Colt leads a team to avoid a big explosion in the desert and marches ahead in the face of flying daggers, joining one exciting battle after another. When you fight alongside the cute cactus brawler Spike or guard the vault with Jessie, you can’t help but wonder: “Why are these characters fighting in the Wild West?”

Wilder than the Wild West

Brawl Stars Game Lead Frank Keienburg tells us, “The setting of the game is not [just] Wild West.” Indeed, there’s more to it. Keienburg points to an animated sequence that starts in the Western-inspired Frontier World, then transitions the player to the Retropolis, a classic looking 1950s American diner that is the home of brawlers such as Bull, Crow and Bibi.

The setting of the game is not [just] Wild West. －Brawl Stars Game Lead Frank Keienburg

Those who are familiar with developer Supercell know that they bury plenty of Easter eggs in their games. If Retropolis is a new world, then just how many others are there in the game? Brawl Stars Game Artist Phillip Lockwood has the answer: “Existing characters come from seven different worlds.” When you launch the game and wonder where each character hails from, you might have missed a clue – the silhouette of a big Ferris wheel is visible at the bottom right of the game launch sequence – a hint that the game’s environment is arranged much like a theme park with different sections.

Hidden clues

Just as the worlds are diverse, there are also plenty of fun backstories to the brawlers themselves. Take Jessie – her catchphrase is, “Say hello to my little friend”, and her Super is to deploy a turret. Now why would a little girl refer to a turret as a friend? “She is an inventor. She likes to invent things, and like a kid would do, she personalises what she’s doing,” Lockwood explains.

There is another clue on her backpack. If you turn the brawlers around, you will see that Jessie and Pam have very similar backpacks. Moreover, they both have red hair and summon skills for their Super. “Jessie’s mother is Pam,” the development team reveals.



There is much more to each brawler, and the developers drop another secret: “Leon and Nita are brother and sister.” Nita, who wears a bear hat, summons a massive bear for her Super. The lollipop-chewing Leon wears a hoodie that features a wound up tail, and a tongue that sticks out from between the two buttons in his hat. If you still can’t guess what animal that is, his invisibility Super is a big clue – it’s a chameleon!

So is Nita older or younger than Leon? The team admits that they don’t know. “It wasn’t like we sat down and said ‘Okay, Nita needs a brother’. That’s not how we designed Leon. We thought about these characters and where they came from. That’s how the connection was made,” Lockwood explains.

A ‘very special’ character

Based on all the fan-art and fiction out there, it’s clear Brawl Stars characters get lots of love. But the team admits they have a ‘very special’ place in their hearts for Spike, whose funny personality inspired a series of Spike-centric animations.

They show the attitude, how the character feels.

The developers released a series of shorts with Sakura Spike as the lead. Keienburg believes that they tell a great deal about the character: “They show the attitude, how the character feels.” One short begins next to a basketball court. A ball rolls over to Spike’s feet. When he picks up the ball, the spikes on his hand pierce the ball and deflate it. He then uses his Super to throw a blossom ball back and turns to leave happily, while the ball explodes behind him. Keienburg explains, “Spike doesn’t want to hurt anybody. In his head, he just wants to play with them like an innocent child.”



The developers tell us that Spike has friends too – Shelly and Colt. These important characters link the different worlds in the game together and reveal important clues. Can’t wait to uncover them yourself? Get gaming and see what you can discover!