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Between Two Turrets - Come chat with L4T3NCY! [COMPLETED]

RiotA Small Man·10/7/2015, 8:00:52 PM·5 votes·55,422 views

Welcome to the latest installment of Between Two Turrets, a Q&A series through which we connect you with various Rioters to chat about League, life, and anything in between. You can expect an installment every two weeks or so, with Rioters from all over jumping in to spend some time with you on the Boards.

This week, we've got Featured Game Modes Lead Designer Rowan “L4T3NCY” Parker!

Heya everyone ^_^/

My name's Rowan and I'm the Lead Designer of our Featured Game Modes in League of Legends. I've helped ship all our game modes from the Doom Bots of Doom onwards and also driven various other experimental LoL features (Finishers in URF, Poro Skins in Poro King, Mark/Dash in ARAM, Skin boosts in ARAM, Perfect Ascension icon). If you're interested in more detail of how we design and build featured game modes, I've written a couple of dev blogs in the past.

The Making of Featured Game Modes

The Featured Game Modes of 2014

As for non-Riot stuff, I'm Australian, but have actually lived most of my adult life in Japan, working in games. I usually play a heap of stuff at once in parallel. Right now it's Final Fantasy XIV (PC, Faerie), Secret of Mana (SNES), Sengoku Basara 4: Sumeragi (PS4) and of course LoL (One For All testing on PBE).

Non-game stuff, I've been training parkour for about 9 years. I got into it back in 2007 in Tokyo and haven't stopped training since. A highlight would have to be when our crew helped facilitate the Red Bull: Art of Motion Yokohama in 2011 (those guys were inspiringly good). o.O. In LA I often go to the Tempest academy for some funtimes or just train down by the beach on weekends.

Feel free to ask me about Japanese games, indie games, or any non-game related stuff (parkour, anime, surprise me). o^.^O

-- L4T3NCY

189 Comments

Vikíng10/7/2015, 8:32:18 PM20 votes

How about a game mode where you can pick any champion, but their skills are completely random? It would be fun having an Ashe with a Bard ult, a Draven with Garen 's E, or a Darius with a Vladimir W.

Dylightfull10/7/2015, 8:46:24 PM5 votes

THE TALE OF RIOT L4T3NCY

Riot L4T3NCY was once a young boy living in Australia who, at the time, simply went by "Latency." He lived the normal Australian life, waking up, eating breakfast, going to school, and fighting off giant man-eating spiders on the way home. Yes, a peaceful life indeed. There was something a tad bit dull about his life, however. Every day it was the same routine- Eat, fend off all of the acid-spitting beetle monsters, sleep, repeat. He tried to pass the time by watching anime and playing on his SNES, but it all seemed a bit boring.

Except for that one time the house was invaded by 50-foot Godzilla-esque birds in the 100 degree heat. That was pretty cool.

And so one day, he moved to Japan and began to work in games. He found Japan a little odd, as in Australia, being chased by a flock of wild, flying, two-headed, heat-seeking alligators was a normal thing that happened on a daily basis, it would only happen during game shows in Japan. In fact, he began to find Japan a bit more dull after a few months as a result of less chaos.

He tried to spruce up his life. He legally changed his name to L4T3NCY. He auditioned for all of the different game shows to get a taste of the excitement he left behind. However, nothing seemed to work. Nothing was ever as chaotic and exciting as what he did before.

Then one day, he got a call from Rito Games. They wanted him to work for them and make featured gamemodes. "This is my chance!" He thought to himself, and started working on his masterpiece.

It was a cold Winter day when he showed up to the office. He opened the demo of his plans, and the rest of the room was shocked. Everything was chaotic and out of order- there was no mana, super-short cooldowns, everyone was fast, and NOTHING could stop a full AP Sona. Everyone erupted with different reactions. The music team cheered, champion development became exited, the art team recoiled in horror, the PR team gasped, the programmers were emotionless as a result of The Great Spaghetting of 2010, and the balance team took notes. After a long time, everyone reached consensus- this new game mode would be official.

And that, kids, is where URFs come from. Now it's time for the next book- "Why am I so Salty all of a Sudden? A Guide to the Awkward Stage of Ranked"

You have no idea how badly I want to see a "Can confirm, am L4T3NCY" reply.

Oh, I guess I'm supposed to ask a question. Hmmm... Have you played Undertale yet?

lightdragoon8810/7/2015, 8:04:54 PM5 votes

Top 3 favorite game modes and why?
If there was one you could make permanent, what would it be and why?
Favorite JRPG?
Any chance you we can vote on returning game modes or you make a list of what ideas you have for future game modes and we can vote on what we like to play first?

Merxamers10/7/2015, 8:03:58 PM4 votes

an anime fan?! Ok, i'll bite- what favorite anime of yours do you wish more people knew/talked about? What anime are you watching this season?

humphreydump10/7/2015, 8:04:18 PM4 votes

how did you get into game designing?

KingTyrion10/7/2015, 9:24:29 PM4 votes

Hi L4t3ncy,

First off great job to yourself and the rest of riot for the leaps an bounds league has made through the years. I have watched it transform and develop into a beautiful, polished well-oiled machine that generates interest and player base by the day. You've made a hard job for other game dev's as I feel I compare my experience of each new game to my league experience and not much measures up. Especially when you factor in how little you "demand from us" monthly fees, time invested daily and mandatory money spent to not fall behind.

My question is has there been any talk of having a selection of these game modes be permanent residents? I know this was addressed probably a year ago when we were told we want to keep game modes fresh and vibrant, and not get stale. I mean, have we come to a point where we feel urf, or doombots etc will be solid enough that we can make it a permanent resident? or maybe with some minor tweaks they could be?

The other bit that I wanted to touch on was something a little out of left field. I'm just curious about the creative side because I've done some simple brainstorming of my own to feel out what might be a great game mode. Has anything come up for you guys where you have considered something with multiple teams? have 3 or 4 teams with more emphasis on competing for neutral objectives.

Thanks so much for your time, and I look forward to the great work you guys will inevitably produce.

w0nky d0nkey10/7/2015, 8:11:33 PM3 votes

What's your favorite anime to get people into that aren't into anime? I haven't watched much, just some Trigun and Black Heaven. Where do you watch anime (youtube, netflix, etc.)?

Khada Jhín10/7/2015, 11:13:38 PM3 votes

TELL EVERYONE, There should be skins for maps... oh right question. why did the butcher's bridge get removed. will it ever come back and why arnt we able to equip it like a skin, HEY thats a good idea, skins for maps wink wink

Cuchulainn0110/7/2015, 8:38:57 PM2 votes

Do you know of any badass samurai anime other than samurai champloo?

RiotProtoShredanoid10/8/2015, 12:06:56 AM2 votes

Secret of Mana = Best action RPG ever?!?

Öi Josuke10/7/2015, 10:42:25 PM2 votes

How long are the Ranked team skins out? i want that TPA Ezreal

Hellioning10/7/2015, 8:30:57 PM2 votes

Why don't you guys always have a featured game mode going?

I don't mean 'WORK FASTER I WANT NEW STUFF' but I would have thought it would have been logical to have either a rotation of game modes so that one is always live, or simply not removing an old game mode until a new one is ready. I totally agree they should be temporary, and I can see them become less popular as time go on, but I honestly keep forgetting the featured game modes team actually exists when we have a long drought of nothing, like recently.

NaturesMayhem10/7/2015, 10:07:31 PM1 votes

I cant wait till One For All comes out. I want to do a full Teemo team. I can just imagine it like from a war movie, a group of Nidalles on the prowl and all of a sudden one of them hits the first shroom and chaos occurs. Their running in all directions hitting every shroom possible whilst the Teemos just sit there and fires down poisonous darts. Now that I think of it.... I can already see 4 Teemos setting up in top lane in the first bush and the other one takes tower damage on purpose early and the darius comes out and chases Teemo all the way to his turrent and that is when he realizes his mistakable.....

TerraRising10/7/2015, 8:45:13 PM1 votes

One of the most annoying things about Ascension was that Yorick, my favorite champ, was instantly banned from the mode because he broke it. (Broke it like a koala breaks a eucalyptus tree after a three-day fast.)

So, my snarky question would be: How much testing do you actually do before releasing a game mode? I kinda fear for the servers if 10 Bards make magical journeys and cross their streams multiple times. It might be... "bad."

ralsei10/7/2015, 9:29:49 PM1 votes

1.) Do you have any funny stories when you were in development in a new game mode or game mode feature?

2.) What was you favorite game mode to create :o

3.) Are there any non-league games you're super into right now, or super into in general?

Deep Terror Nami10/7/2015, 9:42:20 PM1 votes

Oh ya L4T3NCY I forgot to ask; Not sure if it is already in here, but...what are your thoughts on having a Featured Game Mode rotation, with one mode available one week a month or the weekend every 2 weeks?

A new mode being available for a long period of time can cause people to get burned out of the game and quit for a while (which is bad for business), but 3-7 days each month seems alright. We could see Doom Bots, One for All, Ascension etc. more often than once a year (or longer or never).