Champion Creation Process

Celciyuki·Mar 24, 2017·2 votes·410 views

For a writing class of in college, I am researching why game designers create characters that appear the way they do, in particularly looking at female champions looking very "idealized" and "sexualized", but also applying to male champions also fulfilling certain stereotypes. I find that even champions who might break traditional gender RPG roles, such as Irelia and Leona being fighters/tanks still emphasize gender features, notably the joke with "Frostbutt" Irelia. It would be great if I could get some input from champion designers, especially on the visual/character side. What are some of champion designer's thought processes? What has caused a switch to some champions that break the traditional mold (ex. Illaoi and Taliyah). Thank you!

23 Comments

FloRaider42Mar 24, 20171 votes

For what kind of class do you need to write about why game designers prefer to create more easily marketable characters ?

Since LoL already has a very established fanbase and fanservice characters they can branch out more, but if you start out you want to appeal to the masses and those prefer characters with model qualities.

CelciyukiMar 24, 20171 votes

The class is particularly about fashion and appearances, but since we were allowed to write a research proposal paper about anything, I decided to research about "fashion" choices of video game characters, especially for females. I'm interested in the thought process that occurs, and the possible factors that could be affecting designer's choices and how it ties into what people are looking for/societal expectations.

FloRaider42Mar 24, 20171 votes

Fashionwise LoL characters are relatively modest (no chainmail bikini armor) in my opinion. I think your question is pretty vague and can be best answered with "Because it sells better", but I assume you want to go more in depth as to why.

CelciyukiMar 24, 20171 votes

I admit that league the video game that I play the most and have done the most blog/champion design reading. League is also not necessarily the best example in terms of the stereotypes of characters, but it is still prevalent, especially in older champions. I also find league to be an interesting example because of the more recent tendencies to veer into more original and interesting types of characters. One example was Sejuani, who used to satisfy the "chainmail bikini armor", but was later changed to better fit the ice boar barbarian.

FloRaider42Mar 24, 20172 votes

Since LoL started out around that time and needed to get a fanbase first it makes some sense to make bland stereotypical champions to appeal to the masses. Financial backers prefer stability over creativity, but once LoL had a crowd it was able to deviate more, since stability already was present from the fanbase.

CelciyukiMar 24, 20171 votes

Then my questions should really become why certain stereotypes appeal to the masses? (I know this is deviating from my original intent with this posts, but if I could get your opinion that would be amazing.)

BowieTheNiftyMar 24, 20171 votes

A stereotype is a stereotype for a reason. Over the years, images and designed have been pushed into our heads. Depending on what exactly got the most backing, tends to be what the masses flock to. The expression "Sex Sells" has ways been one of these top sellers. Most of these "Sex Sells" focus on woman being the center of them. Because of this, in my opinion is why woman champions tend to be a bit more popular in general. Some of them don't even have to be sexualized and yet they gain a massive following. Diana for example is quite a popular choice who I thinks reflects that. Then again this is just my opinion though.

CelciyukiMar 24, 20171 votes

Hmm that an interesting point and new term for more research. Do you think that is something that champion designers for league still think of? Or less so now considering the changing theme in champion design and solid fanbase?

midnight oil24Mar 24, 20171 votes

Because teenage males who are straight tend to look for females who appeal physically, not character-wise. It's sad, but true.

FloRaider42Mar 24, 20171 votes

It's like how ~~almost~~ everyone likes Vanilla and Chocolate Flavour. Do you pick the new flavour that could be good, but also really bad or the one you already know and learned to like? Since people are prone to loss aversion they prefer to stick to safe options and will stick to what they know. This applies to characters (badass male and damsel in distress, overachieving cop, naive country girl, guy that dies first), movies (sequels after sequels), games (Cod clone, Mario clone another Pokemon edition) and pretty much everything else. Publishers that already have a good rep can create new content, but often the managers will prefer the safer alternative. New Publishers can theoretically make new content, but if they fail they have no money reserves to rely on and may go broke.

Loss Aversion: Bad experiences are graded twice as high as good ones, meaning that you need to experience two good outcomes after one bad outcome to feel as statisfied as before.

midnight oil24Mar 24, 20171 votes

do you just want rioters, or do champ concept people work as well?

CelciyukiMar 24, 20171 votes

My intention by posting on the League of Legends board was rioters, but I'm welcome to any character designers as well!

midnight oil24Mar 24, 20171 votes

I'm far from as good as riot (I'm actually gonna be rereleasing my first champ concept he sucked so much), but I'll run through basically what I do.

First, I come up with the idea. I'll be using my upcoming concept, Sylvester, The Molten Regent as my base for this. I already had his theme, guy who'd made a contract with a demon called vulcan, long before working. Then I looked at what makes for a good way to convey his theme. He's not like Brand or Annie, who are long range burst mages. He's a cross between a melee Vanguard and ranged AP warden with his ult. So first I worked at his normal form kit. I knew that, given his relationship with Vulcan, his passive should revolve around Vulcan. I used Vulcan's Idol, a hammer, as the passive, which gives an immolate and bonus damage to whoever holds it. I gave him an E that throws his hammer, so others can pick it up and gain his passive for a while, and then a gapcloser and some AoE. Then I worked on how those could be made grander for his ult, which is basically Ragnaros' passive from HotS. Then I ran that by a couple people. Now I'm working through some numbers and lore stuff, because he already exists, I'm just adapting the arc he appears in to fit on Runeterra.

That's how I do it, anyway.

CelciyukiMar 24, 20171 votes

How did you decide the gender of the character? Have you thought about what the appearance of the character might be (based on lore/role)?

midnight oil24Mar 24, 20171 votes

I decided his gender based on how he's meant to parallel Raven (he's my first champ, who as I said is getting rereleased). He's one of the two major parallels in the story, as Raven is the jackass he is because he has no social skills and has anger, and is violent because he has a hard time controlling his urges. Sylvester, on the other hand, is violent because he enjoys others suffering, and fights merely for the sake of fighting, unlike Raven who wants a normal life but is forced into inter-galactic conflict a lot.

Appearance is short red hair, a tank top, and sweatpants. He's got blue eyes. I made him look normal because one of the themes is that it's the normal people who can be the deadliest, and he (along with the other Regent characters I've got coming) was designed to look like a normal person, mostly.

CelciyukiMar 24, 20171 votes

Would you define "normal" as relatively fit/healthy, maybe more on athletic side but not super buff/tall/big/muscular? But at the same time he isn't considered overweight/fat or skinny/stick or tiny/short?

FloRaider42Mar 24, 20171 votes

Isn't that pretty much the defintion of normal? "The lack of any extreme properties or the prevelance of average qualities"

CelciyukiMar 24, 20171 votes

I should clarify if he meant "societal normal" as in average BMI and other statistics, or more like "media normal" which tends to be a more idealized person, such as skinnier then normal for females.

midnight oil24Mar 24, 20171 votes

As I said below, I didn't base it on anything like that. I was just saying that he's not freakishly muscular, or has more than just skin and bones, or something. Until he ults, he just looks human.

FloRaider42Mar 24, 20171 votes

Every attribute you give a character tells something about them:

Buff people are percieved tougher than other characters. Overweight or bulky characters are considered hard hitters and tanky, but slow. Skinny characters are associated with range or tactics since they appear frailer. Tiny characters are percieved to be stealthier and more cunning. Therefore Characters that don't have a special attribute (not too thick nor thin / not too muscular nor skinny) are considered normal even if they aren't what the average person would look like, since they lack any features that are truly remarkable.

midnight oil24Mar 24, 20171 votes

Yeah. I rely on his ability to wield such a large hammer as the indicator of his strength. Also his turning into a lava dragon that climbs onto turrets with his ult.

midnight oil24Mar 24, 20171 votes

He's muscular, but he's not, say, Darius buff, so yeah.

There are fat regents. There are short regents. There are absurdly tall regents. There are regents that aren't even human.

The way you define normal isn't the only normal, and the regents are a diverse bunch.

FloRaider42Mar 24, 20171 votes

Gender usually comes from associated roles and since people appearently still think women are weaker than men, Tanks and Melee fighters are more often male, whereas squishy characters are more often female. Females are also more associated with support roles, because of the maternal archetype which lends itself to buffing, healing and nurturing your allies.

Appearences main goal is to make the champion visually clear and tie into his thematics. The size and amount of armor usually ties directly into the characters tankyness, whereas the choice of clohting fits the theme.