an absolute blast to play. After feeling the compassion and care from chatting with Collins and Saraf, the future of Rumble feels bright, and I look forward to seeing what those “mad scientists” come up with next.
Warcraft Rumble is available now on Mobile. PC Beta for Warcraft Rumble begins in December 2024.
