Interview: Rumble Club Focuses On PvP Physics-Based Combat With Diverse Game Mods

Jordan: My name is Jordan Arnold, and I am the COO and Head of Product at Lightfox Games. I lead our product and design teams on Rumble Club.

Jordan: We wanted to build something both accessible and differentiated in Rumble Club. Despite the colors and cute characters, Rumble Club is leaning into massively multiplayer physics-based combat, a take that we haven’t seen executed well in the market. While there are lots of games that are multiplayer, and physics-based, most of them lean on PvE game modes.

In Rumble Club, the focus is PvP. You master physics to bop your opponents out of the Arena or play the combat-focused objectives in various game modes. While it’s simple and casual on its face, we’ve added a ton of depth and nuance in combat to master.

We’ve also built the game to be cross-platform with cross-save and cross-matchmaking from the beginning, with a big focus on making the controls fair anywhere. We think that the “play everywhere, fair anywhere” approach will further differentiate us in the market.

Jordan: I think that in today’s market, games that stream well sell well. We asked ourselves: how do we make a game that’s not only entertaining to play but also to watch? We wanted people to be able to watch a stream, see an ad, or look over someone’s shoulder and immediately say, “Oh, I get it.”

The physics-based combat and competitive nature of the game modes we’ve designed are key to this. We’re also really interested in seeing how creators use some of the tools we’ve built for them, like the Stream Queue feature that lets a live streamer seamlessly bring viewers into a match and then cycle a new batch of viewers.

Jordan: Rumble Club isn’t a traditional battle royale shooter; it’s more like a battle royale puncher. In most BRs, the goal is to get your opponent’s HP to zero to knock them out.

Instead, we’re bringing physics-based combat and chaotic game modes to this genre, where your goal is to use physics to bop your opponent out of the Arena and into the Goop.

Additionally, we haven’t stopped at just the core Battle Royale loop. We’ve innovated with multiple other game modes and found new ways to have fun with competitive physics in Rumble Club.

Jordan: Our monetization model is focused on cosmetics. In-game currency can both be bought and earned and used to purchase cosmetics of different rarities, along with a Battle Pass.

Through the Battle Pass, players can also earn exclusive Seasonal Cosmetics, along with gadget upgrades that incrementally increase the amount of time a specific gadget is active for that player in the Arena.

Jordan: We have 10 Collection Gadgets that will always be in Rumble Club, ranging from the Magic Donut, which turns you into a giant donut that slams on the ground to send enemies flying, to the Ice Machine, which you can use to fire various-sized ice cubes around the Arena.

We also have five space-themed Seasonal Gadgets, which will be vaulted at the end of our first Season. This gives us a great opportunity to shift the meta and introduce new “toys” into the game every season, giving players fresh experiences to come back to.

Jordan: We’re a small, focused team of senior game developers. Our team is inherently multi-disciplinary, with everyone jumping into numerous aspects of development. Everyone needs to be able to truly understand the goals of what we’re building, which allows them to make great decisions at the moment on the things they’re working on.

Finally, we invest in tools and workflows that empower our design team to stretch the limits of their imagination and experiment with new ways of play to find the fun.

Jordan: We’ve loved to see the passion and community that has started building around the game. Both during and after our playtest, we received a ton of great feedback from the community, which we’ve taken into consideration. A great example is the addition of more game modes – especially more competitive modes.

At launch, we will have two new modes that weren’t in the playtest: Deathmatch and Crab Crush. These exist as Solo and Team modes, so it’s easy to play with friends. In Crab Crush, players punch crabs to collect them but lose their crabs if they are knocked into the Goop. It’s been hilarious fun to test with the team, and I can’t wait for players to punch some crabs.

Jordan: Lightfox has 13 people total, and we’re proud of what we’ve accomplished with our team size.

Jordan: When we met Mad Mushroom at an event in December of 2023, we were planning to self-publish Rumble Club. After a few meetings and after getting some great feedback from the Mad Mushroom team and the creators at OTK, we felt like we found a great partner to help bring this game to market.

Jordan: Rumble Club is easy to pick up, with an inviting art style and a simple premise: Punch, trick, and throw your friends out of the Arena. There’s a lot of hidden depth in the Strike system. If you punch someone hard, you land a Strike. Three strikes, and you’re knocked out for a few seconds.

This leads to some very interesting (and watchable!) epic battles between skilled players. It’s almost like watching a chess match unfold. Those skills take time to master, and more competitive players will have to hone their skills and strategies if they want to succeed. 

But, at the end of the day, if you just want to throw punches and have fun, that’s cool too.

Jordan: Rumble Club has been a real labor of love for us, and we hope players feel that when they play. We can’t wait to see the kinds of chaos players get up to, how they customize their Punchies, and the cool content they create.