Posted in: Games, Interview, Riot Games, Teamfight Tactics, Video Games | Tagged: Teamfight Tactics: Magic n' Mayhem

Interview: Teamfight Tactics Devs Chat About Magic n' Mayhem

We chat with a couple of the developers behind the next Teamfight Tactics set ahead of the launch of Magic n' Mayhem this week

Riot Games recently revealed some of the new content coming to Teamfight Tactics, as the new Magic n' Mayhem addition is set to launch on July 31. The team have been hard at work preparing this partictal set, bringing in several new additions to the game, as we covered a couple of weeks ago. Today, we chatted with Senior Technical Game Designer Sam Judd and Game Director Peter Whalen, about the development of the latest set before it came out on Wednesday.

BC: Hey guys, first off, how has the year been going for you so far?

SJ: The year's been going well! At least for me, I've been hard at work on Magic n' Mayhem for this whole year (and some of last year as well), so it's been a fun one! I've had a great team to work with and making a set with such a wacky theme has definitely been a super cool one to work on.

How have things been going for Teamfight Tactics lately?

PW: Teamfight Tactics is doing great!  We're the world's biggest PC strategy game, recently celebrated our fifth anniversary, and are about to launch our 12th set, Magic n' Mayhem. That's been out on our test servers for the last week, and the community excitement has been really gratifying, so I'm looking forward to seeing it go live. On the esports side, we just announced the TFT Macao Open (TMO), our next global LAN event, which will take place from December 13 – 15, and just had our championship for our last set, Inkborn Fables, with NA's Dishsoap taking the crown.

What's the reception for Magic n' Mayhem been like?

SJ: From what I've seen and talked to people about, players are really excited for the set! I've seen some cool posts on Reddit with players already finding some of our 3-star 5-cost special ceremonies, as well as some pretty impressive boards using some of the new traits. I've also played some games with my friends, and they've all been having fun so far. It's a limited sample size given our playerbase, but so far so good, and we're not even live yet!

Were there any lessons or valuable info you learned from the players coming out of this set?

SJ: We've been thrilled to see players' reactions to the early set content on PBE. It seems like the Charms mechanic and crossovers with Riot's other games, like the additions of Norra from Legends of Runeterra and Briar & Smolder from League of Legends, are resonating strongly. We've been honing the balance of the game, fixing a lot of bugs, and making small tweaks to the player experience based on great feedback from the players from PBE. We're looking forward to seeing more feedback after Magic n' Mayhem goes live on July 31.

How did the concept of Magic n' Mayhem come about?

SJ: Usually, when we're deciding on a theme, we start with understanding the tone that we want to convey. We try to switch up the feel of each set to keep players on their toes and give them new gameplay experiences, so we're always taking the preceding and subsequent sets into consideration. Magic n' Mayhem followed Inkborn Fables, which was more introspective and serious. As the summer set, we wanted Magic n' Mayhem to have a lighter and more playful tone with brighter colors. We also did a lot of polling and play testing during the early periods of development to make sure that it connected well with players, and we were really pleased with their feedback.

I remember in a previous presentation, you talked about music having an influence on the design. What tunes did you channel for this one?

SJ: Our 10th set Remix Rumble was focused on music, so it played a big part in every aspect of the design of the set. I wouldn't say that music had a big influence on the game design of Magic n' Mayhem, but as we were looking to develop the overall theme and feel of the set, music stuck out as a place [where] we could add something. We worked with the music department here at Riot to make some amazing new tracks for the in-game music that should really help pull players into the world of Magic n' Mayhem.

What are some of the aspects of this set you like the most?

SJ: One of my favorite things about this set is just the overall tone and theme. I really love that we were able to have a bunch of wacky and silly things in this set. Neeko turning into a crab for her Ability is one of my personal favorites, as well as the fact that we got to bring Nomsy back for the first time since she was originally released. Bringing Norra into the set from Legends of Runeterra was definitely another highlight for me, as well as reuniting her with her cat Yuumi.

How did the decision come about to add Norra to this as the latest character, along with Briar and Smolder?

SJ: We're huge fans of the League IP, so we're always looking for opportunities to bring in cool characters from across Riot's ecosystem. As far as creating our own champions, each of our games has a slightly different spin on the IP. For TFT, we celebrate players' creativity by giving them a space to tell their own League of Legends stories, and that means we have unique needs. For Norra and Yuumi specifically, we thought it would be amazing to tell the story of Norra finding her long-lost cat! In addition, portals have always been a part of TFT lore, as a way you get from board-to-board and as a permanent mechanic in the game after Runeterra Reforged. Norra is an iconic user of portal magic, and so bringing her in to headline a brand of magic near to the heart of TFT was a no-brainer!

What do you hope fans take away from this addition?

SJ: The most important thing that we always hope players take away from playing our game is fun. So #1 is that I hope fans have a great time playing. Beyond that, I hope they take away a sense of the endless possibilities that TFT has. From lots of different units to play, Augments to get, and traits to explore, I hope everyone can find even just a little something that speaks to them in Magic n' Mayhem.

Aside from the obvious, what else do you have in store for Teamfight Tactics over the rest of 2024?

PW: We're excited about the rest of the year.  We've got the launch of Magic n' Mayhem at the end of July, followed by Reckoning: Dawn of Heroes, the revival of TFT's 5th set. Toward the end of the year, we'll launch our 13th set, and while we can't spoil much there, it's got a much darker vibe than set 12, and it's a theme I'm personally a huge fan of. In between, we've got a few surprises in store, so stay tuned!

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