Project L, Riot’s in-development fighting game set in the League of Legends universe, will be free to play
The news arrived in a video update from executive producer Tom Cannon ahead of his trip to EVO 2022, who confirmed that the team is “finishing up work on core mechanics” and has moved on to filling out the game’s roster of fighters. As part of the video, Cannon confirmed that Project L will, much like Riot’s other main titles League of Legends and Valorant, be free to play.
About to head off to Vegas for Evo, but before I do... pic.twitter.com/bQ9QoSwvpK
— Tom Cannon (@ProtomCannon) August 1, 2022
“When it comes to monetization, we promise to be respectful of both your time and your wallet,” Cannon says during the video. It’s likely then that the game will follow a similar monetization scheme to the studio’s other titles. With skins bundles in Valorant ranging as high in price as over $100, however, fighting game fans could be in for some big spends if they value their looks in Project L.
Alongside the update, the development team has released a new blog post diving into the design of Kraken priestess Illaoi. Opened by associate gameplay director Shaun Rivera, the blog post explains how Project L’s team goes about selecting a champion to bring across.
© Riot
“At a high level, we have a few phases we move champions through in our champion pipeline, but today we’re going to focus on the first: DNA,” Rivera writes. “If you’ve seen any of our character development stories from League of Legends or VALORANT, this term might look familiar. At this stage, our Designer, Narrative writer, and concept and animation Artists (get it? DNA) focus on exploring possibilities—inspiring each other with cool visuals, thematics, and kit ideas until something exciting emerges.”
Regarding Illaoi in particular, the team reveal how animator Guk Yun Kwon purchased a kettlebell to get an idea of movements the Kraken priestess would perform when swinging her golden idol. Unfortunately it wasn’t quite possible to find an easy prop to represent summoning the ghostly tentacles of her god Nagakabouros.
Read the full blog post on Illaoi here to learn more about the philosophy of the gameplay design behind the character. Project L doesn’t yet have a release date or official title, but you can check out the game’s first reveal and gameplay here.
