After four long years, it’s crazy that people are finally playing Rumbleverse! As Lead Combat Designer, I implemented and led the design of every combat interaction in the game alongside my team. Basic Attacks, Special Moves, dashing, dodging, hit reactions, weapon attacks, Super mode, Super Moves, wall bounces, emotes, etc. You name it and I worked on it. I really couldn’t be prouder of what the team has accomplished. It really was a labor of love and excitement.

There’s a lot of pressure being a lone Combat Designer on a project like this, but Adam Heart, the game’s Lead Designer, had full faith in me every step of the way. Adam and I have known each other for over 10 years and met through FGC channels. I helped him move to Chicago. He was my boss at Shoryuken.com. We worked together at Iron Galaxy. I helped him move out of Chicago. We had a huge challenge given to us with this project and we not only accepted it, but we kicked its ass. It really felt like two best friends just making a potential dream project together.

The wrestling influences in Rumbleverse, while obvious, were especially important to me. I was first introduced to the world of Pro Wrestling by my grandfather at a very young age. He didn’t speak English very well, but he would babysit me every Monday to watch WWF Raw. Every twist and turn was greeted with excited gasps; every devastating blow was met with an emphatic “Opa!”. Despite the fact he struggled with English, we shared a common language every Monday night. Wrestling gave us something that would stay with me for a lifetime. Working on Rumbleverse gave me an opportunity to honor the memory of my grandfather and create new memories along the way.

As a Latino game developer, I’ve seen too many situations throughout my career where people didn’t have a voice for a variety of reasons. So on Rumbleverse, it was crucial to me that everyone I worked with felt like they were a collaborator. To me, it didn’t matter if you were QA, Design, Production, a VFX artist, Animator, etc. It was always important that everyone knew that they were respected and had a voice that mattered. I like to think that the result of what you see in Rumbleverse reflects that strong collaborative spirit.

The second most important thing to me was making sure that combat had impact and oomph. As a wrestling fan, I knew this had to be core to the gameplay experience. Adam Heart and I never doubted that Rumbleverse needed beefy reactions. Accomplishing this was no easy feat, though. Anyone who has done online combat can tell you that it’s difficult to execute, especially at this scale. We couldn’t rely on tricks used by shooters because we were building a melee-based game. Despite that, it didn’t take long for us to have a proof of concept ready.

The combat of Rumbleverse is, in so many ways, a literal representation of the things that shaped my childhood and the childhood of so many others. Rekt Shots, Uppercuts, Spears, Izuna Drops, Spinning Powerbombs — you name it. The game is a love letter to the ridiculousness of Pro Wrestling, Dragon Ball Z, Final Fantasy, Super Mario, Ninja Gaiden, Metal Gear Solid 2, fighting games, and so much more. Every move takes you back to a different time, a different place, a different memory. Being able to share these moments with everyone, seeing people smiling and laughing while playing the game, brings a tear to my eye every single time.

While I may have moved on to a new opportunity and am saying goodbye to working on Rumbleverse, I am so proud of the work that myself and my team were able to accomplish. Even after playing the game for thousands of hours, I still get that same adrenaline rush doing a move off a building as if it was my first time seeing it.

A large part of my soul is in this game, so it makes me happy to see people are enjoying it. There are still so many cool things that the community has not seen yet, too! Please be excited 🙂

— Isaac Torres
Former Lead Combat Designer, Rumbleverse