The lore and mechanics behind League of Legends champions played a major role in the development of Riot Games’ upcoming CCG, Legends of Runeterra.
Champions are an integral aspect of gameplay in LoR and how they were developed wasn’t an accident. During the development process of LoR, usage stats and lore played a major role, according to Steve Rubin, former MTG pro and live balance lead for LoR.
“Story is something we take into account when developing Champion lineups for the initial set of cards and future content,” Rubin said. “For Lucian, players often identify heavily with his story’s focus on his relationship Senna. We decided to lean into that in his design, as well as by including Senna (pre-lantern) and Thresh in the set.”
The mechanics built into LoR were designed to “break the CCG mold,” according to Rubin. But the devs also wanted them to resonate with League players. Using data from League, the devs identified which mechanics associated with champions resonated with players and incorporated those stats into the development of LoR.
“We saw that Yasuo players identify greatly with his gameplay mechanics,” Rubin said. “So, in LoR he’s very true to that—dashing around slicing stuff up, and comboing against Stunned or Recalled opponents.”
The use of League stats in the development of LoR champions has been successful so far. And the dev team plans to continue using League’s story and mechanic stats when adding future champions.
“Champions are key figures in LoR and the world of Runeterra,” Rubin said. “And we’ll be adding more from both existing and new regions in the future.”
Players can test out their favorite League champions in LoR when the card game is released in 2020.
