A recently laid-off Marvel Rivals Director claims to have created one of the most innovative features in the popular hero shooter, the game’s unique Team-Up abilities.
Despite Marvel Rivals becoming one of the most popular new releases with tens of millions of players jumping in throughout Season 1, some developers behind the smash-hit were still met with layoffs.
A smaller support studio based in Seattle was gutted on February 19, as NetEase dumped the entire team in order to allegedly “optimize development efficiency.” Naturally, those impacted were shocked by the sudden move, given the game’s early success.
Having led the US-based team, Director Thaddeus Sasser was quick to speak up on social media, and now he’s sharing further insight on the ‘billion-dollar franchise’ he ‘helped create.’ Peeling back the curtain in a new LinkedIn post, Sasser claimed to have led the charge on one of the game’s defining features, the Team-Up abilities.
Team-Up abilities are part of the identity of Marvel Rivals, helping separate it from any other hero shooter.
Former Marvel Rivals Director takes credit for Team-Up abilities
The former Director of the now redundant Seattle team revealed how from the very beginning of his tenure with NetEase, he was pushing for unique features in the hero shooter. “One of the first [he] designed was the idea of Team-Ups.”
As a longtime Marvel fan, he looked at the source material, saw all the bonds between characters and in some cases, the familial connections, and figured there needed to be a way to represent that “in the gameplay.”
“It would add a deeper layer of complexity to the current experience,” Sasser explained, “But it wouldn’t force specific role selection.
“It would also allow some tweaking and changes to the meta over time. That’s a good thing, because a perfect balance is a boring balance.”
Even offering up a specific example, the laid-off Director revealed the new Team-Up between Storm and Human Torch “was in [the] original pitch deck. I’m excited to see it announced, and I can’t wait to hear how the players feel about the Team-Ups feature.”
The Human Torch & Storm Team-Up has been in the pipeline from the very beginning, according to the former Director.
Of course, while Sasser took credit for pitching the concept, “a huge amount of people worked very hard on the game, with a great deal of passion.” For that, the former Director remains “proud, regardless of [his] specific outcome.”
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