Developer Tribo Games has published the official whitepaper for their in development PvP squad battler, Rumble Arcade. Let’s dive into it and see what the team is planning for their mobile-first title.
An Overview of the Whitepaper
The whitepaper covers info on the game’s mobile-first design, its economy, competitive features, decentralized live ops, the project’s history, backers, investors, and the core team. For the economy section, there are details on 2 different NFTs and a series of play to mint events that will take place before the entire economy is enabled.
We’ll first take a look at the gameplay-related features before jumping into all the aspects related to the game’s economy.
Gameplay
Rumble Arcade is a physics-based squad battler focused on asynchronous PvP gameplay that consists of elements from auto battlers, card games and roguelikes in order to develop unique game design featuring mechanics and economic depth that are designed to help offer “infinite” replayability. The game is set to launch on Beam, but you can already play it on web browsers in open alpha to get a better idea of what it’s like for free, with reward claiming and progression saving requiring playtesters to create a Tribo Account using a Discord profile.
Essentially, it features the typical auto battling gameplay of placing units on the field before a battle begins. The roguelike element comes in the “uncertainty and branching paths” that you face in making strategic decisions, while the card part is in deckbuilding and as such the units themselves, as you build a deck of hexagonal cards called Rumblers to tactically place in available spots on the battlefield.
Each matchup has you start off with a certain number of lives while providing you with a specific amount of actions you can take per turn. Other rules may also be in place, such as the number of Rumbler NFTs you can place in a battle, and the max score that you can get per battle. It’s also possible for there to be special tiles, and the game will let you know that as well before choosing to start a match. Each match consists of a couple of battles, and every battle is designed to be fast-paced. After a battle is over, you can watch a replay of the fight as well as copy it to share with your friends. Win enough battles to bring the opponent’s lives to zero to claim victory.
During a match, you will have the opportunity to level up Rumblers in-between battles by combining duplicates using up just one action. When levelling up a unit, you’ll be able to choose between 2 perks to upgrade it with, such as to increase the unit’s damage by 25% or make a certain effect last longer. As the gameplay is asynchronous, you won’t need to wait for your opponent to finish setting things up, but can instead play at your own pace. This structure is said to “make the most out of web3 social dynamics and onchain reward distribution,” enabling the team to easily host “intimate and exclusive competitions.” That being said, the existing version is said to feature Daily Rumbles, which are PvP matches that allow you to rank up and progress through the League system determining your skill level. There are also free-for-all events with changing rules and leaderboard rewards, alongside exclusive events, and co-hosted tournaments that bring various Web3 communities together to this cross-platform title.
Economy
The economy has been designed in such a way so as to give the playerbase the long-term goal of creating the strongest Rumbler collection – a collection of NFTs used as units you can place in battles. Getting better NFTs will allow you to access “high-prestige arenas,” where there is potential to win more valuable prizes. Using off-chain and on-chain items, players can upgrade and unlock new NFTs. The current state of the game’s economy consists of a Raffle Ticket system through which you can win an allocation of Rumbler NFTs that will be possible to mint on Beam at some point in the future. More on-chain features are planned to be integrated in Q3 this 2024.
Rumbler NFTs are divided into 4 rarity tiers and feature unique abilities as well as various perks to unlock by upgrading them with duplicate assets. Rumblers will vary in supply, with some being more common and some coming with significantly lower supply. Each deck will be able to have up to 8 Rumblers to bring to a match, while the unit placement limit rules of a match may well affect your strategies.
Next to fusing duplicate NFTs to permanently improve an existing one, players will also be able to use Shards earned from leagues to unlock and level up Basic Rumblers, which are probably free to play off-chain characters. Earning on-chain Rumblers will be done mostly through community and limited time events, and by starting to play now you already have a chance of getting an allocation for the upcoming mint thanks to Play-to-Mint events.
If you want to find out more about Rumble Arcade, in development by experienced mobile gaming developers who have raised $3.3 million to date from the likes of Avalanche, Merit Circle, LiquidX, and more, then be sure to check out their clean and concise whitepaper here to find out more about the team and the features they have in store for this promising casual but tactical title.
