Three years ago, Riot Games presented a “package plan” with the League of Legends universe as the background at the global tenth anniversary celebration of the League of Legends.
Three years have passed, and products such as the mobile game “League of Legends”, the card game “Legends of Runeterra” and the business simulation game “League of Legends E-sports Manager” have successively met with players, and have released unparalleled influence in many countries and regions. force.
The animated series “League of Legends: Battle of the Two Cities” with Piltover and Zaun as the background and the intricate relationship between Wei and Jinx as the blueprint also aroused intense repercussions last year, with rave reviews, and this year In March, the Annie Awards, known as the “Oscars of the animation industry”, won nine awards on the spot.
Previously, the description of the League of Legends universe was mostly presented in literature, and “League of Legends: Battle of the Two Cities” took it off paper and presented it in a more vivid form. At the same time, in terms of music, Riot Games is also worthy of the nickname “the music company in the game industry”. Imagine Dragons’ “Enemy”, “Jingge” changed to “children’s song”, “The Lonely Warrior”, or the S12 Global Finals. Lil Nas X’s “STAR WALKIN'” has aroused heated discussions among players around the world.
Of course, the stand-alone game is also an important part of the ecological layout of League of Legends, but the progress is slightly slow.
Recently, Riot Forge official account of Riot Games tweeted, saying that many of its games will be delayed, although players are not interested in the adventure games “Gathering Crisis: League of Legends Story” and “Song of Nunu: League of Legends Story” ” is full of expectations, but the two works still need some time to polish and finish, so the meeting time of the two games and players has been postponed to 2023.
In addition, the next-generation console version of “Broken King: League of Legends” is also under intensive development, and the launch date is expected to be delayed to 2023.
I believe that people who know Riot Games very well have only scattered impressions of “Gathering Point Crisis: League of Legends Story” and “Song of Nunu: League of Legends”. Si Bang Huantian: Legend of the League of Legends has made a simple appearance after its launch, and the exposure information is extremely limited.
But these two products also play a pivotal role in the strategic development of Riot’s stand-alone games.
What do the two games look like?
The background of “Gathering Crisis: League of Legends Gaiden” is set in the city of Zaun, which was brilliant last year.
From the clips released, it can be seen that “Gathering Crisis: League of Legends Gaiden” is a side-scrolling action game, and Ike will continue to explore in Zaun full of pipes, graffiti and ruins. The developer said that the plot of the game is that Ike exposes the conspiracy of the Count of Chemicals and saves his city in constant time travel, which may indicate that the game is a single story game.
The team that made “Gathering Crisis: League of Legends” is Double Stallion, which has launched “Big Action Mega Fight!”, “Speed Brawl” and other products. This work is similar to them, with fast-paced battles and heavy-colored 2D art Style, but more of an upgrade, such as zooming in on the exploration gameplay, which requires players to keep searching in various maps and scenes.
The game also magnifies the interaction with the scene when moving. Combined with Ike’s own characteristics, players can use his magical device to go back in time. The development team hopes that this feature of seeing the future can be combined with the gameplay to help players more Clear the level well, and what makes this game more unique is that you can control every moment, making the game more free. Some players said that the design is very similar to “Samurai: Zero”, but “Samurai: Zero” focuses more on retrospective control of the rhythm of the game, while “Gathering Crisis: League of Legends Gaiden” focuses on retrospective changes to play.
“Song of Nunu: A League of Legends Biography” puts the perspective on the little boy Nunu and his snowman friend Willump. Players need to play the role of a little boy and find themselves in the frozen and snowy Freljord, which hides sinister undercurrents. ‘s mother.
Riot Games found Tequila Works, the studio that produced “RiME”. “RiME” is an adventure puzzle game, known for its soft and beautiful graphics and highly immersive music. The developers use an ingenious narrative method. , tells the mental journey of a child who constantly overcomes fear, and finally regains his memory, finds himself dead, and then returns to peace.
The many advantages of “RiME” will most likely be brought into “Song of Nunu: League of Legends”. As a narrative adventure game, the game has basic gameplay designs such as jumping, climbing, and riding snow monsters. , and also deepen the puzzle-solving content in the game through the way Nunu’s magic flute can react with different elements in the environment.
According to the team, they paid great attention to creating the relationship between Nunu and Willump when creating, and surrounding the adventure of Freljord, they will further show players the unknown corners of this frozen continent. The friendship between them makes the story of the League of Legends universe more complete and more deeply rooted.
The road to stand-alone starts steadily
In November last year, two products based on the League of Legends IP universe – “The Ruined King: The Legend of the League of Legends” and “Hexian: The Legend of the League of Legends” were officially launched on PC and console platforms in overseas markets. Due to the huge audience of the IP itself, the two products have been widely discussed, and they have also allowed players to see the capabilities of Riot Games in stand-alone for the first time.
Ruined King: League of Legends Gaiden is a single-player turn-based RPG. It is also the first single-player game launched by Riot Forge after its establishment at the end of 2019 with a fragment of the League of Legends universe as the background. The story mainly tells the story of Miss Fortune, Illaoi, Bron, Yasuo, Ahri, and Pike who join forces to fight against the mysterious and unknown enemy “Halloway”.
The picture of the work comes from the hand of the legendary comic artist Joe Madureira, with a distinctive style and strong visual impact. In terms of gameplay, the game has made some changes on the basis of the turn-based system, mixing the MOBA line design with the action sequence of the game, making the game more innovative.
Up to now, “The Ruined King: League of Legends Gaiden” has received more than 8,000 comments on Steam, of which 89% have been praised. Players have highly recognized the gameplay. The development team of the game is Airship Syndicate, “God of War: Night” Raid and Darksiders: Genesis are both from it. In addition, many players are also touched by the story of the Ruined King, which stems from the powerful appeal of the League of Legends universe.
Compared with the above, “Hexian Huantian: League of Legends Gaiden” seems a little tricky, but it still maintains a considerable sales volume, with more than 2,000 reviews and 81% of the positive reviews. .
In this small-scale rhythm and audio game, players need to operate the blasting genius Ziggs to “fly up and down” in the rhythm. There will be three operating instructions in the game scene, namely up, down and bomb. When Ziggs When in the center of the action prompt, press the command key for perfect timing, and if the click fails, the command turns red. Most of the tracks are electronic music with a sense of rhythm, which is also easy for players to master the rhythm.
“Hikes Fried Joy: Legend of League of Legends” is the first electric shock of Riot Games in the field of stand-alone audio games. The price of 38 yuan also determines that its target users are mostly omnivorous players, rather than heavy audio game hobbies. By. And the game has also become the vanguard of the cooperation between Riot Games and Netflix. It was announced before that it would land on Netflix and provide it to its subscribers free of charge. This time, “applying” is both support and win-win.
Riot needs a single player game
Four games, four ways of playing, ranging from light to heavy, taking into account the rounds and actions, and the coexistence of the audio-visual version. The layout of the fist game in the stand-alone aspect is achieved in the form of “broadcasting the net”, and its purpose is also to use multiple gameplays. Value, meet the needs of users who love the League of Legends universe for different gameplays, and at the same time attract players who are interested in these gameplays to notice the League of Legends IP.
Today’s “League of Legends” can no longer be viewed from the perspective of a MOBA game. The passage of time and the nature of players determine that there will always be games that will be remembered by history, but no game can always stand in the center of the stage.
“League of Legends” latest skin series, may also appear in “Genting TFT” in the future
As a game product that has been in operation for more than ten years, “League of Legends” is ushering in a new stable period. The emergence of the League of Legends IP universe is driven by a grand worldview, empowering various forms of entertainment, and interacting with each other. Influence each other and sublimate value, while attracting more users in the circle. For the product itself, it is to avoid its decline, and use the potential energy of IP to give the ecology more diverse vitality.
The single-player game is the core part of it. It meets the needs of players who recognize the story of the League of Legends IP for multiple gameplay. It also unfolds the worldview of the League of Legends universe from a new perspective, allowing players to start with more aspects and go to the game. Learn about the people and things of Demacia, Noxus, Ionia and many other continents, as well as countless heroes, and know more details about the IP universe.
The core needs of the user group determine that the League of Legends IP should have greater investment in the stand-alone field in the future. With the gradual spread of pan-entertainment content, Riot Games needs the gradually expanding League of Legends IP to undertake new content, and new content It will also bring more content to the League of Legends IP, and the complementarity of the two has contributed to the growth of the League of Legends IP. It’s just what story to tell and what gameplay to use. Maybe Riot Games will choose more novel perspectives to narrate to explore the answers to these questions until the emergence of new pillars.