From MOBA to Action-Platformer – How Convergence: A League of Legends adapted Zaun’s Champions

My name is Eric Angelillo and I am the Creative Director and Co-Art Director Convergence: A League of Legends Story. I also co-founded Double Stallion 10 years ago with a mission to create vivid and unparalleled experiences for players around the world. I love creating bold action games with vibrant, stylized visuals inspired by the best animation and comics.

Convergence: A League of Legends Story, is our new story-driven 2D single-player action platformer featuring dynamic combat and unique exploration, and it gave us an incredible opportunity to play to our strengths as a studio adapting the many Zaun and Piltover champions from the original League of Legends game. MOBA. With Ekko as our lead, it was hard to narrow down the other Champions we wanted to include in the cast, but we settled on Warwick, Camilla, and of course, Jinx the Loose Cannon!

For Ekko, the development started with one key drawing I made of him grinding on a rail. I knew that a game about Ekko would have to double down on not only his ability to rewind time and his boy genius aspects, but also his punk-inspired fashion sense. The concept in question had a strong graffiti aesthetic and pushed Ekko towards a neon-infused, post-punk skater vibe. This became the basis on which we built the art direction of the entire game.

We decided to stay close to League’s classic Ekko design, but adapted its design language to include lots of triangles and sharp angles. Astute observers will even notice that its silhouette is based on an hourglass shape. His boots have been slightly modified to provide strong arches to allow him to grind. In terms of mechanics, we’ve adapted Ekko’s entire set of abilities and then some!

Creating a single-player game without PVP balancing allowed us to really use Ekko’s ability to rewind time, so that naturally became our core mechanic. But players will be delighted to know that his MOBA abilities – Timewinder, Parallel Convergence, Phase Dive and Chronbreak – are also integral parts of the game. In addition to precisely adapting these moves, we’ve also expanded them to make them useful outside of combat. Timewinder can be used to power electrical outlets, Parallel Convergence can freeze crumbling platforms, and Phase Dive can be used to teleport through walls!

A Zaun story wouldn’t be the same without a visit to the Sump… and a visit to the Sump wouldn’t be complete without its resident Uncaged Wrath; Warwick. Warwick was one of the first Champions we explored with concept art because his biomechanical wolf profile is just so fun to draw. His size and sprite complexity made him one of the most difficult characters in the game, but we knew it would be worth the extra effort.

Moveset-wise; our animators referenced the look of his abilities such as Jaws of the Beast and Primal Howl. We even adapted his jumping Ultimate; Endless Compulsion, but instead of slashing, he grabbed Ekko and threw him against the wall! Of course, Ekko can just rewind it every time…provided he has enough rewind charges left in Zero Drive.

Camilla Steel Shadow is an integral part Convergence. She represents Piltover in the game and acts as an unlikely ally to Ekko as they both seek to destroy the malevolent Chembaron family known as Poingdestre. Although Camilla becomes an ally over time, things start off on the wrong side between her and Ekko at first… Fans will be thrilled to know that they will have to face Camilla in hand-to-hand combat.

One of the reasons we decided to adapt Camille is because her moveset from League of Legends had so much potential in a side-scrolling game. Camilla’s signature kicks are used in League to quickly move sideways, but in the action platformer, as Convergence, we were able to use shots to allow Camille to have incredible aerial abilities. As a result, her combat encounter requires some really nimble dodging from Ekko, as Camilla dominates the arena with great horizontal and vertical mobility.

In addition to the speed and agility provided by her hook shots, League players will notice that we’ve also adapted Camilla to use the Precision Protocol. And of course, who could forget Camilla’s final attack; Hextech’s ultimatum. While we’ve had to adapt Ultimatum’s barriers to function vertically, the essence of capturing her opponents in the Hextech matrix remains the same. For Camilla’s art, we really pushed her key features; deadly, tall, with blades on his legs and a refined Piltovan elegance. As mentioned earlier, we used triangular shapes as a motif for our character designs, and this is especially evident in Camilla’s edgy figure.

The role of Jinks in Convergence unique in that she essentially serves as a distraction in Ekko’s quest to save Zaun. As an agent of chaos, she neither helps nor hinders Ekko, but her maniacal ravings force Ekko to stop her before he can continue his adventure. Jinx has so many fans in the real world, so we felt that even in Runeterra, she would probably have a lot of fans as well. in Convergence, Ekko discovers that a new gang of hip-punks has appeared in town; Inx. Inx is sort of Jinx’s unofficial fan club, but as Ekko finds out, Jinx isn’t too thrilled about the idea of ​​a bunch of hompunks robbing her of her style… As an agent of good, Ekko has to step in to stop Jinx. from wreaking havoc on Inx and thereby undermining Zaun and Piltover!

With all the bosses Convergence, we put a lot of effort into making them stand out, and partially focused on melee attacks or bullet attacks. Jinx naturally fell into the latter camp. All her weapons from the League appear; Zapper, Chompers, Fishbones, Pow-pow and of course the Super Mega Death Rocket! We’ve also added a few extra surprises, like a full-screen rocket shower! For Jinx’s character design, we took her Wild Rift design as a base, but then added our signature cell shading and sharp lines.

While it wasn’t possible to include all of Zaun’s champions, we’ve included Easter Eggs for each of them. Players may even notice references to other champions outside of Zaun. We are incredibly proud Convergence and can’t wait for players to experience it for themselves.

Convergence: A League Of Legends Story coming May 23, 2023 for Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One Game Pass members: Get the Convergence Jinx emote in League of Legends. If you haven’t already done so, simply link your Riot Games account to your Game Pass subscription and play League of Legends before 11:59 PM PT on June 2nd to claim it.