Review Fix Exclusive: Inside ‘RWBY: Grimm Eclipse’

Review Fix chats with Michael P. Hadwin, Director of Game Development at Rooster Teeth Games, who discusses the Steam release of “RWBY: Grimm Eclipse.” Based on the cult favorite anime, Hadwin discusses the development process as well as the possibility of a console release.

Review Fix: What was the development process like?

Michael P. Hadwin: We’re a small team of five (doing the workload of 15) so daily communication is critical to our success. We follow an Agile production method working in 2 week sprints toward a specific goal. Each team member creates tasks for their portion of the goal that we display on a team Agile/Kanban board. Then we work towards finishing all those tasks during the two-week sprint. Sometimes we have scheduled meetings to discuss a specific topic/feature, but most of our communication happens organically. For example, someone might propose a design challenge/question to the team and then we’ll all discuss it until we think we’ve found a solution. Then we split off into our various disciplines (art/code/design) to implement the feature. Rinse and repeat that until all your features are done and you’re ready to ship it.

Review Fix: How have the plays played a role in the creation of this game?

Hadwin: We’re doing our best to keep our community involved as we build the game. Leading up to our Early Access release on Steam, we’ve had several online beta-tests as well as public demos at our annual gaming event, RTX. We’ve conducted surveys after each beta-test and listened to direct fan feedback at RTX. Rooster Teeth has such a great community of dedicated fans who are always willing to help with feedback and ideas. We seriously have the best community in the entire universe and I’m happy to be a part of it.

Review Fix: What do you think makes it special?

Hadwin: RWBY:GE is particularly special for Rooster Teeth as it’s the first game we’ve developed entirely in-house. And it’s even more special that the fans are loving it. Gets me all warm and fuzzy.

Review Fix: What games does this one draw its inspiration from?

Hadwin: Our combat was heavily inspired by hack-and-slash, brawler games such as Dynasty Warriors, Devil May Cry, and Castle Crashers. Our 4-player co-op design was inspired by Left 4 Dead’s “horde mode” missions with light storytelling and linear map progression. We also added a dash of character micro-progression similar to DOTA 2, Heroes of the Storm and Smite allowing players to purposely tweak their character’s skills in reaction to the current engagements or coming encounters. Weave all those design mechanics together and you have an action-packed, co-op game that offers countless hours of multiplayer replayability!.

Review Fix: How does it feel to have received so much support from the Steam community?

Hadwin: Awesome. We are so excited and humbled by the community’s response. It has lifted the team and encouraged us to work even harder as we continue building the game towards final launch.

Review Fix: How do you want this game to be remembered?

Hadwin: As a fun, intense action game that represented the RWBY show well. We sincerely hope it’s a game played for many years to come.

Review Fix: Any chance at a console release?

Hadwin: Since our Early Access launch has gone so well, the chance of releasing console versions is looking better every day.

Review Fix: What’s next?

Hadwin: It’s too early to talk about our future game plans, but rest assured you will see many more titles coming from Rooster Teeth Games. Expect some big announcements as we approach final launch of RWBY: Grimm Eclipse!

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 13819 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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