Vice President & Game Director Tom Chilton, Production Director Jackie Bacal Head, and Art Director Jeremy Collins lift the lid and dive into the joyful chaos that went into Warcraft Rumble.
What's Inside
The Warcraft Rumble team set out to make a game that gives a little something to everyone, and Warcraft Rumble has all the things!
- Tower Defense…and Offense
- Players must protect their base, mine for resources, and attack their opponent or boss to claim that base for the win.
- Mini Collecting
- Players will collect Minis of familiar Warcraft heroes they've grown to love.
- Campaign Modes
- There's an extensive campaign mode in Warcraft. Once a high enough level is reached, there is a challenging Heroic Campaign mode to tackle.
- PvP, Guilds, Dungeons, and More!
- There's PvP for those who love competing against others, and for those who prefer solo play, hit up a Dungeon or play Arclight Surge. Players can sync up with friends in a group chat and join a guild, and then, once in a guild, work together to win the Guild War Chest each Season.
Build Your Army!
Warcraft Rumble armies consist of troops, spells, and leaders. Warcraft Rumble comes with over 65 Minis in five unique Families with multiple Leaders in each, so players will have plenty of opportunity to test out and try different playstyles. When strategizing an army, choose Melee, Ranged, Flying, or Squad Minis. Players can also collect talents for Minis that add additional abilities.
Journey Across Azeroth
In Rumble, players journey through Azeroth, moving through all the old zones they know and love, including Elwynn Forest, the Barrens, Westfall, Stranglethorn Vale, Darkshore, and many more.
There are over 70 Levels at launch, with five levels divided into Zones. The final level of each zone is a more challenging mission and might require a higher-level army to defeat it. Each level and boss has unique mechanics, so a different strategy and army will be needed to succeed.
Once players beat the Campaign, they'll reach Onyxia's Lair, home to Rumble's most complex and challenging final boss.
Arclight Surge: Maps with a Twist
Arclight Surge is a fun solo feature where players get to replay completed levels but with an electric twist. A rotating selection of previously completed levels will be lit up with Arclight energy every few days.
Heroic Campaign: Maps with An Even Harder Twist
Once players get to 50 Sigils, the extremely difficult Heroic Campaign unlocks. This difficulty level is much like the Normal Campaign but with a higher-level requirement and a challenging twist on the map.
These levels are another opportunity to earn more XP to boost player armies, as they get extra rewards for winning with each Family AND bonuses for beating the whole zone.
Dungeons: Weekly 3-Map Challenges with Relics
Dungeons are a series of three maps with three bosses. Each week, the Family leader required to enter the dungeon is rotated. Before jumping into each level, players will pick a Relic, much like a talent, but can be applied to either an individual unit or as a buff to the whole army or a portion of the army. Three relics can be stacked, one for each of the three levels of the dungeon. Winning against the final boss gains an army slot upgrade that bumps up levels of special Mini-types that can be applied to the Leader's army.
PvP: 6-Week Seasons of Rotating Maps and Modifiers
In PVP mode, players are matched up 1v1 according to rank, and as they get better and climb the ladder, they will play against more challenging opponents. Seasons are six weeks long, with rotating towers, maps, and map modifiers.
Join A Guild
Group up with new people or old friends, chat with them, or work together to win your Guild's War Chest. There can be up to 15 people per Guild. It's a group effort for the Guild to play Arclight Surge Missions and PvP matches to collect points to turn in for rewards and resets each Season.
The Making Of: Warcraft in the Palm of Your Hand
Warcraft Rumble, like many game projects, began with an idea—what if we could make a game that miniaturized Azeroth into an experience that celebrated the epic majesty of the Warcraft Universe and the fun moment-to-moment gameplay of modern mobile games.
Warcraft III and WoW models, animations, and VFX were used for the early prototypes of Warcraft Rumble, and substitutes for final art were also used to save time while developing the final art style, including characters and environments.
Art Director Jeremy Collins then goes into more detail about the variety of art styles that got them where they landed with the Warcraft Rumble we know today, starting with a bunch of Orcs.
The Future of Warcraft Rumble
A slew of new content and features are currently being experimented with or already in production. Here's a high-level view of what the Warcraft Rumble team is currently working on:
- New Seasons
- For players starting the game today. Seasons are six weeks long; players can expect updates every upcoming Season. Season 1 just got underway, with Sylvanas introduced as the Undead Leader. She's exclusively available this Season through the PvP ladder and the War Chest. Each Season will bring a new Mini to the game:
- Season 1 introduces a Leader, Sylvanas.
- Season 2 brings a Troop that can be added to any army.
- Season 3 hails Emperor Thaurissan from the depths of Blackrock Mountain to round out the Blackrock Family.
- Season 4 will usher in the Faerie Dragon as the new seasonal Mini, resistant to elemental attacks.
- For players starting the game today. Seasons are six weeks long; players can expect updates every upcoming Season. Season 1 just got underway, with Sylvanas introduced as the Undead Leader. She's exclusively available this Season through the PvP ladder and the War Chest. Each Season will bring a new Mini to the game:
- Ragnaros
- Players can also acquire the Ragnaros Mini. This Leader won't be part of the seasonal content but will be tied to the release of the Molten Core Raid. Defeat Ragnaros to add him and his unique mechanics to your collection of Minis.
- Supporting Features
- Co-op Game Modes
- From Warcraft Rumble's initial conception, it was viewed as a co-op game that would be fun to play solo or with a friend. So, to realize this plan, the team is planning to create the ability to party with a guild mate and engage in co-op battles via the Raid feature.
- Developing the Party and Raid feature opens the potential for added modes of co-op play, such as completing Quests, Arclight Surges, and PvP.
- Co-op Game Modes
- Raids
- Raids will require players to party with one of their guildmates.
- Raids are available for a limited time each Season.
- Each Wing will host two of the Raid's bosses and comes with a unique reward.
- Take Molten Core as an example:
- Molten Core is split into three wings before the final Boss encounter.
- The expectation for Molten Core is that the first Wing is at level 26, the second at 27, and so on.
- Players will need to consider which Leaders to bring to each encounter.
- Wing 1, the first encounter will be Lucifron and Magmadar; Wing 2 brings Ghennas & Shazzrah, and Garr, and Wing 3 hosts Baron Geddon and Golemagg. It wouldn't be Moten Core without the final Boss, Ragnaros.
- Each Wing delivers powerful and unique rewards.
- Clearing the first Wing will unlock a Boost Slot for an army of your choice.
- Clearing Wing 2 will reward you with a Legendary Tome.
- Wing 3, a Legendary Core.
- For every two Raid Bosses brought down, players will earn Valor that can be used to upgrade their Gold army Slots to a Platinum Slot.
- The final reward upon defeating Ragaros is adding him to your Leader Collection and additional Star Points.
- Dungeon and Zone Content
- New Dungeon: Scholomance
- Scholomance features three of the most memorable bosses of the dungeon—Jandice Barov, Rattlegore, and, of course, Darkmaster Gandling himself.
- New Campaign Zone: Moonglade
- Moonglade will come into the game as the final zone of the Campaign (at least for now) after Blackrock Mountain. Five maps are in progress for the zone, with both Normal and Heroic versions.
- Featured Bosses are Brightwing, Brumera, Ysera, and Cenarius
- New Dungeon: Scholomance
- PvP Updates
- Updating the Seasonal rotation system to randomize what map selection rather than featuring the same map for the entire Season to keep things fresh and fun.
- Adding a new modifier category.
- Global Leaderboards are also being added to support the PvP community's never-ending quest to know who's best.
- Along with these updates to the PvP system, there is a feature that many players have been looking forward to for some time—Replays.
- New Cosmetic Items Via the War Chest
- Each 6-week Season will bring the opportunity to collect new cosmetic items from the War Chest and PvP Ladder.
- Every other Season features a Tower skin as one of the War Chest cosmetics, with the Mecha-Gnome Tower set added to Season 1 and the Judgement Tower coming in Season 3.
- Along with Tower Skins, we have several new Emotes in the works:
- A new Emote will be added to the PvP Ladder each Season, and there will be an additional Emote in the War Chest every other Season.
- Character Skins are also in the game, starting with the lowly Kobold, with soon-to-be-released Family-themed Kobolds available for collecting. The idea of Leader Skins is also being explored.
Warcraft Rumble is NOW LIVE, and there are plenty of features to try out, learn, and master, with many more on the way! Keep an eye on warcraftrumble.blizzard.com/#news for the latest updates and information.