So what we're going to do is we're gonna buff Blitzcrank.
We're going to buff Soraka.
We're going to buff AD Yuumi...
Okay.
Well, now the cameras are rolling, so we should probably get to our talk.
Okay.
So we're here to talk about midscopes today.
My name is Tim.
I'm a designer on the Summoner's Rift Team.
I've done a few midscopes in the past, like Syndra, Swain, and a long time
ago, Rammus. And I'm here with my friends.
I'm Ezra.
I'm also a designer in the Summoner's Rift Team.
I do item balance, systems, that kind of thing.
Previously, I worked on Rengar as a midscope, and I'm currently working on Neeko.
I'm August.
I'm the Lead Champion Designer.
And midscopes I've worked on is most recently Jax, and then before that, Taliyah.
And the first question we have to answer, which I'm sure is on a lot of players
minds, is what is a midscope? And what sets it apart from balance work
VGUs, CGUs, ASUs,
ABCs, whatever, letters, all that stuff.
Probably the best way to say it, like in a big summary is VGU,
a visual gameplay update, is kind of like a new champion.
A midscope is refreshing a champion.
So with a VGU like say, what we did with Pantheon or Irelia,
you've got a very new champion. Now you've got new animations,
new sounds, new VO, new kit, and that's an important part.
Whereas a midscope is a lot more about refreshing
a current character for its current players.
At its essence, it's taking the fantasy of a character—
we're not making a new character, we're not making a new fantasy—
and making it a 12 out of 10 of like, how far can we push this
so that players feel that like, for Swain, "I'm this huge demon bird
that can be in the middle of their team" or for Taliyah that "I'm actually
an earth weaver, and I'm not punished by using my Q."
And then the second part about midscopes that's really important here
is that because they're on lower scope
in terms of work, they're on shorter timelines.
Some only take one or two months, and which means we can get them out
a lot faster.
So how do we go about finding a good target for a midscope?
Because there's a lot of different projects we do.
What defines how we find a target for a VGU
versus random patchwork that me and Ezra do on a two week basis?
When a character feels like they maybe have lost their place in the game,
where they feel a bit stale, they feel like
they might not have as much of a purpose, as they used to...
a designer can look at a midscope and say, "Hey,
is there some way to like really refresh who this character is in the game
and what their place in the entire league roster?"
In the past we've done midscope-like projects.
A lot of them been really good.
We've done Xin Zhao, Tahm Kench, Sona,
Rengar, we've done projects like this. But a lot of times
when we do like this level of work, it's framed in terms of problems.
Back in the day when we did the original work on Taliyah that players
said "Taliyah is a Pro problem, we need to fix her for mid lane." And we
succeeded in that but it was like kind of at a cost
to Taliyah players as opposed to possibly a benefit.
And so a lot of midscopes are framed in terms of not problems, but opportunities.
It's about asking the question, "Hey, I see this character and I see somewhere
that they could be even cooler,
even better." And maybe we fix some problems along the way, but it's about finding
what's exciting about the character that we can really play up and enhance.
So you worked on Neeko, you worked on Syndra.
How do we select midscopes?
Is there a method to how we're choosing these projects?
The way I see it is, for the most part, it's strong passion for a character,
someone who's deeply involved with the character, deeply interested
in the character's success. They understand the character.
You know, some of these characters have been live for years and years and years.
So you've played them a lot.
You truly understand the failings and the opportunity.
I play Neeko.
I used to play her a lot, actually, and I was just like,
at the end of the day, I was like, "This character isn't...
I want to have fun, and she's not letting me."
Right? I want to do all these things that I want to trick people.
I want to catch people.
And then I just can't. And she's still fun.
She's still fine, but she could be so much more.
That type of message, is what we want to have for midscopes,
which is it's not about problems.
It's not about meeting a schedule or stuff like that.
It's really about finding a fantasy and seeing if we can enhance that
for the players, right? That's what of midscope is.
And sometimes a midscope can come from,
you know, just years of players telling us something.
There's a lot of Swain players who for a few years after his rework
were like, "Hey, I want to play this guy mid and I feel like I can't play him mid."
And he was powerful
mid in terms of win rate
but that didn't mean he felt powerful or that he was super fun there.
And we would constantly have Swain players telling us
it's like, "Hey, yeah, I can play this guy support.
He's a cool support. But what about mid lane?
I want that mid Swain back."
And that was actually, I think, one of the inspirations
for the work that ended up being done to Swain.
I think it's important to note that it's not for other players who might like Swain.
It's Swain players who feel like their character isn't working for them.
The goal of midscopes
isn't to make a character more popular, like everyone will play this character.
It's the players who love this character
actually feel like the character is working for them.
I think there's probably a question of like, "You've done Sylas,
you've done Tahm Kench. You've done Sona, Xin Zhao.
Why are you calling these things midscopes now?
Like, what's the point of that? By saying,
"Hey, we're doing this project called midcopes.
This is a matter of resources they need."
We can plan for them ahead of time so that when
a designer like, say, Tim is like, "Hey, I want to do a Syndra change,
but it's going to need a new Q." Instead of us saying to Tim, "Hey, you can't do that.
We don't have any resources to make a new Q." We can say, "Okay, we can plan for that.
We can slot that in." And then we'll get it out to players in two months.
Now that we have covered what midscopes are
and how we picked them out and what we want to do.
What can players expect in 2023 for midscopes?
This isn't set in stone right now, but it's something we'd like to work up to
is long term,
if we could be shipping a midscope,
say once every two months, then we can do things
like put out a midscope roadmap out for players, say, "Hey, here's
the midscopes we're thinking about this year."
And set better expectations for maybe your character could get one.
I think one thing that can be rough as a League of Legends player
is if you think your character needs an update,
it might be years before they actually get it.
But with midscopes they succeed similar to a VGU
in revitalizing the champion without necessarily
taking all that extra time, which means we can do more of them.
So talking about expectations, before we end, do you want to give us a sneak peak
on what Neeko's midscope is going to be about?
Leak Neeko! Where is she?
Well, I can give...
There's a lot of things going on with Neeko.
But I can give the one sneak peek, which is her passive instead of
just turning into other champions is now other things, anything.
She can turn into a plant, she can turn into a Teemo mushroom,
she can turn into a minion, a monster, and a champion.
Can she turn into a better teammate?
No, she'll actually probably a worse teammate.
That's a core gameplay mechanic in League.
All right.
So you have a Neeko that turned into ward's... literally,
coming to a Rift near you hopefully soon TM.
But that's all we have for today.
Thanks for hanging out with us and thanks for playing with us on the Rift.
- Enjoy your ranked climbs! - Thank you, thank you.