It’s been a week since Grapital City officially opened its doors to the Battle Barge and its legion of colorful brawlers. A week of Omega Uppercuts, Super Chokeslams, and Volley Dives packed into endless Rumbleverse play sessions.

Today, the 40-player battle royale brawler gets its Season One Battle Pass, packed with rewards unlocked through Fame earned in matches.

Like most games with season passes, Rumbleverse has a standard, free, Battle Pass, a Premium Battle Pass that you can purchase and which grants extra rewards, and a Battle Pass +, which can be purchased to instantly unlock the first 20 ranks.

This premiere season for the game is designed to introduce Grapital City, a place built by champions as a monument to the tradition of the rumble. Its set of rewards are all designed around the idea that every citizen of the city dreams of being the last rumbler standing. Expect unlockable hairstyles, clothing, title cards, emotes, and more to build a unique grappler.

Future seasons will likely have stronger themes. Season One, we’re told, will last 12 weeks, though future ones will be a bit shorter, varying depending on special events or the time of the year.

Rumbleverse is an interesting entry into the world of brawlers and battle royale games, combining the social, high-stakes structure of the battle royale genre with a focus on hand-to-hand combat typically found in a brawler. It also leans heavily on verticality, with the towering landscape of Grapital City allowing players to climb every building to its very peak. The result is a game that is as much about movement as it is combat, which teaches players to climb the map from top to bottom in search of loot and tactical advantage.

This is developer Iron Galaxy’s first foray into the crowded battle royale marketplace, but Co-CEO Adam Boyes said they know the team is bringing a new style of combat and gameplay to the genre.

“We’re hearing from new players time and again how it’s offering them something they can’t find in other games,” Boyes said. “This is a unique experience that we have created and we’re excited for people to discover it for themselves.”

The team is also leveraging both the Rumbleverse’s extensive playtesting and their own experiences on previous games, like Killer Instinct and Extinction, to ensure Rumbleverse is a success.

“Obviously, all our previous game work like with Killer Instinct has played a role in preparing us for Rumbleverse’s launch,” Boyes said. “The traversal of the environment was one of the biggest areas where we learned from Extinction. That helped us with scope and scale of building our world. The biggest difference is that it was a single player experience. Rumbleverse is a multiplayer game and a very different game.”

Boyes noted that the team has always worked on online games, many of them fighting, but that they’ve always wanted to “crack the code” on larger melee-based multiplayer titles.

“Our engineers always wanted to be the first to innovate on melee multiplayer at a larger scale,” Boyes said. “Since we built the game from the ground up on a server-based system, we really challenged ourselves and were able to pull this off for 40 people at a time. We are developing Rumbleverse because it’s a dream game for many of us, and we feel we are uniquely positioned to make it great.”

The idea for Rumbleverse came up during a jam session at the studio tied to the idea of creating a large-scale melee combat game, said Boyes.

“During our first jam session, Chelsea Blasko, our Co-CEO, yelled out ‘WE SHOULD DO WRASSLIN’!’ That’s where the brainstorming began. The core idea kept getting reiterated, “I JUST WANT TO CHOKESLAM SOMEONE OFF OF A 40 FT BUILDING.” From there, we wanted to build a world that was bright, inviting, and most importantly, fun and lighthearted. The final ingredient was to build a game that was super fun to play AND fun to watch for people of all skill levels.”

The result is a game that blends unique combat and platforming gameplay, and rewards players for investing in their skills. 

“Players that want to take the fight to an opponent head on can reap the rewards of their aggressive style, while those that want to perch atop a skyscraper in Grapital City, observing the action from above, can do so and still be competitive,” Boyes said. “Energy drink power-ups can also change the way you play and give you unique advantages to explore and experiment with.”

Rumbleverse places a heavy emphasis on professional wrestling, both aesthetically and in its combat.

But Boyes said the game is meant to be an homage to all forms of melee combat, “from wrestling to MMA, boxing, special moves that find their origin in sports like volleyball or soccer, and other forms of martial arts around the world. We’re also creating attacks and moves so outrageous that they are only possible in the fantastic universe we have created. We’re looking forward to seeing players learning their favorite moves and finding the perfect perches in the city to pull them off.”

While the game’s combat system may appear to lack a bit of depth initially, Boyes pointed out that there’s a definite skill gap the better players will come to appreciate over time.

“There is enough nuance in the mechanics to keep them strategizing and perfecting their skills for years to come,” Boyes said. “The replayability of Rumbleverse comes from engaging an infinite combination of players in different neighborhoods with different moves or items. We’ll also be adding new attacks, weapons and items that change your strategy. Rumbleverse’s world also has many possibilities for different limited-time modes that will allow players to find new and exciting ways to rumble. Throughout our playtests, this game has been highly unpredictable, as players discover new ways to use the environment and verticality to get a leg up on the competition.”

With Season One now live, the team at Iron Galaxy also wanted to point out that they have a lot in store for the title and its players.

“This game will be packed with surprises,” Boyes said. “From one Season to the next, the environment will change and grow. Your strategies to engage other players will evolve as we add new weapons, and we’ll mark different special occasions with limited-time game modes. You can even see hints of what’s to come in future updates when you look toward Grapital City’s (literal) horizon!”