My identify is Eric Angelillo, I’m the Creative Director and Co-Art Director for Convergence: A League of Legends Story. I additionally co-founded 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 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-driven, single-player 2D motion platformer that includes dynamic fight and distinctive exploration, and it gave us an unbelievable alternative to make use of 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 tough to slim down the checklist of different Champs we wished to incorporate within the solid, however we settled on Warwick, Camille and naturally, Jinx the Loose Cannon!
For Ekko, improvement actually began with one key drawing I fabricated from him grinding on a rail. I knew {that a} recreation about Ekko needed to double down on not solely his time rewind skills and boy genius points, but additionally on his punk-inspired vogue sense. The idea in query had a powerful graffiti aesthetic and pushed Ekko right into a neon soaked post-punk skater vibe. This turned the idea for which we constructed the entire recreation’s artwork route.
We opted to stay near Ekko’s basic design from League, however tailored his design form language to incorporate plenty of triangles and sharp angles. Astute observers will even discover that his silhouette relies on an hourglass form. His sneakers had been barely modified to permit for robust arches permitting him to grind. Mechanics-wise, we tailored Ekko’s total equipment of skills after which some!
Building a single-player recreation freed from PVP balancing allowed us to actually leverage Ekko’s means to rewind time, so this naturally turned our core mechanic. But gamers might be thrilled to see his MOBA skills – 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 outdoors of fight as properly. The Timewinder can be utilized to energy electrical sockets, Parallel Convergence can time-freeze collapsing platforms and Phase Dive can be utilized to teleport by partitions!
A narrative about Zaun wouldn’t be the identical with out a 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 many first Champions we explored by idea artwork as his biomechanical wolf profile is simply so enjoyable to attract. His sheer sprite dimension and complexity made him one of the vital intensive characters to animate within the recreation, however we knew it will be price the additional effort.
Moveset-wise; our animators referenced the look of his skills like Jaws of the Beast and Primal Howl. We even tailored his leaping Ultimate; Infinite Duress, however as a substitute 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 a part of Convergence. She represents Piltover within the recreation, and acts as an unlikely ally to Ekko as they’re each in search of to take down the malicious Chembaron household generally known as the Poingdestres. Although Camille finally turns into an ally, issues initially begin on the fallacious foot between her and Ekko… Fans might be thrilled to know they should 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 side-scrolling recreation. Camille’s signature hookshots are utilized in League to rapidly transfer laterally, nevertheless, in an action-platformer like Convergence, we had been in a position to make use of the hookshots to permit Camille to have unbelievable aerial skills. As a consequence, 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 velocity and agility afforded by her hookshots, League gamers will discover we additionally tailored Camille’s Precision Protocol roundhouse kick. And after all, who might neglect Camille’s Ultimate assault; The Hextech Ultimatum. While we needed to adapt the Ultimatum’s obstacles 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 position in Convergence is exclusive in that she primarily performs a distraction position in Ekko’s quest to save lots of Zaun. As an agent of chaos, she doesn’t assist nor immediately impede Ekko, however her manic hijinks drive Ekko to need 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 in all probability have plenty of followers as properly. 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 in regards to the concept of a bunch of chempunks ripping off her model… As an agent of fine, Ekko is pressured 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 plenty of thought into making them distinctive, and a part of that was focusing each on both melee or bullet-based ranged assaults. Jinx naturally fell into the latter camp. All of her weapons from League make an look; Zapper, Chompers, Fishbones, Pow-pow and naturally the Super Mega Death Rocket! We additionally added just a few additional surprises like a full-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 incorporate all of the Zaun champs, we did embrace easter eggs for every considered one of them. Players might even spot references to different Champions from outdoors Zaun as properly. We’re extremely happy with Convergence and may’t anticipate gamers to expertise it firsthand.
Convergence: A League Of Legends Story might 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™ contains:
– 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 associates should work collectively to maintain their metropolis protected, however as hazard looms and secrets and techniques come to gentle, Ekko realizes he can’t belief anybody—not even himself.
Developed by Double Stallion Games, CONVERGENCE: A League Of Legends Story is a story-driven, single-player 2D motion platformer that includes dynamic fight and distinctive exploration alternatives due to Ekko’s means to journey by area and time. Rewind your actions to study out of your errors and outsmart every new enemy. Will or not it’s sufficient to save lots of Zaun’s future?
CONTROL TIME
Activate Ekko’s Zero Drive to show again time. Then, use your data of the longer term to adapt your method to any problem and get the soar in your enemies. Fluid, dynamic fight rewards exact timing and positioning.
DISCOVER ZAUN
Run, leap, and slide your means by the streets of Zaun. Meet champions, face down enemies, and find never-before-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 skills and face rivals in a collection of explosive battles to study 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 associates should work collectively to maintain their metropolis protected, however as hazard looms and secrets and techniques come to gentle, Ekko realizes he can’t belief anybody—not even himself.
Developed by Double Stallion Games, CONVERGENCE: A League Of Legends Story is a story-driven, single-player 2D motion platformer that includes dynamic fight and distinctive exploration alternatives due to Ekko’s means to journey by area and time. Rewind your actions to study out of your errors and outsmart every new enemy. Will or not it’s sufficient to save lots of Zaun’s future?
CONTROL TIME
Activate Ekko’s Zero Drive to show again time. Then, use your data of the longer term to adapt your method to any problem and get the soar in your enemies. Fluid, dynamic fight rewards exact timing and positioning.
DISCOVER ZAUN
Run, leap, and slide your means by the streets of Zaun. Meet champions, face down enemies, and find never-before-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 skills and face rivals in a collection of explosive battles to study who’s with you, and who’s towards you.
Seize each second in CONVERGENCE: A League of Legends Story.
