Marvel Rivals’ laid off director created one of the game’s most important mechanics – Video Gamer

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You can trust VideoGamer. Our team of gaming experts spend hours testing and reviewing the latest games, to ensure you’re reading the most comprehensive guide possible. Rest assured, all imagery and advice is unique and original. Check out how we test and review games hereSince Marvel Rivals developer NetEase laid off the game’s American developers, online discussions have claimed that the team working out of Seattle was a “support studio” for the main team in China. However, that’s not the case.Alongside level designers and technical engineers, the Seattle team included veteran Battlefield and Call of Duty developer Thaddeus Sasser. While some have claimed that Sasser’s role in the game’s development was minor, that couldn’t be further from the truth.In a LinkedIn post, Sasser explained some of his “impact on Marvel Rivals” over its years of development. After working on the game for more than two years, Sasser explained that he helped to create one of the reasons why players love the game in the first place: the team-up mechanic.
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The ex-director explained that he “designed the idea of Team-Ups” when he first joined the team at NetEase. After reading comic books growing up, Sasser explained that their special moves—”like the ‘Fastball Special’”—were integral to the feeling of teamwork, and he wanted them to be represented.“I thought this should be represented in the gameplay,” Sasser told followers. “It would add a deeper layer of complexity to the current experience, but it wouldn’t force specific role selection. It would also allow some tweaking and changes to the “meta ” layer over time. That’s a good thing, because a perfect balance is a boring balance.”Sasser revealed that the recent addition of the Human Torch in the Season 1.5 update added one of his original ideas to the game. Their team-up, which turns Storm’s tornado into a “firenado” was included in the director’s original pitch for the mechanic.“This specific team up between Storm and Human Torch was in my original pitch deck,” Sasser said. “The deck even had a picture of a firenado in it, haha!”Despite letting go of key developers, Marvel Rivals publisher NetEase claims that the game’s update cycle will not be affected. With new heroes coming every month-and-a-half alongside new maps, events and more, there’s hope for players that the game will survive for many years.Lewis White is a veteran games journalist with a decade of experience writing news, reviews, features and investigative pieces about game development with a focus on Halo and Xbox.
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