Chen Mo's League of Legends Design Concept was split into four parts.
The first part, the core fun and basic rules of the game.
The second part, map design and game mechanics.
The third part, hero design.
The fourth part, Summoner design and other things.
MOBA games were actually quite simple, all players had to do was fight on a map, unlike RPGs and adventure games which required a lot of levels.
However, MOBA games were quite complicated in terms of game mechanics and balance. From their inception to their popularity, the game mechanics were constantly perfected, eventually making MOBA games the most popular PC game genre in the world.
Chen Mo's current design draft was as follows:
In terms of game mechanics, there were four game modes: Human, Matchmaking, Ranked, and Battle Royale.
Players would only be able to use Matchmaking mode after they reached Level 3 through Human Training.
On the other hand, players would need to have at least four heroes at the Expert level to participate in the Ranked mode.
There was a Friend System and Shop System, allowing players to watch other players in the Friend System, while the Shop System allowed players to purchase various skins and other value-added services.
In terms of Summoner design, players could check their own match records, rankings, as well as their hero list, talents, summoner skills, and equipment.
The rankings used the classic design, from Bronze to King.
In terms of the hero list, every hero would have a concept of 'Proficiency'. Only when their proficiency reached a certain value could they be used for Ranked.
In the current plan, proficiency was split into six levels: Apprentice, Beginner, Expert, Expert, Master, and Master.
When players played in different modes, their current hero's proficiency would increase as a form of restriction.
Only heroes with Beginner proficiency could be used for Matchmaking, while heroes with Expert proficiency could be used for Ranked. As for the higher Expert, Master, and Master … they were used to show off.
In terms of Summoner skills, the more common ones were Sprint, Heal, Barrier, Weaken, Teleport, Flash, Purify, Ignite, and Punish. In Battle Royale, there would be Mark (Snowball Smash) and Clear Spell.
Equipment was more complicated, which could be slowly researched during the development process. However, some of the more classic equipment such as hats, ice staffs, hourglasses, and so on could be added back.
In terms of the map, it would still be the classic Summoner's Canyon, but it would still be using the S6 map mechanics, including Explosive Fruits, Divination Fruits, and Elemental Dragons.
These new map mechanisms would make the gameplay of the entire map more diverse. Moreover, it would increase the fun of randomization, allowing players to speed up the pace of the game in the process of competing for map resources.
At the same time, Chen Mo considered weakening the use of eye slots in the game, including increasing the price of an eye slot, reducing the duration of an eye slot, increasing the income from eye slots, and adding items like 'Fog of Trickery'.
Since League of Legends' playstyle was relatively fixed, and vision was very important, the suppression of vision made the game extremely boring in high-level matches and professional matches. It made the game lose its spirituality to a certain extent, and it was almost impossible for unorthodox players to win.
What Chen Mo wanted was more new strategies and more dramatic tournament results, not a team that relied on mechanized training to establish a long lasting dynasty.
There was also the most important aspect of heroes. Chen Mo wouldn't be making heroes in the same order as LoL, but would instead adjust the order based on his needs.
In the first version of the game, Chen Mo planned to release around twenty-five heroes. Following that, he planned to release a new hero every two weeks. While keeping the players fresh, there would be a gradual process so that they wouldn't be confused by too many heroes at once.
…
Chen Mo called everyone in for a meeting after writing the draft.
After a brief introduction of the general setting of LoL, most of the players understood Chen Mo's intentions.
With the two prototypes of Chenghai 3c and COG, everyone could roughly imagine what LoL would look like after it was completed. The only thing they were curious about was the popularity and profitability of the game.
Qian Kun asked, "Uhh, manager, this game is completely free and doesn't sell any combat power. Even the heroes are free. Can we make money from just skins?"
Everyone else had the same question as well.
Most of the people here knew about Chenghai 3c and COG, but they were maps in Warcraft after all, and had no way of making money from them at all.
It wasn't just the GA that was thinking about how to turn it into a complete game, but it was also something that Chen Mo's team was thinking about as well.
If it was a traditional game, the best way to do it would be to buy out the game and add a premium service. At least they would be able to recoup their costs through the sales, just like how they did with Warcraft.
Completely selling the game through skins seemed like a very risky move. What if there weren't enough players and they didn't want to buy the skins?
Chen Mo explained, "Everyone needs to understand the goal of League of Legends. It's not the same as Warcraft. Warcraft is a game targeted towards RTS players. This group is already a minority, so they can only rely on sales to support their income. "
"But LoL is different. It's a new type of game, and its target is the entire player base. "
Everyone was shocked. The entire player base?
Isn't that a bit too much?
Does that mean that no matter if they play RPG or FPS, they'll all love 'LoL' when the time comes?
Everyone was in disbelief.
Of course, out of respect for their boss, as well as their desire for the prize money, they all had an expression that said, "You're right, you're right".
Chen Mo laughed, not taking it to heart.
It was true that very few people could see the potential behind MOBA games when they first appeared. Even some of the high quality video game designers in big companies didn't have a clear understanding of its potential.
Otherwise, Ice Frog and Blizzard wouldn't have parted ways.
Chen Mo didn't want to talk too much about the future development of LoL. It wasn't the right time yet, talking too much would just sound like bragging, there was no need.
Giving them chicken soup was something only a poor boss would do. Chen Mo could now use money to buy the loyalty and passion of his employees.
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