any game that has as many players as
League of Legends is worth your time as
a designer to check out even if you
don't like the genre anything that
attracts millions of people clearly has
some idea of what motivates and retains
players and wouldn't be a waste of your
time to study I can't really get into
the guts of how this game works as there
is a ton going on here but here's the
super short version you choose one of
these and you try to destroy this thing
by first destroying a bunch of these all
while fighting the opposing ones of
these what I want to talk about today
isn't the actual nuts and bolts of
champion item or balanced design rather
I want to get into the design of the
main map where most of the competitive
play takes place summoners rift the
actual design of the map itself
independence of the other game pieces
determines a surprising amount about how
leagues metagame formed over time the
thing to keep in mind here is that
design choice is made about the map
tends to take up very little cognitive
load in the players mind but can provide
a huge boost in game depth whether a
bush is here or there makes little
difference to a player unless they're
looking for it in a strategic way it's a
complexity light way to add depth
something you should always be looking
for as a designer summoners rift is a
map that supports two five player teams
but has only three lanes each Lane
features a stream of minions that spawn
on a regular interval you can push your
stream through the opposing stream of
minions to help you take the towers in
addition to acting as a siege aid
killing the opposing minions provides a
steady stream of experience and gold
which you can use to buy items to get
stronger now normally logic dictates
that you line up the number of lanes and
players five lanes for five players each
getting equal opportunity to play the
game but by splitting the map into only
three lanes the game is forcing team
members to find their niche there are
only three streams of gold available for
five players if the other two players
want to be able to compete in the
late-game fights that break out they
have to find other ways to get gold to
buy items this opens up a whole new set
of problems for the team of players to
solve one such way of getting gold
income is the jungle or the space
between the lanes neutral monsters are
camped there and they respawn on timers
each one is worth gold and the whole
jungle provides enough income for
one other player by making a fourth
player need to spend time in the jungle
killing monster after monster for their
income a sense of drama and tension is
added to the game you see League has a
fog of war system and while most players
are often revealed by the line of sight
on the regularly spawning minions the
player in the jungle is not leaving
players in the lanes always uncertain of
when the enemy will appear out of the
jungle for a kill this then creates
interesting counter play where the
players in Lane now have to play around
a hidden piece of information it asks
them to make an interesting risk reward
choice do they push their opponents in
Lane as hard as they can gaining them an
advantage in Lane but leaving themselves
open to a sudden attack from the jungle
or do they play more passively safer
from the jungler but not perhaps
maximizing their gains over their
opponent this in turn crafts one of the
most interesting psychological aspects
of the game players try to read the
behavior of the other players in their
lane to gain an insight into what the
player in the jungle might be doing did
the enemy team just take an
uncharacteristic risk to lure you
forward their jungler might be nearby
did the opponents suddenly back off when
your jungler came forward perhaps
they've acquired some vision someplace
you don't know about this counter play
risk reward aspect and psychological
play add a great deal to the game and
are largely crafted through building a
map that practically necessitates one of
the players be hidden most of the time
and that gives that player the ability
to travel the length of the map
undetected if not carefully played
around the fifth player plays the role
of support and the company's one of the
other players in their Lane they are
meant to operate on a smaller income
someday we could spend the whole lesson
on how they've changed support and come
over the years but that day is not to
think the important thing to note is
that each team has a second player to
place in one of the three lanes they
could put the second person in the
middle lane where the fifth team member
has maximum ability to run back and
forth and help all the lanes when needed
but that Lane is shorter more easily
allowing the enemy to gain experience
under the safety of his own turret you
could also put them in one of the side
lanes where they'll have a better
opportunity to out power the enemies but
they will be further away from the rest
of the team too all of these questions
are never directly addressed to the
player rather they're simply puzzles
left to be found
able to be approached in several
different ways the player didn't have to
be taught a mechanic to learn this and
no text was needed in the end players
mostly settled on leaving one of their
more vulnerable characters in the middle
lane because as you can see this Lane
being physically
than the other lanes the character here
has an easier time running to the safety
of their turret which frees up the
supports to help out the second most
fragile character in order to better
keep them alive in the longer lanes
again this is play that is crafted by
the shape of the play space itself as
much as it is the rules of the game but
let's shift gears toward the actual
turrets themselves you'll notice on the
map that as you get closer and closer to
a team's base the rows of turrets get
closer and closer together this provides
a sort of mitigation for the team that's
behind if your outer ring of turrets are
destroyed you're forced to defend the
inner ring of turrets which are closer
to your base where you get free healing
perhaps even more importantly the
distance between the turrets in the same
row becomes shorter making you more able
to respond to attacks on multiple fronts
it's a catch-up mechanic built right
into the map the presence or absence of
these turrets also has a profound effect
on your team's knowledge of what's going
on in the jungle towers normally provide
vision of an area and destroy any
minions coming up to them denying the
enemy team vision past that point and
ensuring your team at least some vision
in that area of the map as they get
destroyed the tension of the game
increases as going through your own
jungle path becomes increasingly
dangerous due to the lack of vision and
mini-games shift from a game about
farming gold from minions to maintaining
vision in the jungle as these turrets go
down lastly it can't be overlooked that
this map is not symmetrical most of the
jungle is mirrored on the lower left
side the red buff toting lizard is by
the bottom Lane and on the upper right
it's closer to the top lane the
difference in placement can vary your
strategy as a jungler quite a bit based
on where you'll be when you get the
power boosts from killing the two buff
giving monsters you can also see the
asymmetry and the two large neutral
objectives in the middle of the map
fighting over these can be wildly
different depending on which side of the
map you're starting on note the shape of
both of the pits where these objective
monsters spawn the way you have to
approach these and which bushes you can
use to sneak in very wildly what I want
to draw attention to here is that this
seemingly small change adds strategic
depth without adding new game elements
it's the same monsters just in different
areas
if you don't want to pay attention to
the different jungle pads you don't have
to you aren't obviously punished for it
you just give up a small edge you could
have had keep in mind also that this map
has been played a lot and a lot of the
strategic space to explore and has been
condensed to a pretty set meta game the
steep learning curve of this meta game
and the problems with it is a whole
other topic nothing on summoners rift is
put there haphazardly take a look at the
map and pick a few elements and ask why
they're there play a few games yourself
if you haven't already try to figure out
what the designers are trying to
encourage non-verbally we're out of time
this week but we would love to hear what
you guys think in the comments we're
still sort of figuring this show out so
let us know what you like and what you
don't so long
[Music]
you