Our great interview about Legends of Runeterra, the new game by Riot

The card game Legends of Runeterra officially celebrated its release at the end of April. MeinMMO author Alexander Leitsch spoke with Jeff Jew, the Executive Producer, about the game and future plans.

Legends of Runeterra is one of the six new games announced by Riot Games in October 2019. Until then, the company only had one major title: League of Legends.

Unlike Valorant and Wild Rift, the mobile and console version of League of Legends, the card game already celebrated its release on April 28, launching with a major update.

But how is Legends of Runeterra performing now, and what are the future plans for the card game? We asked Jeff Jew, the Executive Producer of LoR, in an interview.

Millions of new players, thanks to mobile release

MeinMMO: Legends of Runeterra was released on April 28. How has the game changed since then? Did many new players join or did old players come back?

Jeff Jew: We are very excited about how many players have joined since the release. We had millions of new players, as well as many old ones who played during the beta. And it obviously helped that we released the game as free-to-play on Android and iOS. We have a ton of players trying out LoR on their smartphones right now.

To be honest, the smartphone is also where I play the most because it fits better into my life rhythm. We received a huge amount of feedback from new players and about the new set, and it’s just great that so many new players have joined.

MeinMMO: The mobile version was an important step and is well received by many players, considering the reviews. Do you notice any differences in gameplay between mobile and PC?

Jeff Jew: I think there are slight differences. The large monitor on PC helps a bit with the overview of the game. But our goal is to make the experience as similar as possible, and from our perspective, there is no real advantage to playing on either platform.

We have worked very hard to ensure performance, especially not to drain the battery. And much of this is reflected in the feedback, as you yourself mentioned. We have invested a lot of time and effort, and it’s nice to see that reflected in the reviews.

At this point, I would also like to emphasize that cross-platform play is a feature. So the features are identical and so are the card collections – and that was extremely important to us. You can face players on PC or on smartphones, and I don’t believe players notice any difference when facing each other.

Inspired by Magic: The Gathering and other card games

MeinMMO: If I remember correctly, you have some Magic fans among your developers, which also led to the creation of LoR. How much did Magic influence your card game?

Jeff Jew: Yes, we are big fans of Magic, myself included. About 10 years ago, we started a card gaming club at Riot and met every two weeks to play. We played Magic for a long time, and some even played it professionally.

It’s a great game, and it helped us create a foundation for LoR. At the same time, we wanted to ensure that our matches feel “short and snappy”. They should also fit into the LoL universe and bring the champions and their friends to life. Our big goal was also to make the matches last about 10 minutes, which is important for mobile devices, to keep up with that.

MeinMMO: Were you inspired by other card games besides Magic? What did you adopt from them?

Jeff Jew: Oh absolutely, I’ve played Magic, Pokémon, recently Hearthstone, Gwent, Duelyst. During development, we created an incredible number of prototypes, I think over 20. Small games we experimented with, sometimes on paper, sometimes already digitally. In the end, we decided on the current system, because it had gameplay that allowed alternate turns. That was one of our main criteria for the game.

We had the impression that many modern CCG games, even though they are very well programmed, lack the feel of playing against real players. You don’t get to know your opponent, how they bluff and maybe hold spells for the perfect moment. How they react exactly to the moves.

It’s like a puzzle you start, then hand over to the other to complete. You don’t solve it completely alone, but you don’t interact directly with the other either. But solving it can still be fun.

We worked more on achieving that back-and-forth between the players. And we learned a lot from other games for our business model, where we wanted to avoid the slot machine.

MeinMMO: And where do you see your card game? Earlier you mentioned that the connection to LoL is important. But are you mainly targeting players or did many come from outside?

Jeff Jew: As you rightly pointed out, we have exactly two core target groups: the League players, whether they used to play or still do, and the general card and strategy game players. However, there is a large overlap between the two groups, which was one of the main reasons we made LoR. I simply think:

• If you are a LoL player, you can look forward to your champions, dive into the world, and enjoy the many new artworks.
• And if you never played LoL, you are lucky because everything is easy to understand, the card texts are clear, and you will find your way around immediately.

To be honest, this will probably be the first LoL experience for many players ever. Especially the new mobile players, who may have never played LoL on PC. And we have focused heavily on being as beginner-friendly as possible.

Everything for the sake of balance, even monetization

MeinMMO: Your game model is based on free-to-play and allows players to buy cards directly rather than drawing them from packs. You mentioned you want to avoid the “slot machine”. How satisfied are you with this and what is the player feedback like?

Jeff Jew: So far, we are very satisfied with the feedback. Our original approach was not to be generous to the community, but to balance and develop the game over the years. The problem we see with other card games is that you need a lot of packs to get the card you want. Or you destroy your collection for it. Both feel bad.

Packs do have a positive side when you get the desired card. Personally, I still enjoy opening booster packs. That tension when you hope for that one card. But eventually, you realize that to get the card you want, you receive many unwanted ones. And then, when you’ve spent 15, 50, or 100 dollars on the card, it’s hard for us as developers to nerf it. Because when I do, it results in negative feelings. You don’t want me to nerf the card, even if it’s bad for the overall game.

We wanted to ensure that we can balance LoR from month to month, and to do that, we needed to detach the player a bit from their love for a single card. If a player builds a deck around a single card, they feel bad when we nerf that deck. They should then have the chance to quickly build other decks and adapt. Our goal was for a player to own 2, 3, or even more decks simultaneously, and hopefully, they will realize that Riot only adjusts cards that are truly problematic. If they then touch my deck, I have enough cards to play another. That’s why we settled on the current system, where you:

• Have shards that you can spend on cards of your choice.
• No slot machine, instead, there are regions where you can progress to get the cards for a deck. You always know when playing that you are moving towards a goal, your desired deck.

We are very satisfied with the system, although things can always change based on player feedback. Even in the beta, we modified things like required XP, adjustments for newcomers, and the new region from Rising Tides.

MeinMMO: While we’re on the topic of balance: My experiences lately and also player feedback on reddit repeatedly mention that Ionia and Elusives are a bit too strong. How do you check if a deck is really too strong?

Jeff Jew: To be honest, I don’t think Ionia is OP. I think, however, that there are a few other decks that are currently a bit too strong. With Ionia, the problem is that some players are frustrated when facing them. Ionia is very focused on countering, they don’t play aggressively, and they don’t have overly many stats. They collect their spell mana and wait for you to make a mistake they can punish immediately. They destroy your champions when you bring too many onto the field or counter a key spell you wanted to cast.

The spell Deny, for instance, used to cost 3 mana, now it’s 4, because it was too easy to counter someone just using spell mana. If a game goes too heavily into the late game, then yes, Ionia likely wins. They have strong cards like Karma.

However, if you look at the statistics on Mobalytics, you’ll see that Ionia is actually a challenging deck to play and its win rate isn’t that high. It’s also important that we don’t just look at the data when it comes to balancing. Deny and the Elusives of Ionia do not have an overly good win rate, but they frustrate players, aren’t fun, and they don’t want to keep facing them over and over again.

So if you have feedback, not just regarding win rates but also about the gaming experience, bring it to reddit or another platform, discuss it with others, and if it becomes clear that many are having a bad experience, we will make appropriate changes. For us, it’s not just about the data, but overall the fun of the players.

New modes, updates, and card rotations

MeinMMO: With Rising Tides, the first new region has already been introduced. You also announced that you want to bring more card sets. When can we expect new cards?

Jeff Jew: Between the start of the open beta and now Rising Tides, about 3 to 4 months have passed. That will also be the rhythm in which we want to release new cards, at least in the short term. Our goal is to provide regular new content. However, we do not want to constantly require players to change their decks, as this can also be overwhelming.

You can expect to work with this rhythm, though we are also discussing internally whether we want to release all 200 cards at once every 3-4 months or if we prefer to release a few cards every month. The reason is that many new users come from smartphones, and even though large releases are currently standard for CCGs, we believe we are entering a new era where players demand more content in a shorter time. It’s entirely possible that you will see several experiments from us.

Currently, we are already working on 6+ new sets. Some are already in playtesting, and we will also release some new regions.

MeinMMO: And how do you plan to deal with the new sets? Are you planning rotations like in Hearthstone and just keep releasing more cards?

Jeff Jew: We are definitely planning rotations, but we are initially avoiding them for at least another year, probably even longer. Rotations have positive and negative sides. For new players, it’s a good time to start and not have to collect 2,000 cards immediately. We are situated better with LoR than other card games, because it will always be about simply playing and thus making progress towards the desired cards, directly from the latest regions. And you don’t have to feel like: “Oh my god, I have to buy cards that are already a year old, and then they will be gone in a few months.”

So yes, we will implement rotations, but players shouldn’t worry about that right now. We always want to ensure there is a format in which you can still play with old cards. Personally, I love this mode in Magic more than Standard. I think we have found a good way to provide a format where you don’t have to destroy your old collection to keep up. That’s why we will support such a format.

Our players should always be sure that their cards are valuable, and it will certainly be a fun mode where some things are broken – simply because there are so many cards. We are looking forward to it.

MeinMMO: Card rotations are one thing, but many players also wish for new modes, perhaps something like Tavern Brawl in Hearthstone. Are you planning something in this direction?

Jeff Jew: Yes, this is a very high priority for us, rotating game modes or mutating game modes. We cannot yet talk about what they will look like, because they are still early in development, but players are warmly invited to give us feedback on such modes.

The beauty of LoR is that we currently have a lot of cards quickly. The modes are then perfect for finding ways to use cards differently than in Standard or Ranked.

Entering E-Sports due to positive feedback

MeinMMO: You mentioned earlier that social aspects have played an important role in the development of LoR. However, many players are calling for new features in that regard, such as the ability to watch friends play or to add users as friends directly after a match. Are you planning innovations in this direction?

Jeff Jew: Oh yes, I saw a reddit thread where my colleague Andrew [Andrew Yip, Game Designer of LoR] commented a lot. We consider these social features very important, and we are already working on some of them. This includes the spectator mode and also generally some new modes, including new ones for competitive players. However, there were also cool ideas we are discussing, like directly adding friends.

However, we also see this as very divided. There are good reasons to add it, but also to leave it out. I would say in 50% of the cases when a player adds you, they want to be your friend, in 50% of the cases, they’d rather insult you. If you really want to add someone, you can theoretically do it through their name. Making it too easy could also be a disadvantage.

As for the spectator mode: We have tried it and other features, such as guilds, beforehand, but when it comes to launching the games, you have to ensure that the content you release is well done. Some of these haven’t met those standards, but we are also overhauling a lot and will bring it at a later date. And the spectator mode is definitely on our roadmap.

MeinMMO: If you are already working on a spectator mode, it would also be a good idea to develop towards e-sports. Do you currently have any plans for that?

Jeff Jew: Our approach to the game was that we did not want to launch with a focus on e-sports. One reason is that LoR is many people’s first LoL product, especially when they come from mobile devices, and they are not necessarily into e-sports. Riot is known for focusing on e-sports, but we wanted to show that we also care about the social aspects and that players can simply join and have fun.

But throughout the beta, we have received a lot of feedback from players that ranked play is fun for them, and surprisingly, we had a lot of players actually playing ranked. There have already been some local tournaments in Europe, Korea, and America. There has been a surprisingly high level of attention.

That’s why we decided to bring more competitive features and to hold tournaments in the future. It’s important for us that whether Legends of Runeterra becomes e-sports or not depends on the players. We do not want to force it, but based on the current feedback, it’s likely that we will develop a “Path to Pro” that involves ranked play, tournaments, and a “Who is the best player in the world.” Don’t expect it in the next few weeks, but considering the history of Riot Games and the current feedback, it is quite likely.

LoR plans long-term because it is flexible and part of the LoL universe

MeinMMO: E-sports, 6 new sets, and new game modes – you really plan far into the future with Legends of Runeterra. What makes you so sure that you will survive on the market for a long time?

Jeff Jew: Oh yes, I think there are 3 reasons for that:

1. LoR fits into your life, regardless of what device you are playing on or how busy you are. Matches are relatively short, and the game is optimized whether you play on PC, iOS, or Android.
2. I believe that League of Legends and all the games we are currently developing will continue to grow for years. So anyone who is a fan of the lore, of the IP in general, will have fun and continually find new champions and additions to LoR.
3. We are just starting out. There are many features we want to develop. Anyone who engages intensively with LoR will notice that we are closely connected with our community, working hard, and really love our game. We release an update every two weeks and will keep that up for now. I think anyone looking for a game behind which the developers completely stand and who seek very close communication will find us to be that team. When you look at the developments in the coming weeks and months, you will see how hard and dedicated the team has worked. And that should convince players to dive fully into the game.

MeinMMO: That sounds really good. Thank you for your time and good luck with developing the new sets and content.