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How do you come up with your concepts?

Stephenizgod··3 votes·892 views

Whenever i get a chance i go through the forums and look at all the Champ and Skin concepts, commenting here and there if im in the mood. For some reason i became curious as to how other people come up with these ideas. Reading all these concepts it makes very interested in how they started and what sparked it in the first place.

I know for me and my champion concepts it usually starts with a single ability or simple idea, like my newest concept Kaito, The Raining Swordsmen started because i was thinking of Yasuo's ult and Fiora's ult, for no real reason. I thought "What would happen if their ults were sort of combined", once i had what i figured would be a nice mixed i needed to think up a way to use it, it would be too powerful the way it is so i needed something to activate it, and so i came up with his passive, and so i came up with the ability Calming Rain. Now i needed a champ to go with it, i decided since i started with Yasuo i would make him related to Yasuo in some way, using Yasuo as a template i took small ideas modified them and changed them over and over again until i came up with the final product, Kaito! Sure he is OP but idc he seems fun to me.

The idea can even start entirely with wanting to balance another champion, such as Kujin, the Raging Sun where i wanted to make a champion similar to Lee Sin but easier to balance, to show you can have a combo mobile high damage fighter with very prominent weaknesses.

Sibara started with her ult because i thought "A complex support who scales with skill level and requires you to be near allies". Grimjoy started with lore and his kit being built around that and Genesis started with the idea of a morphing weapon.

So this is how i come up with champ concepts, a single idea that slowly builds as i think on it, most of the time as im writing it! How do you guys come up with ideas? is it the on the spot? a nagging idea that wont go away? talking to friends and BAM hits you? im very interested ^_^...

18 Comments

Sir ArmaMalum2 votes

I'm always focused on game mechanics and design, so I have 2 ways usually. Either

a) I think of a cool ability or mechanic that isn't in the game yet and build around that.

or

b) I try to find theme's or stereotypes that haven't been characterized yes in league, a.k.a. an empty creative space and try to come up with a unique kit evolving within that space.

Stephenizgod1 votes

I like being unique if i can but i try not to get too hung up on it, i mean i wont straight copy and past but using a similar idea i find nothing wrong with it. League has plenty of similar champs and kits and their champs are even similar to other MOBA's. As long as it is not an obvious rip i think its fine, although if you end up with something unique then that is even better :D

My personal opinion of course when im thinking up a champ concept

MrBuffington2 votes

I only have two (real) concepts so far, both of them were sort of designed to fill a certain niche that I saw as sort of unfilled (or at least underfilled).

For The Azazel, I was trying to create a powerful jungler that could hold her own against Lee Sin in terms of power. She was similarly meant to be a martial artist, and was highly mobile and had a high skill ceiling. Whether I succeeded in my goals is debatable, though I do like the general theme of a less confrontational martial artist.

For Elle and Otto, I was trying to create a yordle, since it seemed like one was overdue (Riot seems to agree, as Gnar is now coming out). Moreover Riot has mentioned wanting to make a more significant "pet" for a character (ie. Tibbers, Malzahar's voidlings, etc.), so I figured what if there was a pair of champions? Lastly, I wanted to create a heavy utility focused jungler.

For these two, once I settled on the original theme, the kit sort of fell into place. A lot of times, the kit also comes when I decide on a certain aspect of their kit or skills, for example, the Azazel has a greater attack range as part of her high skill cap, where high level players will be able to orb-walk other melee champions because the Azazel has higher attack range than most melee champions. This creates a more non-confrontational style, which influenced a lot of the mechanics of her kit, like how she wants to avoid dashing directly into an enemy to gain a second dash, etc. Elle and Otto were much more difficult to establish skills, though Otto's Tether was an early ability that helped establish their utility.

Stephenizgod2 votes

Ah so if im reading correctly you sort of think of a champions role and identity first then fill it with the lore and kit? That is like complete opposite of me :D the role and identity come after ive done the kit and lore and then their identity hits me and i go back through and reinforce it, except with Sibara where i wanted a complex support who needs to actually be supporting. I actually read Elle and Otto for the contest and i thought you would be one of the people who would win :D

MrBuffington1 votes

That's at least how it's been so far, haha. I've found it easier to build a cohesive champion around a theme, than vice versa. Sometimes if I have a cool idea for an ability, I'll just write it down until I think of a champion that the ability would work well with, rather than trying to build a champion around that. And thanks! I was actually one point off from placing in the contest, I'm honestly surprised that concept did as well as it did since I had a really difficult time trying to make their kit work, haha

Stephenizgod1 votes

AH! i do that do too with the abilities until champion comes to mind. I have a long list of abilities i couldnt make work or abilities i changed for others in a concept or variations of abilities. I rarely use them but sometimes i go through the list and will create an ability out of a couple concepts i had.

Haha yea i was also like 1 or 2 points from winning XD i just couldnt go the extra mile with the extras because i see it as adding information just to have it :( once i get Lore, Kit, Explanations, Item and Level builds, and skin ideas down im pretty much done in my mind.

MrBuffington1 votes

haha yea, my kit could have used some more cohesion I think, was a fun contest though :D. Didn't think about adding skill order/level build to my concepts, that's a great idea!

Stephenizgod1 votes

it sure was fun :D, yea it makes the champ feel more real lol

ploki1222 votes

In a lot of cases, I'm simply having an idea that I then transform into a kit/character. More often than not it's a mechanic/skill that I try to work a character around it, and then from the character form a kit, but in other cases I've tried to create the character first, mimicking someone else's idea, or tagging along for related champs and then morphing that into a full fledged champion.

Recently, I've taken more of the second approach in my "Design a Rioter" series (1st post was ManWolfAxeBoss, nexti s probably Gypsylord which will be coming Soon™). I start with the presentation part, where I describe who that Rioter is, where his name come from, what his job title means, and what he worked on recently... things like that. Then, from there I try to highlight a few leu aspect of that Rioter, and create their alter ego, enhancing those parts to the extreme. Finally, from the alter ego, I design a rough kit, define a role, and rework the kit to follow that role.

Stephenizgod1 votes

Oh wow thats awesome, sounds fun too. We sorta have the same system where there is this certain mechanic or skill that we try to make an entire champion out of this one tiny idea :), like im currently working on a champion based on an emblem that saves damage dealt similar to Zed's ult but a lot different in many ways, but the idea came from Zed's ability to store damage to be dealt later.

Varkarrus1 votes

I created one in the form of Undassa. My original concept was her Writhe!, an ability that in its original incarnation dealt on-hit effects on every hit, but was probably OP considering then Wit's End would add 168 magic damage to it. Instead, I turned her into a magic-damage heavy autoattacker, reliant on Nashor's Tooth and various AP items.

Stephenizgod1 votes

Oh do you like where she ended up though? i never change a champ concepts abilities if i like them unless they are hurting or unhealthy for the champ. Like Naylum, Child of the Abyss his original W was unhealthy and didnt fit and while i sort of liked it i knew it was not good, so i changed it and i like it even more. On the other hand there are concepts where i refuse to change even if they seem OP because i personally like the way they are.

Varkarrus1 votes

Nah, I'm always rethinking my abilities, depending on what they work well with.

Stephenizgod1 votes

Same! i will go through like 5-6 variations of abilities sometimes! But i will only change it if i think it still fits whats in my mind

EMOFRATPARTY1 votes

I think about the story and what the character would look like and build everything else around that. Once you start to build personality, everything else falls into a kind of "creative snowball," making it really easy to fill out the details.

I'll reference my concept thread here as an example, but I thought about everything as I wrote it, e.g. sequentially.

Stephenizgod1 votes

Oho see my mind works the other way XD, take Azalin, The Sacrificer i only had his passive and his W in mind when i first thought him up and then i thought what kind of champion would have these abilities and how do they mesh, then his background sort of came to me and fit well and snowballed from there :). Its easier for me to fill out the details when i have 1 or 2 abilities to guide me as to who the champ will be and what are they trying to accomplish.

EMOFRATPARTY1 votes

Nothing wrong with either way! It likely depends on what kind of thinker you are. I'm a very visual person, so it was easier for me to get context for my idea once I could imagine what it looked like. I'll have to try your method sometime!

Stephenizgod1 votes

For my champion Grimjoy and Dairah i came up with Lore first in my head and how they would look and what role i wanted them to fit in. They are the only 2 champ concepts i sat down and actually thought on what i wanted to write :D and i think they turned out great so it seems both ways work fine just fine

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