‘Marvel Rivals’ Director Responds To “Gooner Game” Accusations, Says “Majority Of Players” Like Sexy Skins
Rather than paying any mind to those more annoyingly puritanical sections of the internet that have written off Marvel Rivals‘ character designs, in particular those belonging to its female roster picks like Psylocke and Squirrel Girl, as nothing more than ‘disgusting pervert gooner bait’, Game Director Guangyun ‘Guangguang’ Chen has instead chosen to focus his attention on those who have chosen to enjoy them.
Guangguang provided his thoughts on the hero shooter’s risqué reputation during a recent interview given to the aptly-named Rivals Assemble fan news outlet during the Marvel Rivals Mid Season Ignite tournament, as recently held from August 6th-10th in Guangzhou, China.
Met at the top of their time together with a request for details regarding his team’s “design process”, the director explained, “When we were making Marvel Rivals, especially when creating the heroes, we really focused on how to bring the abilities of Marvel’s superheroes into the game so that players could truly experience the joy of embodying a superhero.”
“So in our design process, we always started from the unique traits and characteristics of each superhero. From there, we designed the hero’s skill set, then moved on to a white-box stage, essentially a prototype test. Then we proceeded with art support and production. Finally, we integrated everything together and went through a very detailed polishing phase before arriving at the version of the game that players see today.
Next, Rivals Assembled inquired with Guangguang as to what the dev team’s general hero development cycle looked like, to which the director opened a lengthy recap by recalling, “First, we decide on the hero roster.”
“This starts with looking at the season we’re planning – We’ll have discussions about the season’s story, like which location it will focus on, and what kind of story will unfold between certain heroes.
“Within that storyline, we figure out which heroes would be a good fit to appear. We then have in-depth discussions with the Marvel team, and only after that do we finalize the hero roster. Once that’s decided, we move on to designing the heroes themselves.
“Our design team will first study the hero in depth – learning all the different aspects of their background and traits – based on that, we create fun and engaging ability combinations. After that, we make a prototype to test those abilities. If the overall gameplay feels both feasible and fun, we start producing art assets for the hero.
“This stage takes quite a while. It usually takes quite a long time to produce the art assets. Once they’re completed, we’ll integrate all the abilities into those assets and fine-tune everything to make sure it all feels right. Then we’d release.
“Before release, we do extensive internal balance testing both within our design team and with top-level players inside the company. We make sure the hero is balanced and still fun to play. Only when all of that checks out, once the hero is both fun and well-balanced, we’ll finally release it to the broader player base. “
In their final design-related question, the news outlet directly asked Guangguang, “How do you guys respond to people calling Marvel Rivals a ‘gooner game’?”
Taking the question in stride, the director asserted, “Because our design, as mentioned earlier, in inspired by classic comic themes, including some very outstanding skins like Mantis, and also Psylocke’s Vengeance outfit. These all come from classic comic designs.
“We take those classic comic designs and create some more fashionable designs based on them, to gain players’ appreciation. I think this also reflects the broad recognition from our players.
“As mentioned earlier, with Squirrel Girl and the Krakoa Resort skin [which is itself a reference to Sabrina Carpenter’s Espresso music video], these are actually designs based on real-world themes and the season’s storyline. For designs like these, we try our best to integrate the storylines from the season, including elements from Krakoa, and also blend some popular elements from real life.
“We create new designs based on that, and I’m very grateful these designs have been well received by the majority of players.”
