Warcraft Rumble Devs Talk brings minis to life

Minis are the essence of Warcraft Rumbleand its physical miniatures that first inspired the title's creation. The aesthetics of Warcraft Rumbles miniatures, taking cues from the tabletop, were not only key to its development, but continue to be at the heart of its appeal.

Warcraft Rumble got in a section Warcrafts 30th anniversary right away, and that spot featured a number of announcements. Rumble will get a PC port, released in beta on December 10, as well as a number of changes to monetization and the implementation of Split Leaders. This segment also put special emphasis on the game's minis, showing fans the display of physical miniatures printed and painted by developers at Blizzard – all based on Rumbles minis. Game Rant sat down with executive producer Vik Saraf and art director Jeremy Collins to learn more about the history of these minis and their influence on the game.

Warcraft Rumble Devs talk about the importance of minis to the game's art and development

How minis make Warcraft Rumble's art style work

Despite bringing Warcraft Rumble closer World of Warcraft via the latter's upcoming PC port, both Saraf and Collins lifted how Rumble would retain its stylistic independence. Part of the reason behind Rumbles toy-like, miniature art style is for visual clarity, especially on small mobile screens – something Collins explained at length.

“For us, you have to be able to look at any unit on the field at any given point and say, 'Oh, that's the orc,' or 'That's the shooter because I see silver and blue — and I see green and red for the orc.'

We take a lot of consideration into the platform on which we will present the game when defining these art styles. If we were to move
Rumble
more courage
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art style, I think it would actually suffer a bit on mobile, because the screen is so small, and it's not built for that level of detail.”

Saraf agreed, saying “When you're looking at a mobile screen, which is especially smaller, you need the colors to pop more and have a little bit of distinction behind them.” He then went on to refer to the importance of Rumbles miniatures to the game's creation, saying that the minis were part of its “original conceit”. Collins elaborated on this, saying that “Warcraft for me is manmade. Because everyone World of Warcraft are hand-painted textures, a literal craftsman has touched each individual character – painted in that detail for you.”

Both of the developer's statements here show how important the concept of minis is to Warcraft Rumble; the game's entities do everything they can to pursue this tactility. This art direction not only helps devices stand out on a small screen but it ties in with the knowledge of Warcraft and the development of the game.

Warcraft Rumble's developers have a lot to say about Physical Minis

Warcraft Rumbles gameplay and focus on minis appeals a lot to fans of miniatures, regardless of whether they are fans of TTRPGs like D&D or players in war games that Warhammer. Both Saraf and Collins had plenty to say on the subject, with Saraf sharing an anecdote about miniatures at Blizzard, though he emphasized that there were no plans for a physical miniatures game:

“One of our colleagues that we work with took it upon himself to take the 3D blueprints and print out a bunch of minis, and he actually went ahead and made a Horde vs. Alliance checkerboard!”

“I think this is something that a lot of us have a lot of interest in, but there are no official plans yet.”

Collins added that they were “big fans” of Blizzard releasing STL files for Warcraft Rumbles minis. He also mentioned how Rumbles developers “make all kinds of wargaming, which Warhammer 40K stuff and fun miniature paintings,” emphasizing the team's passion for the subject.