Almighty Game Designer Chapter 280: Cancel runes and hero charges

I have decided to do "League of Legends", but how to do it needs to be considered.

Strictly speaking, "League of Legends" is a very commercially successful game, but in terms of balance and competition, there are some flaws in order to improve commerciality.

It has been popular for several years, relying on constantly updating the version, using such frequent changes to continuously bring new feelings to players, thereby diluting the imbalance of the game itself to the greatest extent.

Whether this method is the optimal solution for the time being, at least it solves the problem well.

Allow players to play new powerful heroes every time the version is updated, so as to have different fun.

In Chen Mo’s view, the reasons why the previous "League of Legends" took this route are complicated, but the most critical reasons are nothing more than two. One is the positioning of the game itself, and the other is the R&D company and The company characteristics of the operating company.

From the perspective of positioning, "League of Legends" is a game whose ultimate goal is to explore, expand, and unify the market. It tries to reduce the difficulty of getting started (even at the expense of the balance of the game itself) for this purpose.

Therefore, the follow-up operation strategy and version update must continue this purpose. This has been determined from the very beginning and is in the same line.

The characteristics of the company refer to the fact that Riot was not a big company with deep pockets at the beginning. It also developed slowly with the game "League of Legends", opening up markets and developing games. Money is everywhere, so it must also consider the ability of the game in terms of revenue.

This is the same reason that Chen Mo had to do some krypton gold games at the beginning.

As for the operator, I won’t explain it. Everyone knows whether it loves making money or not.

Of course, after the great success of "League of Legends" and the fist is not bad for money, more and more considerations are being given to transformation, such as canceling the upper limit of the level and canceling the rune system.

It is even considered to completely abolish the charges on players for the game "League of Legends" and use various events and surroundings as profit points (just like traditional sports).

League of Legends has several major versions in Chen Mo's previous life. Each major change will make the entire game a big change. Which version to make requires careful consideration.

……

In his own studio, Chen Mo began to write the design concept draft of "League of Legends".

This concept draft is probably the longest time he has written. Although he is familiar with most of the content of the game "League of Legends", he still has to think about some key issues. repeatedly.

The most critical point is what the final form of this game should look like.

In terms of purpose, Chen Mo is now highly consistent with the previous fist company. What he wants now is a MOBA game with extremely low difficulty to get started, and to become a phenomenal explosive game, long-term Dominate the PC game market and cut off any living space for other MOBA games that may appear.

So, the "League of Legends" that Chen Mo is going to do must also be a relatively simple game.

If it is made more complicated, it may make a simpler MOBA game to seize the market and fail to achieve the effect of full dominance.

Secondly, how competitive and balanced should this game be?

The talent and rune system were criticized at the beginning of the birth of "League of Legends". In particular, the rune system makes this game an unfair game to some extent, because it allows players of different game durations to enter the same game with a difference in combat power.

Of course, the rune system has its meaning, such as:

1. Provide players with a sense of growth and long-term pursuit.

Two, match different runes for different heroes to create a variety of gameplay.

Three, make money.

However, afterwards, Fist also cancelled the rune design during the revision.

Chen Mo's decision was that in the first version of "League of Legends", the talents were retained and runes were cut off.

The player's level limit is still 30, but all talents will be unlocked within 10. In other words, as long as the player makes a little effort to reach level 10, he will not have any difference with other players in terms of attributes.

To match this is the change in revenue content: all heroes are free, and all revenue comes from skins and other value-added services that do not affect combat power.

Cut off the charges from runes and heroes, which will definitely affect the revenue ability of "League of Legends", but Chen Mo is very clear that this has more benefits.

To make "League of Legends" an absolutely fair competitive game, in this way, its professionalism will also be on the right track faster.

The reason why Chen Mo dared to do this is that he is in a different situation from Riot. If Riot started with a headwind, then he started with a good wind.

The leading company must consider the profitability of the game, but Chen Mo does not.

Chen Mo now has ample research and development funds on hand, and even if the research and development funds are not enough, he can just start a krypton game. There is no need to use "League of Legends" to collect money from players.

In the first six months or even a year, it does not matter if "League of Legends" does not make money at all. Anyway, as long as you can pile up the number of players and create a prototype related to e-sports, it will be difficult not to make money in the future.

In other respects, Chen Mo considers to follow the big framework of "League of Legends" in the S3 period and make some adjustments.

The S1 and S2 of "League of Legends" are equivalent to the initial creation and development period. It is at ~IndoMTL.com~ that it has truly formed its own style and has a wide range of influences all over the world.

Especially since the third season, a large number of heroes with LOL characteristics began to appear in "League of Legends", such as: Jess, Zyra, Moon, Rengar, Dark Lord, Khazk, Spider Queen, Jie , Thresh, Zach, etc.

These heroes are all typical heroes with both hero mechanics and operability. It is precisely because of these heroes who are very capable of "showing" that "League of Legends" has a strong vitality, so that it has a once in the S3 period. It broke out completely and finally established a dominant position.

If heroes such as Amumu, Stone Man, and Galen with relatively simple operations are the cornerstone of "League of Legends", then these "Sima" heroes that can be shown are the faces of "League of Legends".

It is these outstanding heroes that make this game cater to the vast majority of players and have long-lasting vitality.

Of course, the "League of Legends" that Chen Mo is going to do is definitely different from any previous version.

Chen Mo even considered a comprehensive adjustment of the entire numerical balance system of "League of Legends", so that most heroes can be useful and make the entire game more diversified.