2XKO, Riot Games' foray into the fighting game world, is currently out in early access. There are ten characters on the roster, with the game's tenth character, Warwick, having been released recently.
Last month, Riot Games announced that early access would be divided into seasons, with each year having five seasons. A new character is set to be released every season, giving Riot the Herculean task of creating and releasing five new characters a year. This is more than Street Fighter 6 and Tekken 8, both of which release around four new characters annually.
In an interview with Eurogamer, 2XKO's lead champion designer, Peter Rosas, discussed the perpetual challenge of making every new character feel fresh, especially when they're being introduced into a pre-existing archetype of fighter.
For instance, both Vi and Warwick are 'rushdown' characters, i.e. aggressive fighters that push forward to rapidly deplete health bars, rather than 'spacing' or playing zone control. Warwick is sufficiently different from Vi, but how will the seventh rushdown character feel in the distant future?
"[Creating unique characters] is a challenge our team would gladly step up to," Rosas announced. "I think there are a lot of ways to recognise...
