Project L looks much different than the first time we saw it!

It’s been a while since the League of Legends fighting game was announced, but Project L has finally resurfaced! Project L will be an 2D assist-based fighter set in the world of Runterra.

Project L was originally announced at EVO 2019 with very little details revealed about the game until we got our first glimpse of the game in October 2019. While it has been some time since we’ve heard any details regarding Project L, it does come with good reasoning. According to Tom Cannon:

Project L is in R&D: the phase of game development where we’re exploring options and finding the fun. Today, our explorations have borne fruit, and we’ve landed in a spot that we’re all pretty excited about! So now felt like a great moment to bring you up to speed

For those concerned about the game being a cash grab off the League of Legends name, it seems far from the case considering their vision for the game.

Our goal is to build a super high-quality fighting game that the FGC can invest deeply in, playing for years or even decades. That takes time to get right, and we’re not going to rush it. 

For those of you with a keen eye and a memory of Project L from 2019, you would be correct if you thought the game looked different. Project L has changed not only the art style, but the playstyle from what we last saw.

We’re excited to share that Project L will be a tag-team style fighting game, where you’ll build and pilot a team of two different champions. In this preview, you’ll see we’ve updated the game’s art style and included a breakdown of a champion’s kit. You’ll catch a glimpse of how we’re approaching controls with an easy-to-learn but hard-to-master mentality. 

Now the question is when will we get to play Project L? Well, that’s the sad news as it doesn’t sound like it will be anytime soon. According to Tom:

Well we’re almost locked in on the stuff that makes a game a game (core gameplay, controls, art direction, etc.) but we still need to do things like build out a full roster of champions, design stages, add menus and UI, create ranking systems, and more.

While they have commited to giving at least two updates for Project L over 2022, that doesn’t bar out a beta or demo’s releasing to at least try it out. Tom and the team sound like they have a vision for the game and want to fully flesh out a game that hits the same level of success as Valorant and League of Legends, so we don’t mind the wait.