Longtime veteran character designer Andrei Van Roon has been promoted to the head of Riot Games’ League Studios, the subsection of the company that’s dedicated to managing League of Legends alongside its mobile port Wild Rift and the autochess-style Teamfight Tactics. That means Van Roon is the one in charge of how balance and adjustments happen in the studio’s most venerable and most successful project, and Polygon sat down with him to get an idea of Van Roon’s goals when it comes to ongoing development on the titles in question.
One of the things he notes in the interview is that it’s deceptively difficult to balance older characters when some players want to see improvements to bring their old favorites up to date, some want to see their familiar characters unchanged, and some people just want new characters no matter what. It’s a balancing act of balance, in other words. He also notes that while the studio has experimented with PvE modes, those modes can struggle with player retention, and the studio is still working on finding decent ways to handle story and alternate playstyles while retaining the core of the gameplay.
Unfortunately for watchers of the upcoming Riot MMO, Van Roon doesn’t address it specifically. Check out the full interview if you’re curious about how the new head of the studio looks at the current state of the game.
