Yo Psycho Ducky!
So there isn't a short answer for this so bear with me, I'll try and go through each one of your points.
Does the process start with a skin idea or a "this champ needs a skin" thought?
So it can start with either. We generally do four types of ideations.
- Champion specific - So we go into the meeting knowing we want to ideate on one champion specifically.
- ** Skin line/theme specific **- We go into the ideation with a theme in mind, with almost no champions off limits. (champs up for reworks are excluded ;_;)
- Tier Specific - These are typicly for 750's and Ultimate skins, and again no champ is off limits, but the reworks. In these meetings we are generally trying to get a team of 3-5 skins within a theme that work at the 750 price tier.
- **Event **- So this one is similar to skin line/theme but it's for events like Pool Party or Harrowing which happen on a yearly basis and will have additional supporting interactive content.
What causes you to decide one champ is worthy of a skin over another?
We don't think of champions like that at all. Our goal is to make bad ass skins for every champion in the game, regardless of popularity. The decision of who get's the skin is again based on a few factors.
- Can this champion fully fulfill this thematic?
- When was the last time this champion got a skin?
- What does their existing skins look like, and does this theme overlap with any of their existing skins?
- If we are limited to a certain number - who are the strongest ideas overall, not just model wise.
So to speak to that last bullet point I think Pool Party is a great example to use as an illustration. When you look at the champions in our game, lets be honest, all of them could get a pool party skin, they all work. So it just comes down to making tough cuts, since we can't make them all. ;_;
Is there some bank of ideas for skins/general skin concepts that you pull from?
We do have a backlog of skin ideas from internal submission and from the community. After every skin ideation we detail a log of ideas that were cool, but didn't make the cut for whatever reason. We also try and scour the boards, reddit, and other sites to get a pulse on what players are interested in. Some times is easy to see trends (Star Guarding Lux) and other times the idea of what a champions next skin should be is more ambiguous.
Is there any sort of schedule for who gets a skin next or is it simply based on what feels best?
So yes and no, but mostly yes. :3
We do keep track of when the last time a champion had a skin was and that does come into play. In those cases we tend to do champion specific ideations in order to get a skin slotted for them. There are cases though where we will make skins for champions because they fit really well into an event and it just makes sense.
And as always there are unforeseen obstacles that can cause skins to be delayed of even scrapped, and that can cause the time between skin release to
increase.
and lastly.. how come warwick who has had many skins got to be part of the marauder/warden release but diana couldn't be a part of it when i feel it would thematically work for her.. woulda been so cool.. hm?
Yes, Marauder/Warden is a skin idea that would totally fit Diana! I remember a lot of players echoing that same sentiment around the release of those skins. I think that this is a similar case to Pool Party where almost any champion would look sick with a Marauder/Warden skin. Warden Nami pls.
As far as his skin number is concerned, Warwick hadn't had a skin since late 2011 so he was way over due, and since he's an older champion he's going to have a lager number of skins compared to most of our champions.
Sorry for the huge wall of text, but I see these questions floating around a lot and I figured; why not explain? Hope this was informative!
