Riot is Making a Trading Card Game: What We Know About Project K
After months of speculation, Riot Games has officially announced their new game project, this time a physical Trading Card Game codenamed, Project K. First revealed in a social media post for the Chinese audience, Project K is set to release as Riot’s re-entry into the TCG market after their first attempt with the digital card game, Legends of Runeterra.
The announcement was made in the form of a four-minute video posted on social media showcasing some card designs, a little bit of gameplay, and some news on when players can expect to get their hands on the game. Here is everything we currently know about Project K.
Is Project K just physical Legends of Runeterra?
No, Project K takes inspiration from Legends of Runeterra in terms of the setting but the gameplay is not like Legends of Runeterra at all. This is a brand-new, built from the ground up, League of Legends Trading Card Game.
Is Project K a competitive card game?
Project K is designed to be both casual and competitive, but the developers in the dev drop mentioned that having a robust Organized Play program is vital for the card game. This means that players can expect tournaments at different levels, whether they be smaller local-level events or bigger regional, national and world championship events.
Prizing is unknown at this time, but trading card games typically give top players special promotional cards along with other items such as game mats, deck boxes, and more. Some card games also offer cash prizes to high-placing competitors.
How do you play Project K?
While the video showcased people playing the game, no official rules were revealed, so all gameplay is currently speculative until a rule book is printed. However, it does appear that players can make assumptions based on the card and game layout from the video, as some card designs seemed to have been inspired by other Trading Card Games.
Project K is designed to be played in either group of four similar to Commander from Magic: The Gathering or one versus one like a traditional card game. It does appear that one versus one will be the primary competitive game mode for the card game.
Based on the looks and texts of the cards we see in the video players may see similarities to Bandai Namco’s card games like One Piece. It appears players will have a Legend which will act as a player’s avatar that will dictate what kinds of cards and strategies one could use in their deck. Legends don't appear to have any health or attack power which are usually found on similar mechanics like in One Piece with their Leaders.
It also appears that players will have a resource system that sits outside of the main deck which is also something that One Piece has with their don mechanic. In the video they mentioned that his mechanic will be called “Runes” with Runes having different colors, which will likely be based on the color of the cards played, for example, if a card requires a cost of four and is yellow, players will likely need to use four yellow runes to play the card.
As for Characters, they appear to have a power symbol in the top right but no other symbol anywhere else suggesting that characters have similar combat mechanics as One Piece where higher power wins. The top left indicates what is likely the cost to play the character. Some characters appear to have abilities that activate when they are in play
The last type of card seen was Battlefields, which could play similarly to Locations from Lorcana or act similarly to locations in a game like Marvel Snap. In the video, it appears that there can be three locations in play, and players can choose to have their characters “visit” Battlefields, which is likely where combat happens, similar to how lanes work in League of Legends. Players also appear to have a “base” which could be similar to Pokemon’s bench mechanic.
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How to win the game, the number of cards per deck and the actual gameplay loop are unknown at this time.
When does the Project K release?
Riot Games is aiming for a 2025 release date that will be staggered by region, so it appears the release date will be a simultaneous global release. They mentioned that China will likely be the first region in which it releases as they have already found a publishing partner to print the game in that country.
It does appear that Riot Games is still working on finding publishers outside of China and based on what they said in their video, they are looking for “do it all” partners that will print, publish, and run tournament events. Companies like Bushiroad are known for this as they publish multiple card games such as Cardfight Vanguard, Weiss Schwarz and Shadowverse: Evolve but it is unknown if a company like Bushiroad will pick up Project K.
However, players will be able to get their hands on trial decks as soon as the TFT Macao Open which will take place on the weekend of December 13 and 14. On top of that, special edition Chinese Arcana box sets will also be available for purchase. For the rest of the world, Pre-Orders for English Arcane box sets will be available early next year through the Riot Games merch website.
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