Building Booker Blitz: A Wrestling Booking Sim in React
Hey 👋
I've always been a wrestling fan. Not in the way where I can recite every pay-per-view from 1997, but in the way where I find the booking side of it genuinely fascinating. The creative decisions, the politics, the crowd psychology, the art of getting someone over. It's basically game design dressed in spandex.
So naturally, I wanted to build a game about it.
That's how Booker Blitz started. A few months in, it's shaping up to be the most fun side project I've had in a while.
What Is Booker Blitz, Exactly?
The pitch is simple: you're the head booker of a wrestling promotion. You sign talent, book shows, script feuds, and try not to go broke in the process.
The thing I'm most proud of, and what makes it different from other booking sims, is the
Gorilla Position
system.In real wrestling, the Gorilla Position is the spot right behind the entrance curtain where the head of creative sits during a live show, headset on, calling audibles in real time. If something goes wrong, you fix it. If the crowd isn't reacting, you adjust.
That's what you do in Booker Blitz. You don't just plan your card and simulate it. You watch it happen and react. Change a winner mid-match if the crowd isn't buying it. Trigger a run-in at the perfect moment. Cut a match short if it's falling flat. It's the part of booking that no other sim really captures, and building it has been both satisfying and genuinely tricky.
The Stack
Booker Blitz is built with:
React
(I know, I know. A game in React. Hear me out.)Vite
(honestly the best thing to happen to front-end dev in years)Tailwind
(for the neon cyan and magenta aesthetic that I've become weirdly attached to)TypeScript
(because I'm not a monster)
No game engine. No Phaser (I used Phaser in my previous game — different kind of project). Booker Blitz is UI-heavy — it's closer to a management sim than an action game — so React actually makes a lot of sense here. The whole game is basically state management with strong opinions about wrestling.
The UI is keyboard-first. You should be able to book an entire show without touching the mouse. That's been one of my favourite constraints to design around — it forces you to think about flows differently than you would building a regular web app.
What's Built So Far
⚠️ Add specific features that are currently implemented and roughly how far along development is
The core booking flow is in a good state. You can:
- Build show cards with matches, promos, and stipulations
- Manage a roster — sign, release, deal with injuries
- Simulate shows with live segment ratings and crowd reactions
- Make real-time calls during the Gorilla Position sim
Arena selection is in. Each venue has different capacity, costs, risk factors, and bonus match types — booking the Forge Pit feels different from headlining Neon Nexus, which is exactly what I wanted.
Staff management is partially there. Scouts and trainers affect your prospects over time, which gives the long game some texture.
The Hard Parts
Simulation balance
is a nightmare in the best way. You want the match quality system to feel fair but not deterministic — if the best worker on your roster always puts on a five-star match, what's the point of booking decisions? There's a lot of tuning involved, and I'm still not happy with it.The Gorilla Position pacing
took multiple attempts to get right. The first version was too fast — you'd miss the window to intervene. The second was too slow — felt like you were just watching a progress bar. The current version gives you just enough time to feel like you're reacting, not just clicking.JSON modding
was something I wanted from day one. The whole game's universe — wrestlers, promotions, arenas — lives in swappable JSON databases. Building the data layer to support that from the start shaped a lot of early architectural decisions, and I'm glad I committed to it early rather than bolting it on later.Where It's Headed
The goal is hitting Steam in June. I've got a page up, a Reddit community at r/BookerBlitz, and a fictional wrestling universe baked in so you can play from day one without needing to import anything.
The roadmap includes:
- TV deals and ratings war mechanics against AI promotions
- Supercard/PPV buildups with proper feud payoff systems
- More arena types and match stipulations
- Community modding hub for sharing custom rosters (in progress on the game website)
I'll keep writing dev logs as things develop. If you're into management sims, wrestling, or you just want to see what React looks like when you try to make a game with it — stick around.
If you want to follow along, wishlist Booker Blitz on Steam and join the community on Reddit. Feedback from people who actually care about booking has already shaped a bunch of decisions, and I want to keep that going into early access.