It can’t be easy to design an annual franchise, but WWE 2K25 creative director Lynell Jinks doesn’t sweat it. In fact, he welcomes the challenge. During Royal Rumble weekend, Shacknews was invited to try out an early build of WWE 2K25 and talk to some of the game’s designers about its new and returning features. Greg Burke and David Craddock asked Lynell about the features he’s most excited about, how his team supports (and helps rein in) his “crazy ideas,” and more.
This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.
Shacknews: What new feature are you most excited about?
Lynell Jinks: We've added so much. I'm a graphics snob at heart. I'm a former art director, so I hate to say it, but the camera in entrances and during gameplay. You get a totally different perspective of the game that you haven't seen before. My favorite thing to do during entrances is put that camera right behind somebody, get that perspective of, this is what it feels like to live in this Superstar's shoes and embody their persona. I love it. And just kind of looking around, doing the cool drone cam effect that they're doing on Raw right now. That's really cool, and during matches, it adds a different element to gameplay. Being able to see the environment, or even climbing up on the Hell in a Cell and look down on what's going on in the ring. There are so many different perspectives of the game that it kind of opens it up to a broader experience.
Shacknews: How does your past experience as an art director help you as a creative director?
Lynell Jinks: Having the freedom to call out things that you want to see. As a creative person, I throw the wackiest and craziest ideas out there, and see whether or not they hit. The team goes back to the drawing board and looks at some proposals I've thrown their way. Some things stick, some things don't because of time constraints. We only have nine months to really make this game after preproduction. That's a challenge, but I think having a team that's willing to listen to these crazy thoughts I have in my head is a blessing.
Shacknews: Of the characters announced so far, who are your favorites?
Lynell Jinks: That's a tough one. We have so many good-looking characters in our game right now. I will say if I were to look at Dom's moustache and his hair, I think it sets a new benchmark for hair in our game and just the simulation. Plus that cool moustache he's got going. Dirty Dom: You can't beat him.
Shacknews: People don't know complicated hair is in a game. That's probably why we had so many bald space marines for, like, a decade.
Lynell Jinks: Yeah, it's one of those things where in order to really change it, we have to adopt spline and vert techniques that are intense on graphics. We just don't have the capacity to support the pipelines for current-gen and the older-gen consoles. One day when we're focused [solely] on next-gen hardware, I'm hoping we can make that jump. But what we're able to do with the current tech is impressive, considering we're still supporting all of the other things we've always supported in past games.
Shacknews: How does the new Bloodline Rules match work?
Lynell Jinks: Bloodrules is one of the coolest things to me. The Bloodline likes to cheat; we saw what happened at WrestleMania 40: People just kept coming into [the ring]. We gamified that. At the start of the match, you have the ability to earn three paybacks and call out people during the match. It's a free-for-all with no disqualifications, and as a payback, you can call someone else into the ring to assist you and help out. If you're good, you can call up to three to turn it into a four-on-one. At the ultimate level, it's four-on-four, free-for-all, and if you're part of the Bloodline dynasty, we have a special victory scene where there's a presentation.
Shacknews: What went into designing the Island?
Lynell Jinks: Like you said, as creative director, what are some of the things as an art director that helped me in this process? I had to use my art director brain to come up with a vision for what I wanted the Island to be; working with the WWE license and what we can do with that in this space is really fun. We have some really cool over-the-top things that I can't wait for people to see. It's a totally different thing that I'm excited for people to experience when we announce it and launch it next month.
Shacknews: What changes or upgrades has Universe mode received?
Lynell Jinks: I would say the two things I'm really excited that we added this year are the Universe promos are back. I know it's been something that we took away in 2K20, but we added it and gamified it, and I think it's better than it was in the last iteration. The other thing is being able to add multiple PLEs on different days. So if you want WrestleMania to spawn on a Saturday and a Sunday, you can do that now to reflect what's happening in WWE programming, just having the ability to customize the calendar a little more to reflect what's happening in the WWE.
Shacknews: What other changes and features are you excited about for this next edition?
Lynell Jinks: My GM is online. MyRise, the story, is really cool. The Showcase is incredible, and the roster you're able to unlock and play with in that mode is incredible and, to me, the best we've had so far. The WWE archives, NXT parking lot--all of these things we've added this year really make this game sing. I can't wait for people to get their hands on it.
Shacknews: Who are your picks to win the men's and women's Royal Rumble matches? This will go up after the PLE happens, so choose wisely.
Lynell Jinks: I'd like to see Bayley win. For the men's, that's a tough one, but considering it's his swan song year, I'd love to see John Cena win just to get that title shot and put a bow on his career. That'd be a cool WrestleMania, for us to see him challenge someone for a title.
Shacknews: If time, money, and licensing were not an issue, what's your dream WWE match?
Lynell Jinks: I'd love for Kevin Hart to be in our game. [laughs] I don't know if you remember when Adam Rose was in the WWE and he would come out and do a thing, his little silly dance. Hart also did this commercial shoot for... I forget what it was, but he cut a promo, and I'm like, he'd make a really cool wrestler because he got into his character. I'd love to see him as a little boss character with the craziest move set, moving around like a kung fu master or something and taking on The Rock. I love their chemistry and would love to see that. Again, the crazy, wonky creative director throwing out ideas. I love Kevin Hart's comedy skills, and I think him cutting a promo in wrestling would be amazing.
Shacknews: What is the biggest conception about being a creative director?
Lynell Jinks: I think the biggest thing is it's a collaborative experience for me and my team. Again, I'll have the craziest idea, and then someone will pull me back down to earth and we'll collaborate and work on these ideas, workshopping things until either we cut it or turn it into a feature that's possible. I'm grateful for my team being honest with me and being like, "Yeah, dude, that's a crazy idea. We can't do that." Or, "Well, we can't do that, but if we did this, would you be cool with it?" To me, just because you might have the creative director title doesn't mean you get to do what you want and get your way all the time. For me, it's about throwing things out there and hopefully getting something similar to what you wanted, and working with the team to make it a reality.
Shacknews: What was your journey as a game dev?
Lynell Jinks: I've been at Visual Concept for going on 23 years. I started off on NFL 2K, and then on NBA 2K as an art director, and then WWE came along. But while I was on NBA, I wasn't just an art director, and I wasn't just an artist when I started. I was in design meetings because I was a gamer and a huge sports game fan. I had all these ideas, so I was invited to all the design meetings and started having creative input on a ton of features. The creative director role didn't exist, but I was kind of acting in that role anyway as far as they allowed m to create some cool features in the game even though I was an art director. When WWE rolled around, our president, Greg Thomas, was like, "Hey, would you like to be creative director on this?" I was like, "Heck yeah. Let's do it." I was wearing the hats of art director and creative director while I was at Yuke's, and then when we took over in WWE 2K20, I stepped down from my art director responsibilities and focused on creative directing.
Shacknews: What advice would you give future game developers?
Lynell Jinks: Just be brave about voicing your opinion and try to be good at problem solving. Even when you're playing a game, if there's something you don't like, figure out what it is that you don't like about it, and think about how to make it better. Or, why do you like something? Pick those things apart. What about this game did they nail or did they messs up on, and figure out ways to either improve it or get down to the secret sauce of what made it work. Once you start thinking and breaking things down in that area, I feel like it unlocks an ability to assess what makes things work and what makes things not work, and being confident in your opinion. You need to develop people skills to get people to buy in to what you're selling, as crazy as those ideas might be. Get good at articulating those ideas, and hopefully your team latches on to something that spawns something great.
Shacknews: Communication?
Lynell Jinks: Communication is huge.
Shacknews: Can you paint a picture of how stressful it is to create an annual game?
Lynell Jinks: It's very stressful to make a game with such a short timeline. But at the same time, working with something like the WWE IP, I prefer it. When we were working on 2K22, that game was in development for over two years. Things were changing so drastically in the real world, in WWE--people were moving in and out of the company, personas were changing left and right. It was like, oh my god, we just modeled this character to look this way, or we just shot this animation to look this way because the person was coming out during their entrance doing this. We wrote storylines for MyRise that had certain Superstars who were no longer in the WWE. Same thing with Showcase. As much as it was a gift to work on features or even the backend to support some of these crazy ideas, chasing what was happening in WWE was a nightmare.
So it's stressful, but I wouldn't want it any other way. I don't think it's realistic for us to work on a game longer than a year and still stay up to date.
Shacknews was invited to play a preview of WWE 2K25 in Indianapolis. 2K paid for our travel, lodging, and transportation to and from the Royal Rumble event.
-
Shacknews
replyDavid Craddock posted a new article, WWE 2K25's Lynell Jinks on supporting 'crazy ideas'
