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In November 2021, Riot Games reintroduced players to its unnamed fighting game, Project L, an assist-based fighting game centered around the universe of Runeterra. The initial reveal of the game at Evo 2019 showed a potential direction for the game and two years later Riot confirmed that it has zeroed in on gameplay it thought would work. On 1st August, the company bore some more sweet updates regarding Project L and revealed that Illaoi would be joining the fray as one of the champions. The important takeaway from the dev update by Tom Cannon, the game's senior Director and EP, is that just like other Riot titles, Project L will also be free-to-play.
New updates on Project L
The latest update on Project L talked about what has been happening in the team over the past few months and what’s coming next. Cannon, after giving a recap of the last update, said, “We’re finishing up our work on core mechanics now and a lot of the team has moved on to building champions or building around the game features like competitive play and our social systems.”
Riot Games also made it clear that it was determined to remove as many barriers as possible to ensure that players enjoy the game. “We want you to be able to play no matter where you live, what your skill level is, or how much money you have to spend on a game,” Cannon said while confirming that Project L will be a free-to-play game. Additionally, the company promised to be respectful when it comes to the monetization of the game.
Illaoi joins the Project L roster
A dev blog by Riot Games talked about how Illaoi joined Project L as the new fighter champion. Shaun “Unconkable” Rivera, associate game director and gameplay design lead for Project L, wrote, “Our ultimate goal is to have a diverse and inclusive roster where everyone can find a champion that truly speaks to them.” Essentially, Riot Games wanted players to see a League of Legends champion in Project L and think, “Holy s***, they did what? Of course they can do that...”
The dev blog post also detailed how the team narrows in on champions and what the process of moving champions through the pipeline is. After considering Illaoi’s role in both League of Legends and Legends of Runeterra, Riot confidently resonated that its fighting game would be a perfect place for Illaoi.
Those who want to learn more about the Illaoi gameplay and character design in the fighting game, can check it out here.
Tom Cannon also confirmed that he will be back with another major update for Project L at the end of the year.
