During the recent closed alpha test, we sat down to talk about all things MultiVersus with the game's director, Tony Huynh, from Player First Games. In this interview, we talk with Tony about what MultiVerus is, how it is to work with Warner Bros on the project, philosophies on its core combat designs and business models, and much more.
Game Informer: Can you tell us about MultiVersus? What’s the quick pitch of it?
Tony Huynh: MultiVersus is a cooperative platform fighter. It's free to play. And it's a game that has a lot of the barriers removed, that's really easy to pick up, but also a really smooth, gradual mastery curve into the game. Its focus is on cooperative team-based gameplay. So from the ground up, everything about it is team-based, working with your ally, all the abilities and moves are based around team play as well as having a huge iconic character cast of really awesome characters. We spent a lot of time on making the characters play the way that you think that they would play. We try to support every single input device, like keyboards and controllers. In an effort to remove all barriers, we also have a lot of resources poured into making really good online play through dedicated server rollback netcode. In a nutshell, that is what MultiVersus is; it's a very cooperative focused, social-focused platform fighter that I think everybody can pick up and play and then also invest thousands of hours, like I have, into it. [laughs]
GI: One of the special things about this game is its co-op focus. It is a 2v2 fighting game at heart. Can you talk about the decision in going to a 2v2 game as opposed to focusing on solo and free for all modes that are still present?
TH: I'm going to give you a little bit of a long-winded answer, but just a little bit of history behind that decision. My history is that I am a massive fighting game player. And I'm a combat designer by trade. It’s the reason why I became a combat designer, it's because of these games. Traditionally they have been 1v1 focused, and singles focused. I also play a lot of other games; I play games outside of the fighting game genre, like MOBAs and shooters. And the reason why I was discovering why I wasn't playing just fighting games all the time was because I like playing with my friends. And I just think that playing with my friends is a really good and fun experience, right? It's a reason why most of my social circle and friends are based on people I've met online, and people I've met playing games. And the other thing is these games are extremely, extremely important to me. They've changed my life and changed my career, and gave me a career. So I want a lot of players to be able to experience the way that I experienced it growing up. And part of that is great code and being able to pick up and play with other players, but also playing with somebody and having a shared objective. And that's something I think that I was missing, and why I was playing these other [games].
So a huge part of it is making sure that we can bring this genre to a lot more players, but also that experience of working with somebody else, and playing with somebody else, and being of one mind [was] what I was missing, and what made a lot of sense to bring in. It wasn't an easy decision. Because the thing is, we fully embraced this concept, but it changes everything from the ground up. Every single decision that you're making, all the mechanics on the characters, how they play, how do they impact the other character, including all the macro levels, meta systems and everything else, and even the strategic gameplay around perks, affects allies and then selection of perks actually impacting your ally. Everything in the game is tied around this concept. Steven doesn't just shield himself, he shields his allies at the same time. Wonder Woman has to pay attention to where her ally is, so she can dash to them, and then protect them and position herself correctly. So, there's just a lot of opportunity for teamwork and team play, that actually fundamentally changes up how the gameplay actually works.
GI: You mentioned that you brought on some ideas from outside of fighting games? Do you think that fighting games could learn more from other genres of games to boost their popularity and boost their playability?
TH: There's a lot of lessons from everywhere you can take. It depends on what the goals are, and our goals are: how do we remove barriers for the game, and how do we get as many players in playing as possible? I think [it’s] being well-rounded developers and understanding a lot of different ways to play, basically. Because the thing is, you really want to be careful about making the same game over and over again, and a lot of that has to come from understanding multiple genres and understanding what you like and what is possible. And good ideas come from everywhere. So we should pay attention. We [shouldn’t] just throw [something] out because of because it hasn't been done before. What we found is a lot of players that aren't in the fighting game community, or play platform fighters, really enjoy the game because it's very easy to pick up. But also a big part of [MultiVersus] will also be free to play, and a lot of players can just try the game. And it's on us, honestly, if they stick around. If they liked the game, it's on us. If we don't make a great game for them, they're not going to stick around. So this is the true test of are we making the correct game, are we making a game that players are going to enjoy and continue to play? And then also, because it's free to play, a lot of players can try it out. There’s cross-play as well. So, players can come on and they can play with their friends. We're trying to remove as many barriers as possible.
But it helps us out in a bunch of different ways. The best way, and the best experience, for playing these types of games is to play against somebody that is fairly equal in skill. And, to do that, it's very important that a lot of players are able to play the game. We can matchmake you based off of your skill, so you can have a really great experience and a smooth kind of mastery curve all the way up. That's part of the reason why we've done the things that we have. We don't just do things here at Player First Games. We're very deliberate about our decision-making for what we're trying to do. And it isn't geared around any sort of nefarious thing. It's based around, “we're trying to achieve this goal.” We're trying to provide this experience to as many players as possible and introduce his genre to as many people as possible. And then how do we do that? And how do we give everyone the best experience possible? Also, partnering with WB helps us reach a lot more players as well because of their awesome history and the history of their characters that they have and being able to reach that audience as well and making a game that they can get into.
GI: The game is free to play; sometimes that has certain expectations that people put on free-to-play games. With MultiVersus, are you looking to make most things unlockable by playing versus spending money? I'm guessing there are going to be ways of spending money on the game to unlock cosmetics. What does the monetization model look like and how do you expect players to interact with it?
TH: I can talk about the philosophy that we have, which is there's no pay to win here. In fact, anything that grants any sort of benefit like perks, for instance, they can only be earned by playing the game. Spending enough money on the game shouldn’t give you an advantage. That’s the overarching thing about the game. What I've discovered in my past is that if players really enjoy the game, they'll spend money. That’s kind of the bottom line, and I think that our cosmetics are really awesome. Ring out effects and everything else like they're, [in] my personal opinion, I think they're worth spending money on because they're so cool. So, that's kind of the model that we're using. We just want players to have a really great experience, and that's it.
GI: In the alpha right now, we are experiencing the battle pass and some of the other progressions systems. There's a lot in here! Each character levels up to have their own unlocks, etc. Are you looking at doing a seasonal structure for these Battle Passes, and what kind of content are we looking at if you do roll out content seasonally?