From MOBA to action platformer – How Convergence: A League of Legends adapted Zaun’s Champions

My name is Eric Angelillo, I’m the Creative Director and Co-Art Director for Convergence: A League of Legends Story. I also co-founded Double Stallion Games 10 years ago with the mission of creating vivid and transcendent experiences for gamers around the world. I love creating bold action games with vibrant, stylized graphics inspired by the best animation and comics.

Convergence: A League of Legends Storyis our new story-driven single-player 2D action-platformer with dynamic combat and unique exploration. He gave us an incredible opportunity to leverage our strengths as a studio adapting countless Zaun and Piltover champions from the original League of Legends MOBA. With Ekko as the lead, it was difficult to narrow down the list of other champs we wanted to include in the cast, but we settled on Warwick, Camille, and of course Jinx the Loose Cannon!

For Ekko, the development actually started with a key drawing that I made of him grinding on a rail. I knew that a game about Ekko needed to showcase not only his time-rewind skills and boy genius aspects, but also his punk-inspired fashion sense. The concept in question had a strong graffiti aesthetic, throwing Ekko into a neon-soaked post-punk skater vibe. This became the basis from which we developed the artistic direction of the entire game.

We chose to keep Ekko’s classic League design, but tweaked his design language to include lots of triangles and acute angles. A keen observer will even notice that its silhouette is modeled on an hourglass shape. His shoes were slightly modified to allow for a strong arch that allows him to grind. In terms of mechanics, we’ve adjusted Ekko’s entire range of abilities and then some!

By creating a single player game with no PVP balancing, we were able to take full advantage of Ekko’s ability to turn back time, so naturally that became our core mechanic. But players will be thrilled to see that its MOBA skills – Timewinder, Parallel Convergence, Phase Dive, and Chronobreak – are also integral parts of the game. Not only have we faithfully adapted these moves, but we’ve also expanded them by making them useful outside of combat. Power outlets with Timewinder, freeze collapsing platforms in time with Parallel Convergence, and teleport through walls with Phase Dive!

A story about Zaun wouldn’t be the same without a visit to the swamp… and a visit to the swamp wouldn’t be complete without its resident Uncaged Wrath; Warwick. Warwick was one of the first champions we explored through concept art because his wolf biomechanical profile is just fun to draw. His sheer sprite size and complexity made him one of the most intensely animated characters in the game, but we knew the extra effort would be worth it.

moveset-wise; Our animators referenced the looks of his abilities like Jaws of the Beast and Primal Howl. We even adjusted his jumping ultimate; Infinite compulsion, but instead of slams, we had him grab Ekko and throw him against a wall! Of course, Ekko can just rewind it every time… assuming he still has enough rewind charges left in his zero drive.

Camille the Steel Shadow is an integral part of convergence. Representing Piltover in the game, she acts as an unlikely ally for Ekko as they both seek to defeat the evil Chembaron family known as the Poingdestres. Although Camille eventually becomes an ally, things between her and Ekko initially start off on the wrong foot… Fans will be thrilled to learn that they have to face Camille in close combat.

One reason we chose to adapt Camille is that her League of Legends moveset had so much potential for a side-scrolling game. Camille’s signature hookshots are used in League to quickly move sideways in an action-platformer-like game convergence, we were able to use the hookshots to give Camille incredible flying abilities. As such, Ekko needs to be really skilled at dodging in their combat encounter, as Camille dominates the arena with high horizontal and vertical mobility.

In addition to the speed and agility her hookshots offer, League players will find that we’ve also adjusted Camille’s Precision Protocol roundhouse kick. And of course, who could forget Camille’s ultimate attack? The Hextech Ultimate. While we had to adjust the Ultimatum’s barriers to work vertically, the essence of trapping their opponents in a Hextech Matrix remains the same. With Camille’s art, we really highlighted her main features; deadly, great, bladed legs and refined Piltovan elegance. As mentioned earlier, we used triangular shapes as a motif for our character designs and this is particularly evident in Camille’s sharp body.

Jinx’s role in convergence is unique in that she essentially plays a diversionary role in Ekko’s quest to save Zaun. As the agent of Chaos, she neither helps nor hinders Ekko directly, but her maniacal machinations force Ekko to stop her before he can continue his adventure. Jinx has so many fans in the real world that we figured she’d probably have a lot of fans in Runeterra as well. In convergenceEkko discovers there’s a new chempunk gang in town. the index The Inx are like an unofficial fan club for Jinx, except when Ekko finds out, Ekko isn’t too keen on the idea of ​​a bunch of chempunks ripping off her style… As an agent of good, Ekko is forced to step in to stop Jinx from ravaging the Inx and thereby blowing up Zaun and Piltover!

With all bosses in it convergence, we put a lot of thought into making them distinctive, focusing on melee or ball-based ranged attacks on each one. Jinx, of course, fell into the latter camp. All of their weapons from League show up; Zappers, Chompers, Fishbones, Pow-Pow and of course the Super Mega Death Rocket! We’ve also added a few extra surprises, like a full-screen rocket shower! For Jinx’s character design, we took a cue from her Wild Rift design, but then added our signature cell shading and sharp lines.

While it wasn’t possible to include all Zaun champions, we added Easter Eggs for each of them. Players can even discover clues to other champions outside of Zaun. We’re incredibly proud of it convergence and I can’t wait for players to experience it firsthand.

Convergence: A League of Legends Story will be released on May 23, 2023. For Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One Game Pass members: Get the Convergence Jinx emote in League of Legends. If you haven’t already, simply link your Riot Games account to your Game Pass subscription and play League of Legends by June 2nd at 11:59pm PST to claim it.