League of Legends turns 15 and Riot is still experimenting with its flagship title
League of Legends is 15 years old and Riot Games is gearing up to celebrate this momentous occasion. Season 2 of Arcanethe popular and critically acclaimed Netflix show, will be released in November. The annual esports tournament known as the World Championship is approaching soon, accompanied by a rock song by Linkin Park. And Teemo, the game’s de facto mascot and most hated champion, gets a visual update.
In one dev diary update Posted on Monday, Riot shared some upcoming plans for the game, including new story seasons. Each theme season is accompanied by a matching champion. It’s another big step forward League of Legends‘ history, and it’s an attempt to meet the needs of a vast, fractured fan base: competitive players, avid fans and everyone in between.
“We don’t think of seasons as just one story in the canon; we see it as a tool to explore atmosphere and narrative connections to other things going on at Riot – ways you can become deeply immersed in a part of the world you love, or an alternate universe that we can really bring more come to life,” said Pu Liu, game director League of Legendsin a conversation with Polygon.
It’s an effort that builds on previous ones, like the visual novels in the client, or events like the Sentinels of Light story. Riot has a long history of figuring things out through trial and error.
“When we first launched the game, we had no idea it would reach the scale it achieved in the first few years,” said Paul Bellezza, executive producer of League of Legendson the same call with Polygon. The first challenge was stability; the second was maintaining the update schedule. “We had the ambition of two-week patches, which was not normal for many PC games at the time. And so, how do we keep that cadence up with a lot of tools that we’re building as we learn? And so I guess I would say that a lot of the early days were just, you know, flying the plane while building it at the same time, very quickly.
Only a few pieces of the original can be found League of Legends. Like Theseus’ Ship, every single element of the game has been updated, reworked and rebuilt over the years. The riot has also spread Competition not only in new game modes, but also in new games and media: Legends of Runeterra, Wild canyonthe (sadly discontinued) game publishing label Riot Forge, Arcaneand music groups such as K/DA and Heartsteel. The evolution of Competition means it not only continues to attract fans, but they come to the game for different reasons.
In 2014, the classic Summoner’s Rift map, where most of the games take place, was updated. Riot has since continued to improve the visual fidelity of the game and revisit the engine to continue creating new champions, which have increased in complexity and depth over time. Now the game has amassed 168 champions – a dizzying array of backstories and skill combinations to recognize. Is there a point at which Riot could finally declare that there are too many champions?
“The truth is, we’ve had that conversation many times,” Liu says. “The duality of it is that every time we add a champion, it adds complexity. When you stop playing Competition for a few years and come back, you’re like, Who is this K’Sante guy? What should I do? It is very challenging to balance that ongoing knowledge burden.”
“That said, for players who are actively involved League of Legendsthey are still really looking forward to championship releases,” Liu added. “A lot of them want to know if this is their new protagonist, or they’re getting really excited about a new cute baby dragon. The requirement for us is that a champion cannot make the game so worse for the non-players of that champion that this does not justify the value it creates for the players who play against that champion.”
League of Legends is not just the main game anymore; there are additional game modes such as Swarm and Teamfight Tactics, multimedia properties such as books and shows, an MMO in development and alternate universes. It’s fascinating to think about what League of Legends might look like in 15 years. Every experiment over the years, even those solved long ago, has led to the game we have today. It will be interesting to see how Riot continues to curate that experience in the coming years.