Riot Games, an independent developer and publisher of premium online videogames, has announced the addition of two veteran videogame developers to help shape game design for its first title under development, League of Legends. Former game designers from Blizzard Entertainment, Tom Cadwell and Shawn Carnes, add strong experience to the already decorated group of industry professionals at Riot Games.
As Director of Systems Design, Tom Cadwell heads up mechanics, balance and systems for the project. Cadwell comes to Riot with more than 10 years of design experience. At Blizzard Entertainment, Cadwell managed play balance for Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne and was a key designer on a number of game systems and zone and dungeon polish for World of Warcraft (WoW). Prior to joining Riot, Tom also received his MBA from Kellogg and a BS in Computer Science from MIT.
Shawn Carnes comes to Riot with more than 15 years of design expertise, as Lead Creative Designer, where he is responsible for managing the League of Legends intellectual property. Most recently Carnes was Blizzard's Lead Developer of Licensed Products having built and managed the WoW trading card game and the Starcraft board game. As a game designer on World of Warcraft, he has also led the design of WoW's reputation system, as well as a significant number of WoW's quests and world events. Shawn also spent a number of years at Wizards of the Coast where he worked on the development of such blockbuster games as Magic: the Gathering, Pokemon and the 3rd Edition of Dungeons and Dragons.
"Tom and Shawn are two amazingly talented guys who augment our already potent development team," said Brandon Beck, co-founder and CEO of Riot Games. "Both will play an important role in the continuous evolution of Riot Games as a premier online videogame developer / publisher as we build our product portfolio."
"Working at Riot Games is one of those once in a lifetime opportunities that is just too good to pass up. I am working with people that I've worked with in the industry before," said Shawn Carnes, "this place is a powerhouse of awesome."
League of Legends is an online multiplayer session-based game that combines elements of role-playing and strategy genres with addictive battle action bringing accessible, replayable and competitive gameplay into a whimsical universe that deepens with the player's involvement.
The development team at Riot Games is made up of seasoned industry professionals with credits that include PC & console blockbusters, as well as part of the team that created the popular Warcraft 3 mod DotA-Allstars. League of Legends is currently in closed beta and is set for release in 2009.