We're always looking for ways to do new, fresh things
especially around holiday themed skins.
One of the approaches we decided to take was Lunar Revel.
We've tried a bunch of things in the past
and so we wanted to try something wildly new,
and bring something fresh to the table.
So Mecha Kingdoms is a new idea for us, that we're exploring.
It's a different way of looking at our League of Legends champions
and presenting them as giant mechas that are protecting the world.
For Mecha Kingdoms, we wanted to tap back into the fantasies
of this Asian inspired mythology.
Drawing a lot from history, such as Three Kingdoms and Chinese history,
but also incorporating this really cool futuristic, scifi twist.
So the story is that there's these three kingdoms and outer territories as well
who fought to rule across the land.
And suddenly, sort of these giant leviathans, came up from the sea, and they were invading humanity.
Just with their normal human armies, they weren't able to defeat these monsters
and so, they were blessed with this technology
that they're not exactly sure where it came from.
And with this, they're able to construct really immense, huge, towering mechs.
And so, with all the kingdoms united, there's these mechs going into battle against these monsters.
The mecha skinlines, traditionally, has been for more creature type characters.
Mecha Kingdoms are piloted robots
but they're not just robots, like the Praetorian skins.
So we want the pilots' personalities to come through.
We went through multiple rounds of iterations on what's the technology behind this, right?
Like, what's driving these things?
Once we figure that out, then it locks in a direction for how we can build the mechs around them.
Aside from that, the actual visual language that we're using,
it's a blend between the organic flowy shape that we established in our previous line, Lunar Revel,
layered into, not only the silhouette, but also the details and filigree you see on the mechs themselves.
Some of our biggest challenges were conveying that sense of weight and scale.
Because in League of Legends, you might be coming into lane like a giant mecha,
but then there's a Teemo there, that's tiny.
And so, we were able to tackle some of those challenges in the vfx or the animation.
So a lot of it is marrying those elements that ground it in the real world
like dust and debris, that are kicked up by these huge mechs.
"Nothing personal, haha."
For Jax, we went into a lot more detail.
So for his recall, you see him landing in a small little village
and so we get to see what that town looks like.
And same with when he respawns, he's being carried in by these little floating armada ships,
that are literally delivering the mech there.
When he's running into battle, the ships are flying with him as well,
so all these tiny little details.
Selling the size was the hardest thing.
We can't make something sound massive in League, to the point where it pulls away from the gameplay
because gameplay trumps all, even in our designing.
Since we don't an established sound of what this sounds like,
it was kinda like let's figure it out.
It was a lot of experimenting with different types of metal sounds,
and a lot of different types of heavy impacts and metal movements and stuff like that.
One of the things, I kinda want to introduce to Mecha Kingdoms,
is kinda like a magic influence, so when you toggle the Ultimate,
you get the sparks and electricity and stuff, but you still feel like there's magic that's kinda influencing the ability.
That's kind of what's helping separate Mecha Kingdoms from the regular mecha.
Because this is such an anachronistic, unique sort of universe,
we wanted to see how we can make the mechs feel that they are empowering and fitting that mech fantasy,
while making them feel like they were built in this period that was inspired by East Asian mythology.
We get to really invent this universe together.
Artists are working with narrative, working with designers, and making sure this all feel like a cohesive package.
I hope players feel like that this is something different
and that they also feel a sense of scale and grandeur with these big mechas.
And they see that they're not just mechas, but because of the way they look, the way they move,
that there's something more.