The next growth of the stretching League of Legends universe is something unanticipated: a parlor game called Tellstones. This isn’t developer Riot’s first venture into tabletop games– that would be 2016’s Mechs vs. Minions— but what makes Tellstones interesting is that it’s a video game set within the franchise’s extensive fantasy realm. “We portray Tellstones as a game that’s actually played in Runeterra, as part of their history and culture in the very same method that chess or mancala have ancient roots in our own world,” explains Greg Street, Riot’s VP of IP and home entertainment.
Tellstones appears to be a video game about method and subterfuge, where gamers have to remember the order of tokens and likewise deceive their challenger into forgetting. It’s a far cry from Riot’s previous board game, which was a substantial and intricate affair. Tellstones is meant to be an ancient video game, the kind of thing people would carry around with them, prepared to pull out and play whenever.
That developed an intriguing design problem: how do you make a brand-new game that’s indicated to be ancient? “We represent a great deal of that feeling through the artwork and the products,” says Street, explaining that though Tellstones has couple of pieces, the team at Riot made certain they were premium, the kinds of products that might last for a long period of time. That consists of a hefty, personalized metal case to keep everything together.
The team also used those pieces as a subtle storytelling tool. In the trailer, for example, you can see Tellstones being had fun with white and blue tokens. That’s what will deliver in the last variation, but it’s likewise a regional variation of the video game. “The variation that we’re shipping is the Demacia version, and we talked a lot about what the symbols that Demacia placed on their tokens appear like,” Street explains, in reference to one of League‘s more militaristic kingdoms. “Most likely in Ionia or other parts of the world they might look different.”
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This focus on worldbuilding is something that has become a progressively large part of League of Legends over the last few years. A years after League of Legends first debuted, there are multiple in-universe tasks in the works, including an animated series, comics, and numerous games Even brand-new character exposes have developed into fancy narrative events According to Street– who joined Riot in 2014, after, among other gigs, acting as lead systems designer on Wow— there have actually been basically three stages to the storytelling of League In the start, it wasn’t a focus at all; instead everything was in service of the video game. Then, the group at Riot started to gradually build more narrative elements into the experience.
” Then we got a little terrified, honestly,” Street states. We can screw this up if we make bad items, if we tell bad stories, if we’re inauthentic.
A job like Tellstones fits perfectly within this approach. For existing gamers, it’s an intriguing piece of tradition, a method of including depth to a fantasy world they already understand and like. However similar to, state, a K-pop tune or an animated series, it’s likewise an entry point for those who have never ever even played video game. “We believe that there are a great deal of individuals out there who would love League of Legends, and love Runeterra, and maybe a MOBA isn’t for them,” states Street. “We want to make certain there are methods for them to enter the world.”
