What’s up guys it’s me Jeremy.
One thing that I talk a lot about when describing champions is this idea of a Champion’s character
or personality, and it’s by far Riot’s biggest design obsession ever since they improved
the quality of their champions, since it really does so much to bring a champion together.
A well made personality for a champion does so much to just bring them to life into the
game, to make the player feel like they are interacting with someone, rather than just
staring at pixels on the screen, and I figured it would be interesting to take a look at
how and why this happens, and some of the techniques the rioters use to bring a champion
to life.
As always we’d love to get your feedback so make sure you leave us a comment, and if
you like the video hit that like button, if not then hit the dislike, and let’s get
started.
Anyway when it comes to this sort of concept, the thing that really pulls a champion together
at the end of the day by far has to be their theme.
Every champion has some sort of theme going on with them.
And a champion’s theme is all about their story.
Who is this character, where do they come from, what do they do, how do they do it and
why, and that part of the character is really what pulls them all together.
And this type of theme is actually quite easy to figure out when you look at the written
story of a champion, and that is all well and good, but it really doesn’t mean that
much.
Most people probably don’t read the stories and even if you do, a fancy article isn’t
going to give a champion that extra spice that it so desperately needs.
A vast majority of players just don’t really care about the written story of a champion,
but it’s still very important to tell that story to the players.
That story, that theme is what makes a character come to life, it’s what makes you feel like
you are playing as someone and interacting with others as that character, rather than
just mindlessly controlling some dude that does stuff.
And so a big part of the designer’s job is to tell the story of a champion through
the design of the in game character.
The story of a character needs to be easy to understand and feel without reading a single
drop of lore or anything, from strictly in game experiences you need to be able to tell
what that character is like and why they are like that, and why and how they do what they
do.
And this design is generally done through pretty much everything you see.
Animations, sounds, voice lines, even the abilities themselves contribute to this aspect.
Let’s look at a couple examples.
First off we have Jinx, who is a character that does this really well.
When you play as Jinx in league of legends, you really get a feel for her personality
straight away.
Right off the bat in champion select, her voice line is Rules are made to be broken,
like buildings, or people so right off the bat from just that one line you already know
she’s going to be a mischievous, almost villainous kind of character like likes breaking
the rules and other things too.
And then you load into the game and you see this super scrawny girl carrying two huge
ass guns that are as big if not bigger than her, and she has so many voice lines about
being this crazy maniacal girl who loves blowing stuff up as you walk around, and you really
get a great feel for her personality.
And then you start using her abilities, and that’s when the personality really comes
together.
Her Q does a great job of giving you that multi gun feel of blowing stuff up and shooting
people down, but instead of just having one main weapon she carries around two big bulky
ones to switch between, which shows a little bit of her trademark craziness.
The rest of her kit tells a similar story, such as her W which uses another separate
gun to fire Zap, and her E that uses her Chomper grenades.
Her weapons are all custom made to look cutesy which really tells you a lot about Jinx’s
character - she’s still pretty girly even though she’s insane and just wants to destroy
everything, and doesn’t mind carrying around bulky weapons because she loves them so much.
Jinx’s passive Get Excited gives her a huge speed boost when she gets a kill, assist or
helps kill a tower, and this kinda just wraps it all together - like what kind of person
would get so happy from killing someone or destroying something that she’d end up getting
such a rush from it?
Definitely a crazy person!
Pretty much everything there is to know about Jinx’s personality is shown in her kit,
animations and voice lines in game, so it’s a really good example of Riot’s aim of getting
that feeling across without anyone actually having to read a champion’s backstory.
Riot do miss the mark sometimes though, Riot Harrow mentioned that one particular missed
opportunity was Aatrox.
Aatrox is supposed to be a kind of legendary figure in the world of Runeterra as a being
from an ancient race called the Darkin.
There are only five surviving Darkins, and they are all winged beings with fearsome powers.
Aatrox himself was known to show up randomly during human wars, only appearing to swing
the tide when the battle was almost won, inspiring a bloodlust in the losing side and causing
a total massacre.
Now that lore is pretty badass and considering his age, Aatrox is one of the oldest and maybe
even most powerful beings in League of Legends, but how much of that feel do you really get
from his kit?
Compared to Jinx, whose kit is totally brimming with character, Aatrox feels pretty plain
overall.
There’s a pretty big disconnect between his backstory and his feel in game, and Riot
feels like they sold his character a bit short.
When you play Aatrox, you never really get the feeling that he’s some epic ancient
warrior.
His kit still kinda makes sense from his design - he can heal and come back to life, showing
regenerative powers, he can do a jump and glide thanks to his wings, and he can kinda
bloodlust himself with his Blood Thirst/Blood Price, but overall he just feels like another
fighter but this time with a focus on a lifesteal mechanic.
His quotes give a bit more of an insight into his character - most of them are war-related,
spoken as if they were meant to motivate human soldiers as described in his lore.
It’s kind of a waste that this wasn’t really exploited to be more of a game mechanic
though, something like giving some kind of AoE buff that enrages your allied teammates
or even minions for example.
His E ability, firing a nuke that slows, also doesn’t really feel like it fits the theme
that much.
It kinda makes sense that some demonic looking ancient warrior would have some kind of ranged
attack, but it doesn’t feel rewarding or satisfying to use and would be way better
off as a more interesting ability that actually properly captures the feeling of Aatrox and
the other darkins, while also kinda setting him apart as an individual.
You shouldn’t need to read his lore to know he’s a badass, he should feel badass in
game, and right now he just doesn’t.
Recent champion releases and reworks have done a good job capturing the proper feeling
of a champion in game, and it definitely goes a long way to making them enjoyable to play
and more than just a tool you’re picking for a certain ability or two.
Aurelion Sol is a recent release that really feels like a big epic cosmo dragon even in
game, so he’s a good example of a theme being properly captured in his gameplay - especially
when you zoom across the skies and land massive explosion using the core of a star!
Sion and Ryze are two recent reworks that have done wonders for the champions in terms
of a theme, they both feel like proper parts of the world after their reworks and you can
really get a sense of their characters without bothering with their lore or paying much attention
to any promotional materials Riot creates.
The important part is that their kit feels visceral, original and quite distinct from
other champions so that each one can have their own specific identity.
Now, not every ability needs to be a perfect fit thematically, and it’s definitely okay
to sacrifice a bit of theme for gameplay improvements, and many Rioters have said that this is the
case in the past.
But although actual gameplay definitely comes first, as Riot Gypsylord once said, it’s
possible to make any ability make sense thematically if you try hard enough and come up with a
creative design for it.
We actually talked a little bit about GypsyLord himself looking for impactful abilities that
fit a character’s power archetype and theme in our What Vi Could Have Been Video, so definitely
check that out if you want some cool examples!
Hopefully Riot will keep looking for new ways to innovate and maybe even get chance to rework
some of the failed attempts at tying a champion’s backstory and gameplay together to make them
feel like proper individuals that players can grow to love.
Personally I really hope to see Aatrox getting a rework that makes him feel like an important
and powerful part of Runeterra’s history like he deserves, so if you’d like to see
an Aatrox rework, definitely give us your thoughts and ideas for how his kit should
work in the comments.
And it looks like that’s gonna be it from me, if you enjoyed the video drop a like,
subscribe if you want, thanks for watching, and I’ll see you guys next time!