Riot Games explains its design principles for the popular MOBA

May 30, 2014 12:40 GMT  ·  By

Riot Games has offered a glimpse into some of its design principles for League of Legends, the massively successful multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) title, emphasizing mastery and tradeoffs, as players should feel like they're progressing and making choices that aren't clear cut.

League of Legends has been around for quite some time now and continues to be a behemoth in terms of players and eSports competitions, largely due to the involvement of developer Riot Games in organizing the events and constantly updating the game in new and great ways.

Before the studio shares more of its future plans for the multiplayer title, its Lead Designer, Ryan "Morello" Scott, has offered a comprehensive blog post about some of the core principles of League of Legends. He emphasized how it's important not just to have tradeoffs for all skills and player choices, but also to make players feel like they're progressing in whichever role they choose.

First up, a game should always feature new things throughout its different aspects, so that players aren't getting stuck in a routine.

"Whether a player aspires to be a motivating in-game leader, a mechanically gifted marksman, or a trendsetting strategist who shapes the landscape; they’re pursuing mastery. Skilled players can carry the game on a few core aspects, but masters understand and work on all of them. Whether a player's starting their 10th or 1000th game, there should always be new and exciting challenges to pursue."

What's more, making meaningful choices is also important, especially since all of them require tradeoffs in order to make players think about the things they want and the sacrifices they aren't willing to make.

"Instead of offering a best path forward, we want to offer different paths forward that have real tradeoffs. Players should see changes that reflect this philosophy when we introduce strategic tradeoffs for emergent strategies, not because they're new and unique, but usually because they're dominating the scene."

Counterplay, which is reacting to the moves of your opponent, is also quite important in League of Legends, as Scott believes that skill should decide a match, not luck or a better initial choice of champions.

"A fight loses its excitement if the first punch wins – it's what you can do after that adds depth and complexity. We try to prevent hard counters and abilities with no room for reaction, as no game should be over without a real show of skill."

League of Legends is set to get its next big eSport event on the Wembley stadium in London, so expect to hear much more about it in the following weeks.