The Main Menu Knockout (The Holy Shit Moment)

The main menu was just two buttons. New Game. Continue. Boring.

We were working on the Hub at the time and I thought — fuck it, I have an idea. It's completely pointless. It doesn't progress me toward a working MVP. But I want to do it.

So I pivoted. I made the main menu interactive. Two boxers on screen. You tap and your boxer throws a punch. The opponent takes the hit, stumbles, goes down. KO. Then the menu appears over the knocked-out body — Continue, New Game.

When it worked and I saw the punch land and the dude crumble, I lost my mind. I recorded it and sent it to everybody. 'Look at this. It's fucking crazy.' That was the first time I looked at ChampChase and thought: this is real. This is actually a game.

My brother's reaction when I showed him the inventory system a few weeks later? 'Cool. But do the fighters walk out?'

So I built the walk-in scene too.