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This interview was conducted via video conferencing and edited for readability and clarity.

What goes into the selection process?

How does that process work?

Tony Huynh:We call ourselves Player First Games, and that wasn’t a mistake.

We’re holding ourselves to a really high standard.

I want to talk to the community, interact with them, and see what they want.

That said, I think that there’s a lot of different factors in the decision process.

Can we make this character play the way that you think that the character should play?"

We have to be very deliberate about who we’re picking.

Is it pushing the game in some way?

Is it solving some problem that we’re having in gameplay?

Can this character help address these things?

For instance, Velma is not the first character you think about in a fighting game.

On top of that, WB has been an amazing partner.

We also work with IP-holders of the specific properties and confirm we are representing the characters correctly.

That starts with me; when I go into a character, I watch basically everything.

If you play a certain character, do they operate in the right ways?

Do we have the elements of the character right?

Are we being true and authentic to the character?

I assume that situation-specific lines are all around the game, is that right?

I think that everything we’re trying to do, we’re putting a lot of love into it.

We want to check that we’re doing the things that players really want.

Maybe they don’t even know they want this, but we should pursue it anyway.

I can’t tell you how many times we’d scrap things because we couldn’t pull it off.

We want to double-check that we deliver things to players that meet or exceed their expectations.

You mention maximizing player value, is that part of why you went the free-to-play method?

What about that model makes the most sense for what you’re trying to do with MultiVersus?

There’s different advantages to both models, right?

I’m not saying one is better than the other.

For us, a huge part of it is accessibility.

I’ve been playing fighting games for 20 years at least, probably more.

It’s a reason why I’m a combat designer.

I want more players to actually be able to experience what I experienced, growing up playing these games.

We removed a barrier immediately.

A lot of players can try the game that way.

It’s a lofty goal, but we’re going to try.

You have to set lofty goals, right?

We’re making sure we’re communicating with the community and that the community is being heard.

We’re listening to them, and together we can make a better game out of it.

We actually went back to the drawing board, and the community actually gave us a bunch of feedback.

We addressed it, and I think now it’s a very positive addition.

In reference to combat design, the main mode that stands out to me is the team-based 2v2 mode.

When planning the game out, when did the team see that 2v2 was a major opportunity?

I wouldn’t say it was an “opportunity” or anything like that.

All of these are things you have to consider when you make a decision like we did with 2v2.

In that vein, if we’re talking about playing with friends, we have to talk about netcode.

What kind of challenges were you finding in rollback netcode, and how did you figure it out?

Chris White, our CTO, drove that initiative, and it does impact everything.

It’ll continue to get better, we will continuously improve it over time.

While it’s a massive effort for us, it’s also a massive importance.

The more players you have, the better that experience becomes.

The more players you have, the better experience you have.

Everybody can enjoy the game, no matter where they are or what platform they are with cross-platform play.

It hasn’t been easy.

It’s been a massive investment.

Like I said, I want us to be the best online live-service game.

That’s the goal.

I don’t think we’re there yet, but we are going to get there.

Last question: I am noticing a couple of possible hints or teases within this closed alpha.

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