between finale Arcanenew Teamfight Tactics set and new league of legends The season is about to start. Several months have passed in the world of Runeterra. And the scale is getting bigger. On Thursday, Riot made the announcement. league We’re jumping back into the real world, this time with an actual card game set in Runeterra, codenamed Project K.
While Riot’s announcement video covers some of the details of the game, Polygon had a chance to preview Project K ahead of the announcement and speak with game director Dave Guskin about how the game came to be and the transition process. league Join the card game, and you never know when exactly players will actually be able to play Project K.
As the video explains, the game can be played in a traditional 1v1 TCG format, but the team is even more excited about allowing players to play in groups of up to four, or even better, in a melee format. Two teams. The game features a prominent TCG mana system that grants players two runes per turn, with each unit and spell requiring a certain amount of runes.
Project K is one of many projects from Riot’s R&D division that launched last year in a relatively quick turnaround by studio standards. After thinking about the physical league of legends Once the trading card game took off, Guskin said he and his team developed the basic game engine after just a few months. From there, Guskin said he began assembling the Project K team from Riot’s TCG enthusiast base. Guskin specifically mentioned the excitement he encountered in Riot’s Los Angeles and Shanghai offices.
Photo: Riot Games
“When we started looking for play testers in Shanghai and here, the first thing we looked for was internal,” Guskin said. “So I proposed to Riot that we host a learn-to-play session. Oh, 20, 25 people will play.. Rather, about 150 to 200 people said, ‘We want to learn.’ “It makes no sense.”
The development process itself went very quickly, but still required some iteration. One of the earliest examples is the game’s 2v2 setting. Guskin credited the team for trying to match the team-based, fun multiplayer game. league. Higher player counts naturally lend themselves to larger gatherings and more real social experiences. According to Guskin, this was another important goal for the team. That’s because Riot currently has no plans to create a digital version of Project K.
“If you want to know if something is fun, I think doing it in a social setting is a good way to find out whether people like it or if it actually gets in the way of having a good time with friends. “Once we started playing 1v1 playtests, we had this: Alas, the magic of multiplayer is missing. And soon we Let’s make it 2 to 2. At that time we were like this: Ah, I see. It’s actually really fun. This is how we want to play.”
But once we decided to form a team, another problem arose. Magic: The GatheringEach player has health and can be eliminated, but in team games one or two players can easily end up stuck on the sideline for most of the game. To solve this problem, the team adopted Project K’s Battlefields points system rather than the player health system. According to Guskin, this also had the added benefit of making the games more similar. league of legendsdo.
“One of the things we really cared about when playing champions in MOBAs was TFT The idea is that it behaves similarly to what you would expect in other contexts,” Guskin said. “So sending three champions to take over Battlefield feels like laning or jungling. I think we have a lot of room to explore. In particular, in 2v2, it was said that it was similar to a duo, Oh, which two champions do you want to combine?”
Guskin especially likes the game’s 2v2 setting, but it’s still completely playable in traditional 1v1. In fact, that’s how I experienced the game with Guskin in my brief preview. Our game lasted about 20 minutes, and although Guskin said it was a typical 1v1 game, it still felt like it had some unique stages that would be familiar to most TCG fans. I pivoted around a traditional ramp deck. league As the champion Volibear, I did my best to defend in the early game, and later in the game, I played with more powerful spells and powerful card combinations. Although each deck in the game must be built around a specific champion, Guskin explained that the team’s goal was to mimic the gameplay experience of a MOBA version, making each champion card feel thematically consistent with the champion without feeling restrictive. league.
For example, Guskin gave examples of decks themed around champions like Darius and Viktor. Both focus on building armies to defeat opponents. This is not exactly true when it comes to their abilities. league of legendsHowever, it is thematically consistent with the in-game characters. Meanwhile, one of my Volibear cards ties more directly to his abilities, giving him a shield that makes enemy spells more difficult, like his E ability. league.
As someone with moderate TCG experience, I found Project K to be fairly easy to pick up. As Guskin said, pokemon and marble snap It is at the simplest end of TCG and Yu-Gi-Oh or magic On the other hand, the team’s goal for Project K was to fall somewhere in the middle. It seemed like a perfect fit to me. The mana system was so dynamic and easy to understand in the late game that it didn’t take attention away from more interesting cards, while the champion cards had effects that were intuitive and easy to understand, giving you lots of options. For synergy between them. Of course, it’s difficult to get more than a brief impression after just one game, and based on what I’ve played, it’s easy and interesting to imagine how the game could become more complicated by adding two players.
Photo: Riot Games
Project K is scheduled to launch in China in early 2025, but exactly when North American players will be able to get their hands on it is a much more complicated question. Mainly because Riot hasn’t found a suitable publishing partner yet.
“What we’re looking for is a partner who cares as much as we do about providing players with a great gaming experience where they play. For actual card games like this, it’s mostly hobby stores where people can learn. It’s a game,” Guskin explained. “So with (Riot), there are certain capabilities that we don’t have in terms of printing, distribution, merchandising, organizing events. (…) That’s why we’re looking for a partner who cares as much as we do and is willing to invest the time and energy to make this happen.”
While Guskin couldn’t give a firm timeline for when exactly the game will be released in the US, he did make it clear that the goal is to release it as close to the Chinese release as possible. But like most Riot projects, he says it’s important to get it right, even if it takes a little more time. Currently Riot’s attendees can play Project K. Teamfight Tactics Guskin hopes the team will be able to share more news with players soon.
