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The Evolution Of Concepts, and how any idea should be explored.

Akenero·10/3/2016, 10:02:25 AM·7 votes·534 views

Okay, as a pretense, this is a kind of insight on how I PERSONALLY go through champion concept iterations, I know some people prefer the one-and-done style, where they figure things out one time, and don't iterate on it afterwards. I know others who keep posting ideas for the same character, with differing kits, trying to find one that clicks with the community. I fall into the latter group, and I'm here to talk about one of my earliest ever concepts for a champion, Ki'Ruh, now known as Kyanitseal I've never been happy with my initial concept of the character, he was a complete mess of a concept with confusing abilities, and a very clear disadvantage whenever he WASN'T ranged mode(read the concept, this will make a lot more sense that way)

So, similarly to what riot does with tough concepts, I put him on the backburner and worked on other things. Over two years ago I came up with the concept, and 3 months ago, I had the idea to give him a sword instead of his weird "Help-both-my-hands-are-useless-in-everyday-life" thing going on. It was a cool idea, but didn't fit with my initial idea whatsoever, because I only used half of his concept, only one ability made use of this really cool, purifying arm made of stone, and it was completely stupid, dealing up to 500(+75% Bonus AD) physical damage, and cleansing the target? You'd kill them before they could be cc'd! **Something had to be done to his kit, it was unbalanced in premise, and didn't give the character justice.**That sword ended up being a really good angle on him.

Last night, I thought on it more, how would giving a sword affect him? Would I need an entirely new kit? Not necessarily, in fact, many abilities could be modified to fit this new sword, All of his ranged abilities could remain unaffected, and I could put some new uses into his sword. Is it different enough from other sword-wielders? Not really, his kit was already pretty bland, with a waveclear/sustain spell, an auto empower, a dash...All pretty common things, look at aatrox, very similar. So I kept thinking on what his runic arm was meant to do, contain the void's influence in him. So I gave him a different way of holstering his weapon, by placing his sword in his shoulder, I fulfilled two things, one, his sword fills the same purpose lore-wise, contain the void's influence, and two: It gave him new ways to fight.

After two years, this concept, my first ever one on the boards, has new life, all because of what I considered a "dumb idea" If any concept creators are struggling with designing kits, be open to new ideas, new ways to present your character. They may just be what you're looking for. I'm going to be posting the renewed concept again later on today, so be on the lookout for Kyanitseal, The Icathian Guard later on today if you're interested in how he has changed over the course of two years.

3 Comments

Elite4Runner10/3/2016, 10:52:03 AM2 votes

I think this was an interesting read because it is actually something that I do myself.

I have several champion concepts that I have thrown out at the community, hoping for feedback so that I can then rework and improve on the concept. Unfortunately, most of the community on here is really not all that interested in champion concepts, and fewer still are interested in offering any sort of constructive feedback.

Most of the time I get "This idea would never work" or "They are a close range champion who changes attack form, .. sounds too much like Jayce"

Actually, that isn't true, .. Most of the time I get " ......." (Absolutely nothing.)

Please forgive the salt

But I digress. ..

I think it is significantly more healthy to do things the way that we do, opposed to the "one-and-done" method because it is ridiculous to believe that your first iteration would be perfectly balanced.

Something that I actually find from even beginning to type a post for a champion concept is that something will ALWAYS change about my concept between the time that I start typing and the time that I hit the submit button.

And then after I actually submit it, then give it a quick read through, aside from the occasional attempt to correct grammar errors, I always realize that I left something out, or that something could be made more clear, or changed further.

Then occasionally I will get the beneficial comment or question that helps me to rethink an ability due to balance, or at the very least the way it is worded. We often assume that just because we understood the concept when we typed it, what we say will immediately be clear to the reader. More often than not, this will not be true.

One thing that I have found to be the most helpful way to track my own progress with a champion concept, and I believe it may even help anyone who wants to follow along, is to give the champion an iteration count.

For example,

Bob: The Hobo [V1.0]

This would be my very first post of my "Bob: The Hobo" concept, in which I am hoping to get people's initial ideas and concerns with the design. I typically avoid giving hard numbers, but instead give general format descriptions, and later, more detailed descriptions and intentions for their kit and ability functions.

Depending on the amount of feedback I receive from this post, my concept may only require a few clarifications and tweaks, but the kit remains largely the same.

When I feel like I have enough information to request new feedback I will share,

Bob: The Hobo [V1.1]

If the same thing happens,

Bob: The Hobo [V1.2]

If I the kit needs a substantial change, or if I want to finally take him to the next step with more hard stats and numbers, I roll out the

Bob: The Hobo [V2.0]

and so on.

For the record, I have not, and most likely will not ever submit a champion concept named Bob: The Hobo, ... unless it is an obvious joke.