What’s up guys it’s me Jeremy.
A while back Riot Meddler had been discussing a couple of champion concepts in a Q&A that
he did on the official Riot Forums.
And what’s interesting is that pretty much all of the concepts at the time were something
that was likely not going to be possible due to the way the champion development cycles
work, but since it’s been a long time since that Q&A, the potential for the concepts that
Meddler brought up is more than ever for those champions to become a reality, and I love
taking a look at these champion concepts, and showing off types of things that could
exist in the future.
And today’s champion concept is that of the shapeshifter.
And if you guys enjoy the video hit that like button and if you don’t hit that dislike,
and let’s get started.
Now when this champion was initially talked about a while back, a lot of people thought
that Riot meddler was referring to Gnar because of the whole shapeshifter thing kind of going
on, but later on it was confirmed by Riot that this was a shapeshifter other than Gnar,
and as such is likely a concept that is still in development.
Now because of gnar and because of the way that champion release cycles work in league
of legends, it’s pretty much out of the question that riot would release a shape shifter
type of champion, or even start working on one, so soon after the release of a different
shapeshifter champion, in this case gnar.
So it’s extremely likely that riot wouldn’t even think about this concept at all until
about a year and a half after gnar’s release, and well, that time has passed and this champion
concept now has a lot of potential to be released in the future, since there is now room in
the development cycle for this type of champion to be released, and I wouldn’t be surprised
if this type of champion comes out later in the year, or maybe sometime next year.
This character in question was described as someone who was kind of a creature or a shapeshifter.
The original design was a champion who was a swarm of insects that would morph around
on different types of targets, and it’s an idea that the champion design team has
messed around with a lot, and tested a couple variations, and eventually couldn’t find
the right fit for the gameplay.
This swarm would shapeshift into different kinds of swarms to interact with allies and
opponents and stuff.
The gameplay design was that of a champion who would literally attach themselves to an
ally, and then would soak up damage for them, and cast spells from them as the ally moved
around.
So it had a huge reliance on your teammates to do stuff, and the swarm would grant buffs
and do all kinds of stuff.
It’s a pretty interesting concept of being like this mass of stuff that attaches itself
quite literally to an ally.
They thought the concept was super cool, and was the kind of gameplay that they would love
to try again on a tank or a support.
I’m not entirely sure how well this swarm of insects would make sense with this gameplay
concept, I guess it fits with the gameplay theme in the sense that you would go swarm
around an ally, but it seems like the type of character that might fit more in line with
an agile fighter flying all over the place and stuff, maybe inflicting enemies with diseases
or poisons and stuff while having some sort of evasion or dodging effect to outmaneuver
ability.
I believe that the character and gameplay concepts were not separate when they were
originally tested, but after failing to make it work out, they tried out testing other
variations of the swarm of insect kind of champion with different gameplay kits.
And in addition they took that gameplay kit of attaching to an ally and tested that out
with a bunch of other character concepts, some of them were like some kind of creature,
and others were a shapeshifter.
So although they started out the same, this swarm of insects champion, and this gameplay
of attaching yourself to an ally, they have been separated from each other, but are both
still candidates for potential new champions in development for the future.
And the creature or shapeshifter concept is one that could potentially exist within the
gameplay of attaching yourself to an ally.
One version of a shapeshifter kind of champion that I always thought was super cool was like
the kind of concept of a character who turns into a demon.
So something like the demon hunters in the Warcraft universe, who are this swift ranged
assassin type of guy, and then they transform into a demon esque dude and go all super saiayan
and stuff and become a lot more magic based.
I guess it would be kind of like how Swain transforms, just with a human and a demon,
instead of a human and a big bird thing.
This idea definitely wouldn’t fit in with the kind of gameplay theme that they were
going for with that champion though, so it’s probably out of the question for this concept.
However this Demon shapeshifter could totally work as a different concept, I mean it’d
be pretty unique I think, I’m trying to imagine what type of character this would
be super similar to, I guess it is a little similar to swain since he’s noxian Swain
kind of pulls off like the dark and twisted personality almost, so I doubt that a traditional
demon hunter trope kind of works in the league of legends universe, but you could have something
a bit different.
The demon hunter kind of guy is like a character that transforms into a demoic version of themselves,
it’s still pretty humanoid esque, so you could have a character that goes a bit further
on the shapeshifting concept and transforms like a human guy into something that is like
cho’gath or kha’zix or rek’sai, like a total transformation where the two forms
are incredibly different from one another.
And for the lore it would be some guy who is possessed by a demon or has a demon from
the void living inside him.
But once again this concept wouldn’t fit with the gameplay design that they had, it’s
more of a different idea.
Something else that might work, is maybe a type of character that is a bit more of like
a wisp kind of thing.
Like a champion who is literally an entire ball of energy who casts spells and stuff.
Something a lot different to Io the wisp in dota 2, who is much more like Aurelion Sol
and is kind of like a more aggressive champion.
It would really be a wisp, but just like this sentient ball of pure energy flying around
and doing stuff.
It would attach itself to an ally to enhance them with their powers, and could still cast
spells at opponents and stuff.
It fits well with thematically with the gameplay for sure, and it’s an interesting and unique
concept for league definitely.
I really like how some of the more recent champions are exploring the concepts of like
these omnipotent almost god-like kind of entities.
We saw this with Bard, Kindred, and Aurelion Sol, and maybe a couple others, but it’s
something riot is incorporating thematically into their characters quite a bit in the past
couple years, and maybe this type of thing could fit with like a sentient ball of energy.
This concept would work great as like a support buff type of guy, or maybe as like a tank
with defensive spells and shield and stuff, and you could honestly incorporate the shapeshifter
kind of concept as well, I mean it’s not that complicated to make a sentient ball of
energy kind of thing transform into a bunch of different forms of a ball of energy and
have it make a lot of sense and still be cool and fun.
As for what you could do with the idea of the swarm of insects, honestly making it a
shapeshifting swarm of insect isn’t that bad of an idea, it definitely has potential.
You give it like a bunch of different forms for different purposes, like an aggressive
form, a defensive form, a form that attaches to an ally, and all kinds of stuff.
But I kind of like the idea that I mentioned a bit previous of them being like this agile
sort of fighter kind of thing that inflicts poisons onto opponents, maybe have it use
a new type of resource or something.
You could also give it like some kind of controller, like the queen insect, or heck maybe it’s
like a mage or fighter champion who is a humanoid that has this swarm of insects surrounding
them and uses them to cast abilities on opponents, maybe it’s spells involving magic with the
insects, or maybe it’s a more literal sense where he throws or directs a group of insects
to go attack an enemy.
It’d be like a bee keeper kind of champion almost, just with more exotic and fancy type
of insects that would make more sense for a fantasy universe.
There’s certainly lots of room to work with for sure!
So what do you think about the concept of a shapeshifter, as well as the concept of
a swarm of insects, and the gameplay concept of a champion who would attach themselves
to an ally and interact with them.
All three of these ideas are something that could possibly be in development as we speak,
and they all have potential to become champions in the future!
Anyway, leave a comment, subscribe if you want, thanks for watching, and I’ll see
you guys next time!