Years, League of Legends Players have forced the developer of Riot Games that the company should remove its "s" until they release another game. Of course, in the years since the joke started coming up, Riot has produced similar things Steps vs Minutes, board game; Teamfight tactics, auto warr; and so on, Runeterra mythology, a card game. But each of these is set in League of Legends the atmosphere, and that's definitely not something that fans have described.
What they wanted was the same Allowed: a party that supports a conservative party on the scale League of Legends, and the first Riot game since League it's happening in a whole new universe.
But while Riot will soon publicly receive the "s" in its name, the reality is that it actually existed longer than the players thought – the studio told no one. When I visited the Riot headquarters in Los Angeles, I could tell how AllowedThe long and straightforward development process begins, from the developers who were there at every step of the way.
The beginning
AllowedDevelopment is still far behind in “more than six years” – that is the first time I hear it in discussions with developers. Back then, the game was just a mini show inside Riot's R&D section. While none of the developers can give a specific date for it to work Allowed it st arted, one thing that was clear who was there in the beginning. Many people describe Joe Ziegler as 1 worker Allowed
“((Allowed) started from different angles at once, ”says Ziegler, now the game's director. "One angle was, I was talking to a few other composers, one of them Trevor (Romleski), and we were wondering what other games Riot could do."
Tactical shooter is a dense field with similar games Rating-Strike: Offensive Worldwide and Sixth Rain Siege attracting thousands of players a day. But according to Ziegler, Riot was convinced that its ability to scale, innovate and change games was something no other opponent in that genre could ever encounter.
“We were already able to get things done as Channel players League of Legends, ”Ziegler said. "And we're like, & # 39; What if we were to take such a model, and think about how we would take these often closed-end games, like Counter-Strike, and turn it into something – can I add continuously, where people don't hate when you add a gun or a new character? 39; ”
Few games have proven so eloquently as League of Legends. The title of multiplayer battlefields signed by Riot's place is more than a decade old at this time, and the company is still updating it every two weeks, adding new Champions, reviving old, and crazy game plans. For the last six years, the studio has redefined the game's visuals. For all these changes, League is always one of the world's most popular video games.
One of the biggest ways the group is planning to create those changes is Allowed it was Agents, characters that players choose at the beginning of each game with different abilities. While Allowed it is almost always the same target with precise accuracy as games like Counter-Strike, Agents offering new wrinkles to that formula, and a ready-made Riot ingredient that we can always keep up to date.
With that in mind, it's no surprise that Trevor Romleski – who worked for him League of Legends nine years, mostly on the balance of the game with the live services team – has been a part of the project from the beginning. Romleski brought a sophisticated knowledge of what was done League successful and creative, and now works as a top game designer on Allowed. Without his experiences go on League, bring to the table the excitement of playing other types of competitive games.
Romleski describes himself as an agnostic, but says competitive sports have always been his favorite. “Many losses of RTS, StarCraft, and Warcraft 3, The World of War Arena, Be proud, Team Fortress 2, "she says." I just play a lot of things. "
It is easy to see where this competitive spirit is entering Allowed. As well as regular updates, the tactical scanner also fits well with Riot's intention to create games that can keep players challenged. Both MOBAs and strategic archers Counter-Strike has proven to be one of the longest and most continuous entertaining (and competitive types in general). According to everyone in Riot telling this story, one idea is very important Allowed from the outset the integrity of competition. That means that the studio names everything in the game around the maintenance of the right competition, and ensures that ability is an invaluable resource for any player.
One of the most important parts of keeping any shooter competitive is its map design. About a year after Romleski and Ziegler started work Allowed, Riot is looking to find someone with map design experience for competing shooters. This is where Salvatore Garozzo comes into this story. Garozzo was a former Counter-Strike player and, after his time in competition, began designing game maps. In fact, Garozzo designed Cache, a map that remains popular with fans and is a common feature Rating-Strike: Offensive Worldwide competitive environment.
When Riot first arrived at the Garozzo, he was understandably confused. “I remember being stunned,” said Garozzo. “Because I was interested in Riot because League of Legends definitely, but I didn't find that they work with shooter (…) it wasn't the first time on my FPS game radar. ”After a few conversations, it was clear why Riot was looking at her, and she made conversation to join him Allowed group. “I interviewed him and actually played the game, and I was sure. I saw the power and wanted to be a part of it. ”
Other developers are telling similar stories of compliments to the game's first build. Many of them, like Garozzo, joined the party five or so years ago. Their stories are a reminder of how long the project has been in Riotos in one phase or another, and how long it has been Allowed it was fun to play.
Another team member, Paul Chamberlain, says, "I don't work in many sports, League of Legends and Allowed, but everyone tells me it was great that this game was there (for a long time) and it was fun for the rest of their lives. ”
To solve the technical problem of shooters
First, there Allowed The group was young, revealing one of the main problems with some PC archers: cheating.
"The best team of people who launched this project all have competitive shooting backgrounds, and it's like, & # 39; What kind of stuff do we need that we don't get right now? & # 39;" Said Chamberlain, chief software engineer and head of AllowedAttempts to fight fraud. “It wasn't that any game in particular was bad; it seemed that every single game, at one time or another, had a very negative impact on cheating. ”
Most given game players will never cheat. But the problem is that once people know that cheating exists, and they come across it a few times, it's all about the game. If you've been a victim of aimbot before, the difference between impressive – or fortunate – and headaches and illegal hacking can sometimes be hard to detect.
The Allowed The team brought in Chamberlain to help fight fraud. The strange thing about the addition happened when they touched Chamberlain.
“I just helped sail League of LegendsIt is an anti-fraud program, and we thought we could solve it permanently, ”says Chamberlain's joke. “And that's when I heard about this Allowed project, and basically the voice to me was like, & # 39; Good job with cheating inside League of Legends; Do you want to do hard mode now with tricky shooters? & # 39; I was like, & # 39; Yes, it's a challenge, sign me up! & # 39; Then I realized it was 10 or 12 people, and that I was the fourth editor. ”
Before Chamberlain helps stop the chefs, he will have to help the development team with game building.
"Well, I'm made of bamboo," Chamberlain said. “But it turns out that it really helps. We can start planning safety features and then look at what problems we should solve immediately at the beginning of the game. ”
Instead of trying to get rid of copiers once Allowed had been released with a security system that could stay on top of the game, Chamberlain and the team have chosen to develop anti-cheating features from the start. One thing he does point out is the fact that the main server has proven everything in every game. The nature of the program is very difficult to implement, but it is possible, Chamberlain said, because the team began implementing it early in development.
"If we want (players) to invest in getting the game right, we have to give them the ability to fight the trick (defense)," Chamberlain said. “So we started early. We built the whole game with the fact that there are chefs in the world. ”
This way to technology back Allowed It is not limited to stopping fraudsters. Riot has also come out of his quest to make sure the game does not fit in the player's way. Things like server recovery rate, frame rate, and latency have all been top of mind AllowedDevelopment team from the beginning of the process. That's why the team brought in Dave Heironymus to help coordinate the game.
Heironymus had previously worked for a communications team League of Legends, which helps develop a technology called Riot Direct, which acts as a kind of second-hand traffic network from Riot Games. When Heironymus joined Allowed staff, he used Riot Direct to keep the gameplay at a very low level, to help ensure that players in many parts of the world would not face a lag.
Another member of the communications team, David Straily, arrived in the group a few years ago after working on Xbox One and Halo 5: Monitors at Microsoft and 343 Industries. It strongly describes how i Allowed The team is trying to tackle some of the problems plaguing archers in the past, noting that things like the help of colleagues – the fact that one can turn the corner and see their opponent before their opponent sees them – are corrected by improving the way each player's computer communicates with the server.
Straily and other members of the engineering team say their intention is to be invisible. If people see game technology, whether it is network or performance, chances are they are frustrated. Developers want to do more than make a successful game. They want to make a shooter that solves some of the problems that invaded the genre forever.
The presentation is everything
Gameplay and technology have always been the main focus of Riot Allowed. The original members of the group were not particularly concerned about the specific country or setting; they just made the best game they had, with characters, skills, and maps that had little narrative or narrative connection. But it requires more than just a game submission. To help the movement Allowed from a fun, playful game to a finished product that Riot can show to the world, the team introduces Anna Donlon.
"It's my ability to focus on taking a game when we think we have the right game, and then figure out what we really need to do to introduce it to the players and develop it into a live thing," Donlon said.
Donlon is a veteran video game producer with a lot of shooting knowledge. He was a producer on two Call of Duty games, so this part of the process wasn't a surprise. He first joined the Riot about five years ago and worked on it League of Legends, where he was the lead producer of the game's cosmetic content. A few years later, he was brought Allowed with the aim of helping to propel the work further into a game for the public to play.
John Goscicki works in a place similar to Donlon's, as a character producer. While many members League of LegendsThe championship design team was created to work on Agents of Allowed over the years, Goscicki did not join the project until 2019 – after nearly five years League of Legends.
“I was League for a while and I was starting to have that feeling, & # 39; Oh, let me try something new, & # 39; ”Said Goscicki. “And I had a lot of friends in the actors group Allowed, the first people of the Championship to appear League, which makes sense. And (Riot was like, & # 39; Hi, we need someone to help with this thing. & # 39; I came at a time when all the characters were re-started. "
Each one of them AllowedThe characters look different, both for reasons of style and to help keep them all easily recognizable from a gameplay perspective. Goscicki describes the stunning fashion of Agents as a combination of "modern technological, athletic, and high-tech fashion."
But what's really interesting is that every character in the game looks like someone you want to play with. Not only the cycle, but the whole game. Goscicki explains that that was a big deal in terms of construction.
"One thing (we wanted) to make the characters aspire, make them attractive," Goscicki said. "I think the good similarities here are, we don't want to make big NPCs. Each character is unacceptable."
One of the last great pieces Allowed puzzle was David Nottingham. Shortly after Donlon arrived, and with many parts of the game in place, he brought Nottingham as a creative director. Several Rioters describe Nottingham as a kind of ethereal creative presence. He seems to be able to float from one topic to another, expanding in any view. It is this quality that explains why he was brought Allowed at this stage of development.
When asked what the world is Allowed it was like before he came, Nottingham laughed a little. He says: “We have been looking forward to the final game for a long time. “And that's great because it's the most important thing, but there was definitely a redesign that could be what IP could be. And I was just looking sideways. I was able to look at all of that and then I started down and said, & # 39; Oops, here's the go, & # 39; ”Said Nottingham.
More Allowed it is in place and there is not enough narrative to surround us, there was a creative idea as powerful as Nottingham: someone who could fill the cracks between the characters and the various concepts of the game, and make them all seem united in one cohesive world.
“I think that made it a really exciting challenge,” she says. “It's almost like Rubik's cable: & # 39; How do I take all these different things together and put them together into something that we have felt we now have a happy foundation for? & # 39; Then we see where we want to go. to take it next. ”
AllowedThe characters all have humorous pieces that reflect their personality, and short conversations between them that show deep relationships. All of this comes with shorter discussion lines of the game, and Nottingham says these lines will change over time as Agents' stories change. None of them take away the gameplay or take a few seconds, and it makes for a nice break from the round and round of great shooting, but it's hard to say how much it costs. Allowed you will mention in these pieces and pieces. Nottingham goes up Fortnite as an example of the kind of storytelling the great Riot game is intended for, but in this look we haven't seen any great narration.
While Valorant may not be Riot's second game, it's the most ambitious project the company has tried since League of Legends. In many ways, Riot seems to be trying to pull it off Allowed as a comparative game League of Legends it took ten years to grow.
When I played it at Riot's headquarters, Allowed it was very polished, a technical marvel, and one of the most fun shooting scenes I've played. And there are still a few months away from the version which will launch sometime in the summer. But as with most free-to-play games, how players feel from now on is more important than how they feel when introduced. In 10 years, League of Legends is still one of the most popular PC games in the world, and after almost six years of development on Allowed, Riot is finally ready to see if he can repeat that success.