MultiVersus Developer on Ultra Instinct Shaggy, New Characters, and Balancing So Many Fighters

MultiVersus, the upcoming free-to-play platform fighter from Warner Bros. Games and Player First Games, officially kicks off a Closed Alpha today that runs through May 27th. Ahead of today’s Closed Alpha launching, ComicBook.com had the opportunity to play with early access of the MultiVersus Closed Alpha as well as interview MultiVersus Principal Developer Daniel Kraft. As part of that discussion, Kraft spoke about everything from Ultra Instinct Shaggy to balancing fighters and how the developer goes about deciding which new characters to add.

If you’re not already familiar, the upcoming video game is notable for taking a number of different Warner Bros. properties and smashing them together, bringing characters from shows like Adventure Time and Looney Tunes to fight iconic DC superheroes and villains like Batman and Harley Quinn. Also, Game of Thrones‘ Arya Stark is also in there. It’s a frankly wild lineup of characters with more to come as the recent cinematic trailer revealed that Iron Giant is on its way.

As far as details go, MultiVersus is a free-to-play platform brawler with a focus on 2-on-2 team fights that is set to release in Open Beta in July on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One, and PC. As of today, a Closed Alpha for the video game is ongoing through May 27th. Notably, the title will launch with full crossplay support as well as server-based rollback netcode. You can check out all of our previous coverage of the upcoming video game right here.

Are you interested in the Closed Alpha for MultiVersus? Have you been following along with the announcements by Warner Bros. Games? Let us know in the comments, or feel free to reach out and hit me up directly over on Twitter at @rollinbishop in order to talk about all things gaming! And keep reading to check out our full interview with Player First Games’ Daniel Kraft!

The following interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

On Ultra Instinct Shaggy and Adding New Characters

ComicBook.com: I have to start with the obvious. We’re here to talk about MultiVersus, and I think from the initial reveal, the big thing… Ultra Instinct Shaggy. I have to ask how, when, where, why?

Daniel Kraft: I mean, it’s been in there for a while. Shaggy was one of the first characters and we really wanted to embrace the culture that’s grown around him. So it just seemed like a good place, also makes for an exciting moveset and kit for a character in the game. So we just went straight ahead with it.

Speaking of characters, obviously, there is so much to pull from with WB’s roster of franchises, right? How do you folks at Player First Games go about deciding which characters to add? For example, obviously in the alpha, it seems odd that we should get Velma before Scooby. But what’s the thinking here behind adding new characters?

Yes. So with characters, WB’s got this massive library of characters. We want to try to grab as many as we can. It’s just a process. We got to find ones that fit, find ones that work. In some cases, it’s people on the team fight for it. And we just try to make sure that we get the best characters for what we’re needing at the time.

There’s also a lot of game health to kind of consider, “Hey, can we get a character that fills a role for the game that we need?” Or maybe there’s a gap in the game that, “Hey, what character can fit that best?” And so we want to take all those things into consideration to keep pushing the game forward as we keep developing it.

On Original Characters

Now at launch, there isn’t just the WB roster. There is actually an original character, I believe it’s called Reindog.

Yeah.

Is that the sort of thing we should expect more of, or is Reindog sort of like the test for that?

Moving forward, we’re keeping that open. Original characters will be fun to have, gives us a lot more freedom to play around with kit design and things like that. There’s a lot of trade offs, but for the most part we’re going to be trying to grab fan favorites. We want to make sure to serve the playerbase. And so when it’s appropriate and it fits and we think that it’ll bring a lot of excitement to the players, then we can make original characters, but otherwise we’ll try to make sure to feed the playerbase the characters that they know and love.

On Game of Thrones and Intended Audience

Speaking of characters people know and love, I feel like I have to ask whether there was any concern about adding a character from Game of Thrones in Arya Stark to a game that’s ostensibly angled at a much younger audience than the show?

So we wanted to make sure that we could get a breadth of characters. So we wanted Arya Stark live action, right? That was a big hurdle to accomplish as well because we wanted to make sure that these characters from Hanna-Barbera and Looney Tunes could fit with characters from live action as well. So that was important for us to figure that out artistically.

And then we do have some settings for mature language in the game. So we know that we don’t want to alienate our younger playerbase. So we do have customization options to make sure that it doesn’t go too far.

On Bringing Back Iconic Voices

Obviously there are a bunch of voiceovers for these characters with a lot of the original actors voicing them. Is that the plan going forward? Obviously, we’ve got Maisie Williams as Arya Stark. You’ve got Kevin Conroy as Batman.

Well, I mean, one of our goals is we want to make sure the characters are as recognizable or as true to their selves as we can. So as best as we can, we’ll get the most recognizable, or at least the closest thing we can to the character that we can. It’s not always the case that we’ll be able to get the one that you might know and love. There’s been a lot of voices for Batman. There’s been a lot of voices for Shaggy, for instance. But we want to try to get ones that are really well known for the character as best we can, so that players recognize them and, “Oh yeah, I grew up on that,” and they hear it and they get more involved and more drawn into the game as best we can.

On Leaks and Feedback

Now before the game was actually revealed, there was a very public leak of MultiVersus, of the roster. What was the feeling as the developer with that initial feedback before you could even actually say anything about the game?

We can’t really talk about the leaks, sorry.

Well, then let’s talk about the actual reveal. How has the developer felt about the feedback so far? Obviously, not many people have had a chance to get their hands on it yet.

We’ve had the original reveal back in November, where we first showcased the game, and then we had the Devs Versus Pros recently, and then the cinematic trailer just dropped. All of them have been very positive, positively received.

It’s been really exciting for us working on the game. We’ve been heads down and finally coming up for a breath of fresh air and getting people’s reactions. We’ve had some closed alphas and we have another one coming up here in two days on Thursday.

And those have always been very eye-opening for us, because it’s great to get players in. We’ve been playing the game for a long time. It’s great to get players in to tell us, “Hey, this isn’t working,” or, “I don’t like how this is working.” And we’re trying to gather as much of that feedback as we can and try to hit on it, all of it that we can so that we can make the game as good as possible by the time it goes wide. So we’re hoping to get as much feedback as we can. The feedback that we’ve gotten from the trailer and from the reveal so far has been pretty positively received, which has been nice to hear.

On Balancing So Many Characters

For any sort of platform fighter like this, whether it be Super Smash Bros. or Brawlhalla, it always feels like from a player perspective that it has to be extremely tricky to get those kits right. You’ve got so many different unique abilities playing off of another. How do you make sure that these things are balanced well when you add a new character with new abilities to the game?

So with a platform fighter like MultiVersus, and with all the different characters, from Superman to Shaggy, we’re trying to make sure that again, when you pick up the controller, when you jump on the keyboard, when you’re playing them, you feel, “Hey, this is how they should react.” So we take a lot of effort to look at what they’ve been in, look at how they’re represented in their other IP and just make sure to make that as clean as possible.

As far as balancing is concerned, there’s always going to be a challenge. You don’t want to just rinse and repeat. You don’t want to throw in the exact same gameplay for every new character because it’s not going to fit on every new character, but that’s something we’re keeping an eye on.

And so when we see a character that is too powerful, we can go in there and adjust it and nerf things and bring things back to a more balanced state. But there’s also, we don’t want to go too heavy-handed with it, because players find ways around obstacles. And you don’t want to go in there and take away that opportunity for a player to find a way to overcome an issue they’re having. So if they’re having a problem with Shaggy, we don’t want to go in there and just change Shaggy right away if a player can find a way around it with, “Oh, well you can do this, or Batman can do this.” And the game can evolve if it’s in a stable place for a long, long period of time.

On Keeping Players Coming Back

Speaking of evolving for a long, long period of time, we don’t have a release date for MultiVersus yet, but it is known that is, and correct me if I’m wrong, a free-to-play game for all major consoles, except for Nintendo Switch right now, I believe that has not been confirmed or denied, as well as PC. How do you make sure the game has that longevity? How do you keep players coming back with a title like this?

So we’re going to be having our open beta in July. We’re coming out on PlayStation, Xbox and PC, and we’re going to continue to update the game. So we want to constantly bring new content to the game. We’re going to have seasons with lots of fun things for players to interact with, new characters, new places to fight, new game modes. So we’re going to constantly be adding to the game and just keep improving it, keeping it balanced, and just adding new things to experience in the game. And that hopefully will draw players to keep coming back.

On Progression Across Multiple Bars

Just from what I’ve played already, it’s pretty clear that there are a number of different progression bars, a number of different goals to meet, challenges to do. How do you make sure that doesn’t ever feel overwhelming? There’s a lot going on here. And then on top of that, how do you differentiate the Battle Pass?

So we want to make sure that players can progress in the game. I think that’s a driving factor for a lot of people. So with per character progression, we’re still in development. So we’re still figuring out the numbers and making sure that things flow out at a decent pace. We don’t want people to feel like it’s just the grind and takes forever just to get through it. We want people to feel like, “Oh, well, I’m progressing, I’m moving on.” So we’re still working on that. We’re still trying to find the right balance.

And then Battle Pass progression, and that’s in the closed alpha as you’ve played, but we’re … Again, that’s another thing that we’re still keeping an eye on and we’re working on. We’re not sure exactly what our monetization models will be. We know for one thing that we’re set on is it’s not pay to win. Anything that’s going to affect gameplay, you can earn by playing. So that is something that we’re focused on. But other than that, we’re still kind of figuring what’s the best fit.

On Locking Perks Behind Progression

You’ve mentioned multiple times now that the team is figuring out a lot of these things, still making sure it’s all right. But something that jumped out to me in the Closed Alpha is locking perks behind level progression per character. Can you walk me through the thinking on that?

Again, we’re still playing around with how a player will move through interacting with a character and increasing through gameplay. One of the things we were thinking is, you don’t want to overwhelm someone too much at the start. There’s a lot of perks in there. And if a player gets in there and they have to learn all the perks as well as a new character, that can be a lot to pick up from the start. So we want to let them pick up over time and slowly learn.

And again, that’s something that we’re still figuring out what the best cadence is. And we’re hoping to get a lot of feedback from our closed alpha and continuing into the open beta as well. And we’re going to take that feedback and try to adjust as best we can.

So in other words, the idea is to sort of provide a stable learning curve for new players.

Yes.

On Matchmaking

Speaking of that, one of the things I noticed playing, it seemed like it was matching me up depending on my character’s level. So as level one Bugs Bunny, I was fighting with a level one or two Jake, and then a level one or two Superman and Garnet were my enemies. Is that roughly how mechanically that matchmaking is happening?

There’s a lot of stuff we’re doing behind the scenes to try to match you with appropriately skilled players. We want to make sure that again, that you have a fun time playing the game. We don’t want people jumping in who have thousands of hours of experience and playing with someone who’s brand new to the game. That’s not a good experience for either player. So there’s a lot of stuff that we’re doing behind the scenes to try to make the best possible matches.

On Favorite Fighters and Success

Now you had talked about, when we spoke on adding certain characters to the game, that some people had to fight for some. Is there a character in the launch roster that you specifically fought for, or that you have strong feelings on having been added to the game personally?

Yeah, there’s a lot of them. [laughs] I was a big fan of Adventure Time before working on this. And so getting to work on Finn and Jake was a lot of fun. And then as well, the DC characters, I got to work on Superman, which was also fun. It’s like this iconic character that you’ve grown up with and all of a sudden that you get to bring them into the game and bring them to life, which is … It’s been really, really rewarding to work on that.

Iron Giant’s coming up. Again, was a big fan of that. And that was one that I think will be a lot of fun once he gets into the game in open beta.

Again, things are very early on for this game, right? It’s only just in closed alpha for a very select few right now. I have to ask, this is something I ask, basically, every creator I ever talk with. For you, personally, what does success for MultiVersus look like beyond just making a ton of money or sales or that sort of thing?

For me, success for MultiVersus is just creating the best experience for the player. We wanted to make sure we focused on 2V2 gameplay because we believe playing with friends is more fun than them just playing alone. We want to bring people together. We want people to jump on and be able to play with their friends, bring people together, make it feel like, “Hey, I can jump on and play. And it’s like, I’m sitting right next to my friend, even if they’re not next to me right now, they’re in a different state or a different country.”

We want to try to bring people together as much as we can and make a fun, but competitive experience. This is a community, I think, that deserves a very polished and thought-out game that will grow with them and listen to them and just improve over time.

On What Sets MultiVersus Apart

What do you feel sets MultiVersus apart from other platform fighters like Super Smash Bros. or Brawlhalla or anything of that sort?

MultiVersus is focused on 2V2 gameplay. And again, we wanted to make sure to push that kind of social element as well, as well as we have a huge roster of really iconic characters that you haven’t really been able to see in too many games.

We have Jake and Finn and Iron Giant coming in. Taz just got announced and is going to be available in the Closed Alpha. Bugs Bunny, all these iconic WB characters just haven’t been able to interact in a game like this before. So we think that’s going to be really special for players.

On Possibly Adding Fighters From Other WB Games

There’s a ton of WB properties present in here, but so far, none of the WB Games properties, is that a possibility? [fake coughs] Mortal Kombat. [fake coughs]

We’re going to be continuing to add new characters down the line. We want to try to surprise people as best we can, but you’ll have to stay tuned. You’ll have to get that information as it comes out.