So, I got this itch, you know? Been playing games like League for ages. Since way back, really. Inspired by those old Defense of the Ancients maps on Warcraft III, right? That whole formula. But lately? Man, it just felt like too much. Too much grind, too many changes, too much… everything.
I wasn’t looking to build the next big esport or anything fancy. Just wanted that core loop, that push-and-pull on lanes, but simpler. Something I could mess with myself. So, I decided, why not try and build something? Not THE League of Legends, obviously. Just… something like it, but stripped way, way down.
Getting Started – The Messy Part
First off, I fired up a basic game engine. Nothing too complex, just something I could throw shapes around in easily. Didn’t want to get bogged down in fancy tools before I even started. The goal was quick and dirty.
I started by just laying out a map. Three lanes? Yeah, gotta have three lanes. Felt right. But super basic. Just flat ground, maybe some lines drawn on it. No fancy jungle, no dragon pit, none of that. Just the lanes and a base area at each end.
Then came the towers. Plonked down some simple cylinder shapes. Gotta have towers guarding the lanes. Made them shoot simple projectiles. Getting that targeting logic working took a bit, fiddling around. Stuff never works right the first time, does it?
Making the Little Dudes
Okay, map layout kinda done, towers sorta shooting. Needed units. Minions, creeps, whatever you call ’em. Again, simple. Started with basic cube shapes. Gave them one job: walk down the assigned lane. Straight line. Easy, right?
- Made them spawn in waves from the base.
- Made them target enemy units or towers when they got close.
- Collision was a bit janky at first. Had cubes walking through each other. Took some tweaking.
Didn’t bother with different minion types like melee or caster at first. Just generic cubes marching forward. The core idea was just to see them clash in the middle, push back and forth. Like a tug-of-war with blocks.
What About the “Heroes”?
This is where it really became “not League of Legends”. I didn’t want complex champions, items, runes, masteries… none of that madness. I just made one controllable character. Another slightly bigger cube, maybe a sphere? Gave it basic movement and a simple attack.
No complex abilities. Maybe just a ‘shoot’ button. That’s it. The focus wasn’t on outplaying someone with complex mechanics. It was more about being part of that wave-pushing dynamic. Supporting your little cube minions.
This wasn’t about making a balanced game. It was about capturing a tiny slice of that MOBA feeling without all the overhead. It was more like a tech demo or a personal sandbox.
The Result? Definitely Not LoL
So what did I end up with after messing around for a while? A really basic, kinda ugly looking thing where cubes walk down lanes and shoot at other cubes and cylinders.
You can control one blocky dude and help your side push. It’s incredibly simple. There’s no real strategy beyond ‘go push that lane’. The AI is dumb as rocks. It crashes sometimes.
But hey. It’s my little lane pusher. Built from scratch, just messing around. It has that core loop, in a very primitive way. It’s League of Legends, but absolutely, fundamentally, not League of Legends. And honestly? It was kinda fun just building it, figuring out the little problems along the way. More fun than getting flamed in ranked, that’s for sure.
