My title is Eric Angelillo, I’m the Creative Director and Co-Art Director for Convergence: A League of Legends Story. I additionally co-based Double Stallion video games 10 years in the past with a mission to create vibrant & transcendent experiences with gamers all all over the world. I really like making daring motion video games with vibrant stylized visuals impressed by the easiest of animation and comics.
Convergence: A League of Legends Story, is our new, story-pushed, single-participant 2D motion platformer that includes dynamic fight and distinctive exploration, and it gave us an unimaginable alternative to use our strengths as a studio adapt a myriad of Zaun and Piltover Champions from the unique League of Legends MOBA. With Ekko as our lead, it was troublesome to slender down the checklist of different Champs we wished to embrace within the solid, however we settled on Warwick, Camille and of course, Jinx the Loose Cannon!
For Ekko, improvement actually began with one key drawing I made of him grinding on a rail. I knew {that a} recreation about Ekko had to double down on not solely his time rewind talents and boy genius points, but additionally on his punk-impressed style sense. The idea in query had a robust graffiti aesthetic and pushed Ekko right into a neon soaked put up-punk skater vibe. This grew to become the idea for which we constructed the entire recreation’s artwork path.
We opted to stick shut to Ekko’s traditional design from League, however tailored his design form language to embrace rather a lot of triangles and sharp angles. Astute observers will even discover that his silhouette is predicated on an hourglass form. His footwear had been barely modified to permit for robust arches permitting him to grind. Mechanics-wise, we tailored Ekko’s complete package of talents after which some!
Building a single-participant recreation free of PVP balancing allowed us to actually leverage Ekko’s potential to rewind time, so this naturally grew to become our core mechanic. But gamers can be thrilled to see his MOBA talents – the Timewinder, Parallel Convergence, Phase Dive and Chronobreak – are additionally integral elements of the sport. In addition to faithfully adapting these strikes, we additionally expanded on them by making them helpful exterior of fight as effectively. The Timewinder can be utilized to energy electrical sockets, Parallel Convergence can time-freeze collapsing platforms and Phase Dive can be utilized to teleport via partitions!
A story about Zaun wouldn’t be the identical with no go to to the Sump… and a go to to the Sump wouldn’t be full with out its resident Uncaged Wrath; Warwick. Warwick was one of the primary Champions we explored via idea artwork as his biomechanical wolf profile is simply so enjoyable to draw. His sheer sprite dimension and complexity made him one of essentially the most intensive characters to animate within the recreation, however we knew it could be value the additional effort.
Moveset-wise; our animators referenced the look of his talents like Jaws of the Beast and Primal Howl. We even tailored his leaping Ultimate; Infinite Duress, however as an alternative of slashes, we had him seize Ekko and throw him towards a wall! Of course, Ekko can simply rewind it each time… offered he has sufficient Rewind Charges in his Zero Drive left.
Camille the Steel Shadow is an integral half of Convergence. She represents Piltover within the recreation, and acts as an unlikely ally to Ekko as they’re each looking for to take down the malicious Chembaron household generally known as the Poingdestres. Although Camille ultimately turns into an ally, issues initially begin on the flawed foot between her and Ekko… Fans can be thrilled to know they’ll have to face Camille in hand-to-hand fight.
Part of why we selected to adapt Camille is that her moveset from League of Legends had a lot potential in a facet-scrolling recreation. Camille’s signature hookshots are utilized in League to shortly transfer laterally, nonetheless, in an motion-platformer like Convergence, we had been in a position to use the hookshots to permit Camille to have unimaginable aerial talents. As a outcome, her battle encounter requires Ekko to actually dodge deftly, as Camille dominates the world with each horizontal and vertical excessive mobility.
In addition to the pace and agility afforded by her hookshots, League gamers will discover we additionally tailored Camille’s Precision Protocol roundhouse kick. And of course, who might overlook Camille’s Ultimate assault; The Hextech Ultimatum. While we had to adapt the Ultimatum’s limitations to operate vertically, the essence of capturing her opponents in a Hextech matrix stays the identical. For Camille’s artwork, we actually pushed her key options; lethal, tall, bladed legs and refined Piltovan magnificence. As beforehand talked about, we used triangular shapes as a motif for our character designs, and that is particularly evident with Camille’s sharp determine.
Jinx’s function in Convergence is exclusive in that she basically performs a distraction function in Ekko’s quest to save Zaun. As an agent of chaos, she doesn’t assist nor immediately impede Ekko, however her manic hijinks power Ekko to have to cease her earlier than he can proceed on his journey. Jinx has so many followers in the actual world, so we felt that even inside Runeterra, she would most likely have rather a lot of followers as effectively. In Convergence, Ekko discovers there’s a brand new chempunk gang on the town; the Inx. The Inx are like an unofficial fanclub for Jinx, solely as Ekko finds out, Jinx isn’t too glad concerning the thought of a bunch of chempunks ripping off her type… As an agent of good, Ekko is compelled to step in to cease Jinx from wreaking havoc on the Inx and in so doing blowing up Zaun and Piltover!
With all of the bosses in Convergence, we put rather a lot of thought into making them distinctive, and half of that was focusing every one on both melee or bullet-based mostly ranged assaults. Jinx naturally fell into the latter camp. All of her weapons from League make an look; Zapper, Chompers, Fishbones, Pow-pow and of course the Super Mega Death Rocket! We additionally added a number of further surprises like a full-display screen missile bathe! For Jinx’s character design, we based mostly it on her Wild Rift design, however then added on our signature cell-shading and sharp traces.
While it wasn’t possible to embrace all of the Zaun champs, we did embrace easter eggs for every one of them. Players could even spot references to different Champions from exterior Zaun as effectively. We’re extremely proud of Convergence and might’t look forward to gamers to expertise it firsthand.
Convergence: A League Of Legends Story can be launched on May 23, 2023. for Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One Game Pass members: Receive the Convergence Jinx emote in League of Legends. If you haven’t already, merely hyperlink your Riot Games account to your Game Pass subscription and play League of Legends by 11:59 PM PST on June 2nd to obtain it.
CONVERGENCE: A League of Legends Story™ Deluxe Edition
Riot Forge
$39.99
Pre-order the Deluxe Edition of CONVERGENCE: A League of Legends Story™ to obtain the Pre-Order Bonus Golden Ekko pores and skin
The Deluxe Edition of CONVERGENCE: A League of Legends Story™ consists of:
– Star Guardian Ekko Skin
– Ruined Ekko Skin
– CONVERGENCE Digital Comic and Art Book
Rewind the Past, Control the Future
Traverse the sprawling metropolis of Zaun as Ekko, a younger inventor with a tool to rewind time. He and his buddies should work collectively to maintain their metropolis secure, however as hazard looms and secrets and techniques come to mild, Ekko realizes he can’t belief anybody—not even himself.
Developed by Double Stallion Games, CONVERGENCE: A League Of Legends Story is a narrative-pushed, single-participant 2D motion platformer that includes dynamic fight and distinctive exploration alternatives thanks to Ekko’s potential to journey via area and time. Rewind your actions to be taught out of your errors and outsmart every new enemy. Will it’s sufficient to save Zaun’s future?
CONTROL TIME
Activate Ekko’s Zero Drive to flip again time. Then, use your information of the long run to adapt your strategy to any problem and get the leap in your enemies. Fluid, dynamic fight rewards exact timing and positioning.
DISCOVER ZAUN
Run, leap, and slide your approach via the streets of Zaun. Meet champions, face down enemies, and find by no means-earlier than-seen sides of the Undercity.
BATTLE CHAMPIONS
Encounter League of Legends champions such as you’ve by no means seen them earlier than. Unlock new talents and face rivals in a sequence of explosive battles to be taught who’s with you, and who’s towards you.
Seize each second in CONVERGENCE: A League of Legends Story.
CONVERGENCE: A League of Legends Story™
Riot Forge
$29.99
Pre-order CONVERGENCE: A League of Legends Story™ to obtain the Pre-Order Bonus Golden Ekko pores and skin
Rewind the Past, Control the Future
Traverse the sprawling metropolis of Zaun as Ekko, a younger inventor with a tool to rewind time. He and his buddies should work collectively to maintain their metropolis secure, however as hazard looms and secrets and techniques come to mild, Ekko realizes he can’t belief anybody—not even himself.
Developed by Double Stallion Games, CONVERGENCE: A League Of Legends Story is a narrative-pushed, single-participant 2D motion platformer that includes dynamic fight and distinctive exploration alternatives thanks to Ekko’s potential to journey via area and time. Rewind your actions to be taught out of your errors and outsmart every new enemy. Will it’s sufficient to save Zaun’s future?
CONTROL TIME
Activate Ekko’s Zero Drive to flip again time. Then, use your information of the long run to adapt your strategy to any problem and get the leap in your enemies. Fluid, dynamic fight rewards exact timing and positioning.
DISCOVER ZAUN
Run, leap, and slide your approach via the streets of Zaun. Meet champions, face down enemies, and find by no means-earlier than-seen sides of the Undercity.
BATTLE CHAMPIONS
Encounter League of Legends champions such as you’ve by no means seen them earlier than. Unlock new talents and face rivals in a sequence of explosive battles to be taught who’s with you, and who’s towards you.
Seize each second in CONVERGENCE: A League of Legends Story.
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