Reset the clock, we have more Project L news. riot games‘ Fighting games in development are rare, but from Japan Evo Stands out as one of the most impactful early releases we’ve seen to date.
The information comes from professional player GamerBee, who was invited to a closed-door “banquet” where Riot staff showed off a new Project L video to select players, answer their questions, and address their concerns. While audio recordings are not permitted, attendees are permitted to share content from online discussions.So GamerBee did us all a favor By translating their notes into English and posting them online.
However, these annotations are translated via ChatGPT, so they are not 100% accurate. We reached out to Riot to confirm the validity of GamerBee’s note. A spokesperson responded that the gist of the post was correct, although as an AI translation it was not a verbatim representation of the exact points made at the meeting.
A Riot spokesperson told us: “During EVO Japan in Tokyo, Riot met with some local fighting game professionals to discuss gameplay and our game goals, and asked the local FGC about their current needs, pain points, and hopes to The genre moves forward, and so on… as Project L is still in deep development”. So we can continue to delve into GamerBee’s notes with confidence, just take the exact wording of each point with a grain of salt.
Let’s start with the new game content. In the demo, a “back guard” was shown. This is apparently one of the game’s many defense systems, which allow you to keep your opponents at arm’s length. Other defense options aren’t shown, but are clearly in-game. Note that we’ve already seen the dynamic save system in the last dev diary.
Riot Games is also reportedly working with Sony to ensure that input lag is the same across all platforms. That’s another big topic, but in short, certain games have significant differences in input lag between platforms. This means that some platforms have quantifiable advantages over others, which is a big deal for competitive-minded players. Making everyone the same when it comes to input lag fixes that.
The game will have three attack buttons, and special moves won’t require complex directional inputs. Instead, all special moves will be performed with an attack + direction combination (eg: forward + punch). Normal moves can be canceled for air or ground combos, which use launcher attacks to send opponents into the sky. For reference, check out some similar notes from the Marvel vs Capcom Gameplay – GamerBee series. As a final game note, two characters on a team must be eliminated for a player to win the game.
Go to the Project L competition section, that’s where the really interesting info is. According to GamerBee’s notes: There will be a professional esports environment, and some may worry that official tournaments will replace community events.Therefore, official competitions will have restrictions, and community competitions can use [Project L] organize activity”.
Let’s break it down. Official Riot Project L events will be limited, and community-hosted events (ranging from weekly Gaming Cafe events to annual mega-tournaments) will fill out the rest of the ecosystem. Here, Riot staff are essentially confirming a system where events not controlled by Riot can still take place in the presence of Project L. There’s apparently no word on what kind of agreement tournament organizers will have to agree to, but it’s a start.
Additionally, GamerBee’s note later noted that Project L could host events alongside other fighting games, and pro gamers would be able to participate in other fighting games while maintaining their Project L player status. This has been an issue for Riot Games pro players in the past, especially Yiliang Peng (aka Doublelift) who stated that their stance as a Riot LCS player prevented them from participating in Street Fighter IV.
If the notes are to be believed, thank God. Fighting game events are all about mixing and sharing spaces with players of other games, so a barrier that prevents players from accessing other games competitively would be an awkward measure that separates players from their peers.
The notes also dispel any assumptions that Riot Games will be spending huge sums of money on the tournament. The notes say that the Project L team wants to make players “stars” rather than simply paying them high salaries so they can earn more money through endorsements or sponsorships. Additionally, the tournament program starts small while the team ensures players are happy with the state of the game before slowly expanding the scene. Don’t expect Mandalay Bay first year.
There are more notes on the philosophies behind some of the decisions and underlying mechanics that haven’t been locked down yet, but we recommend reading the tweets yourself to get a full picture of what’s been discussed. In general, it’s crazy that this kind of information is secondhand from the pros. Ultimately, early chats with professionals early in development must be followed up with actual, tangible action by the development team and Riot as a whole.
Still, for now, it all seems like good news! Hopefully we’ll get an official update soon to confirm these points and elaborate where needed.
For more Project L articles, check out this rad Project L Akali model that a fan made nearly six months ago. Fun fact: Riot hired this guy!
