The Open Champion Project

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#ARCHIVE

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What is the Open Champion Project? The Open Champion Project is based on the idea that we, as a community, can work together to create a champion from scratch. This post will cover the creation of a champion from scratch, along with the appropriate game design concepts. Everyone is encouraged to chime in with criticism or ideas throughout the process.

What's with the big ARCHIVE at the top? This was the first post in The Open Champion Project, and thus, this page is no longer active, to see the current page, go to: http://tiny.cc/openchampion

Necessary Legalese So as a community project, we want Riot's support, and we also want them to help us along the way, as they have a better understanding of how to create champions than we do. However, there's a legal problem that prevents them from acknowledging champion ideas or skin ideas. The problem is, upon posting an idea for the first time, the poster legally gains the copyright to it. This means that if Riot acknowledges that they've seen the idea at some point, the poster has legal basis to sue them, even if Riot can prove that they already had the champion in the works well before it was posted. This is the same reason why authors have a policy of "we don't read fanfiction", because while no one has attempted to sue someone yet, it's a legal minefield to do so. Thus we have to get around this problem. The way we do this for the Open Champion Project is by releasing everything into the public domain. Thus everything contained within the Open Champion Project is licenses via the Creative Commons CC0 license. By contributing an idea in this thread, you also agree that your idea is released under the CC0 license. This allows Riot employees to actively participate without any legal risk.

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#2/9/15 Voting for a Champion Concept I was originally planning on simply putting the vote in one big, long, giant poll. But then Paleo Electro suggested that we run a tournament style poll to decide. The benefits to this is anything that we choose will more accurately reflect the community decision, the downside is that it is harder, and takes longer to run. After a bit of deliberation, I decided to do it.

Well, what does this mean for me? This means that unfortunately, you're going to have to create an account on another website to vote, yea I know boo, hiss... The reason why I did this is that it allows for people to vote on every concept in a single round of a bracket. That means that in the first round, you get to vote for 36 of the concepts in one day, as opposed to voting for 5 each day over about 2 and a half weeks.

So what should I do? Go to http://challonge.com/OpenChampionProject and sign up. I've reviewed the license, and the website does not maintain the rights to sell any of your information, or use it in a way that might gain them money. Then vote! Each day at midnight EST, I'll update the brackets into the next round. At the end of the 6 day period, we'll have our Core Concept.

Tl;Dr What, so you read my previous wall of text and stopped here? Anyway, go to http://challonge.com/OpenChampionProject sign up, and vote each day for the ideas you want.

A few last things of great importance:I highly recommend that you read the description of each idea before voting on them, some are hard to describe with even a full sentence, others are easy to describe with one word. Read the descriptions!!!!

And lastly: Please don't cheat... I don't think that anyone will actually cheat, but some people might. Do know that I will be actively checking for accounts that appear fraudulent (i.e. many with the same IP address, ones with Guerilla mail email addresses, etc.) and I will disqualify those votes, and any others from the same IP. This isn't a challenge. I know that if you guys wanted to cheat, you could get away with it, without me noticing. Rather this is a request, just please, don't cheat. It's not nice, it's not fun... The whole idea of the Open Champion Concept is to create a champion created by the community, not by one person. If you want the champion concept to be made, just ask me. I'll probably regret this, but I will help you with a concept, I will review it, and I'll give ideas. Simply post it in another thread, and in some way direct me towards it. Just don't cheat, there's simply no reason too.

Tl;Dr: If you missed the Tl;Dr, it's in the middle, right before a couple of super important notes I added that essentially sum up too, read all the descriptions before voting, and don't cheat.

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#2/7/15 Beginning a Champion Concept Since this is the first post of the Open Champion Project, it's appropriate that we'd start with how a champion can be started. Riot has covered this before, but I will hopefully go more in depth here.

Any champion in the game can be reduced to a combination of three core concepts: The Core Mechanic, The Core Fantasy, and The Core Character. An idea for a champion is always one of these three things. This is what you're going to build your champion around. The other two parts might shift and change as the concept evolves, but the core concept you start with will change very little. There is one exception to this, which I will go over later, but right now here are the descriptions for the three possible core concepts.

The Core Mechanic The Core Mechanic of a champion is, at it's essence, why you play the champion. The Core Mechanic is what makes the champion unique to play once you strip away all special effects, all thematic elements.

Riot's more recent champions have all had very clear core mechanics. Perhaps one of the best examples of this is Gnar. Gnar is unique because of his rage mechanic, he has two forms which are both really strong for what they do, but also really weak for what they don't do. The problem is, you don't have control of which one you have at any given moment. A Gnar player has to learn to play around what that, and upon succeeding, is able to jump in, do a lot more damage than they should be able to, then become nigh unkillable with more CC than any other character that tanky. Some other strong examples, include Zed, who places essentially intangible clones which can attack, then can switch places with them, or Azir, who places down ranged areas he can deal damage in, then manipulates those areas. This isn't to say that other champions don't have core mechanics, only that their's aren't always quite as clear from a visual point of view, or even that there can only be one. For example, Ryze has a two very strong core mechanics, he's able to spam short range spells, and he's tanky. Taking a look at some of the more popular champions right now; Thresh's core mechanic is that he's able to pick people out, then keep them from returning while bring his team closer to him. Ahri's is that she stays at the edges of a fight doing damage, then can jump in to pick someone off before jumping back out and if she realizes she made a bad decision, she can get out no problem.

Every champion has a Core Mechanic, the one you choose them for in champion select, this might not be the one intended though. This is why non-meta builds are possible, and work. As AD Sion post rework, you're picking him because he can knock up the whole team, and once he dies, he hurts a lot. As AP Sion post rework (just hear me through), you're picking him because he has low mana, high damage poke, can push quickly, and is nearly uncatchable if someone tries to catch him while he's split pushing. Though their kits are the same, the different builds mean different core mechanics. Just something to keep in mind when developing a champion.

The Core Fantasy The Core Fantasy is essentially what it feels like your doing with the champion. This is hard to explain, so it's easier to do with an example: The Core Fantasy of Twisted Fate is a guy who uses cards as weapons. The Core Fantasy of Azir is a guy who commands disposable soldiers. The Core Fantasy of Thresh is a guy who attacks people with a chain, then collects their souls.

The Core Fantasy of a champion can superficially be a weapon, but it's really everything about the character before you add in their backstory and personality. The Core Fantasy of Lux is a light mage, someone who uses physical light to hurt someone. That could just as easily apply to someone male, or someone without her bubbly personality, in fact, you could easily take Garen and make him a light mage. If his sword's made out of light and you add in some particle effects, it's done.

The Core Fantasy is really important though, it's what makes near identical abilities feel unique. For example, Nami's bubble and Leona's stun are mechanically identical once they hit, they're both stuns, the only difference is the delivery method. Yet getting his by them feels completely different. This is because the fantasy of getting hit by a bubble is very different then one of getting a shield to your face.

The Core Character This is probably the least common of the Core Concepts that are used to start a champion, but it is one that is likely occasionally used. The Core Character of a champion is not just their personality, but their history and how they're visually presented in game. Using Garen as an example, his Core Character includes that he is incredibly loyal to Demacia, that he hates Noxus, etc. But it also includes that he's a giant guy in big hulking armor. The sword might be part of his Core Fantasy, but the armor isn't. Usually, it's difficult to make a champion out of an idea for a Core Character, but I think it has been done. The champion which I'd rate as most likely to have been created with a Core Character is Original Karma. Her Core Fantasy was that she's in drab dress and uses fans, her Core Mechanic was a little more interesting, that you'd require teamwork with your allies for damage and you'd be able to enhance an ability. But I don't believe that the mechanic was the original idea for her. I think the idea was "We need a champion which is representative of Ionia." A few other champions which might have been created with the idea for a Core Character, Gangplank ("We need a pirate"), Shen ("We need a ninja"), Sejuani, ("We need someone for Ashe to fight with"), and Jinx ("We want someone to be in direct conflict with Vi and Caitlyn").

One thing to remember is that a Core Character is very hard to design a champion around. If you notice, all of the characters I mentioned as possibly created from Core Characters have kits without a complex Core Mechanic. This is because a Core Mechanic lends itself to determining a Core Fantasy, a Core Fantasy lends itself towards developing both a Core Fantasy and a Core Character, but a Core Character only lends itself to developing a Core Fantasy. This means that the kits are generally designed after the designer knows exactly what they want their champion to be about, and that means that instead of developing a Core Mechanic, you develop what I'll call a Core Behavior.

A Core Behavior So a Core Behavior is not a viable place to start a champion from, let's just get that out of the way first. It might be something you'll want to keep in mind as you develop a champion, but it isn't something that you can create a kit from, or create a Fantasy, or create a Character. A Core Behavior isn't even always necessary, it only really exists if a champions Core Mechanic is super vague, and isn't enough for the majority of the kit to exist on. A Core Behavior usually happens if you develop the champions Core Fantasy and Core Character before you develop their Core Mechanic. A good example of this is Jinx. Jinx does have a Core Mechanic, but it's not enough to build all of her kit around it, or even most of it. It's enough for one ability. If you can get and ult and maybe two abilities including the passive out of a Core Mechanic, then you can use the other two slots to manipulate what weaknesses a champion has. But Jinx only really has one, her Q. This means that she still has to develop a play style that makes her unique, that play style is the Core Behavior. Jinx's Core Behavior was informed by her character fantasy. She has lots of guns, is hyperactive, and likes chaos and destruction. From the gun and destruction part, you got her W and ult, from her hyperactivity, you got her passive. Her W was just to increase he ability to start fights and escape. This means that her Core Behavior is one of "run around, blast people, and get lots of speed to chase people with". Having to use a Core Behavior rather than a Core Mechanic for most of a champion's kit doesn't make the champion any worse. It only makes them harder to create.

When the Core Concept changes So at the start of this, I said that a Core Concept is one of those three things above, and it's what you run with for the rest of creating a champion with one exception. The exception is that sometimes, you'll be making a champion and you'll find something that you just can't make work, or you'll discover something really cool about the champion, maybe a mechanic, maybe a fantasy, that you just can't execute with your core concept. When this happens, you may end up abandoning your original Core Concept for the new concept. The only concrete example I can give where this happened was with Azir. Azir started with the Core Fantasy of a "Sand Mage". And the Riot tried, and tried, and tried to find a kit which would work, but they just couldn't. They eventually switched the core concept to one of the fantasy or commanding soliders. However, we know that Riot had the general Character Concept of Azir done long before they switched the concept, due to the fact that the leaked images of "Seth the Sand Mage" looks very similar to Azir. Though the concept art looks different, the in game mockups look identical other than the shape of the staff.

Proposals for Core Concepts So now that we've had the nice long game design lesson, it's time to propose Core Concepts. For 2 days, any concept submitted in the comments will be added to this section. At the end of the weekend, I'll start a poll about which Core Concept we should use moving forward for the Open Champion Project. Please submit your idea with a brief description so there's no confusion as to what you mean.

Here are the Core Concepts which were proposed: The core concept of a Trap Master has been chosen, to see the runners up, you can look at: http://challonge.com/OpenChampionProject

"Skater" | Core Fantasy This idea is that of a "Skater" of some sort, there are multiple ways this could be implemented, Ice Skating, Roller Blades, or my personal favorite, "Antigrav boots". A Skater would likely be hyper-mobile with many tools to move quickly in unique ways, but with lower damage. A skater would potentially require a secondary weapon.

Trap Master | Core Fantasy | From Kamiroo Wolf The idea of the trap master is one of a champion that would be completely reliant on accurately predicting the path of opponents, and setting up traps for them. This champion would likely be extremely weak in face-to-face combat and would likely also be a jungler.

Criticism so far: This champion would likely be really hard to balance, and to make non-frustrating. There's a very good reason why people hate Teemo and Shaco. There are still enough routes to take this that it would very likely still be possible to make one that follows this core fantasy.

A "Twilight" themed champion | Core Character | From Anomander A "Twilight" Champion would be one which weaves together the aspects of the Solari and Lunari, using both.

A Nanobot being | Core Character | From Paleo Electro The character itself is just this little round floating ball that would constantly be creating nanobots. These nanobots would collect around the ball, and make a grainy/sandy image of a humanoid shape.

A "War-Machine" | Core Character | From Flay and Pray A big hulking machine, think the Iron Man Mark 1 suit, but bigger with more guns. Could be in direct competition with Rumble.

A Wall Jumper/Climber | Core Fantasy | From Flay and Pray A Champion which can latch onto a wall, then climb along it or leap from it for a considerable boost in possible speed.

A champion which can hide inside another | Core Mechanic | From Flay and Pray A champion which could merge and hide inside another champion, potentially buffing them in some way, before jumping out of them.

An Area Control champion | Core Mechanic | From me and Flay and Pray (Concept proposed independently) A champion which creates an area where it is somehow more dangerous, and spreads it via it's spells.

A champion which buffs champions by jumping to them | Core Mechanic | From MissingGrave I couldn't simplify the description more, so that. Think Yasuo E, but to allies and it buffs them.

A champion which gains a gains debuffs/buffs as they use their abilities | Core Mechanic | From Zenthon127 The champion would, as they use their abilities, gain a debuff to one thing and a buff to another.

A scythe wielder | Core Fantasy | From a bunch of people A champion which uses a scythe in some way, a bunch of people wanted it so here it is. 😜

A chain mace wielder | Core Fantasy | From Kamiroo Wolf For those of you that don't know what a chain mace is, it's this:

Criticism so far: Vbunnie pointed out Sejuani technically uses a chain mace. This isn't part of her core fantasy though, you pick Sejuani because she's riding a boar and freezing people, not because she's using a chain mace. So using a chain mace as a core fantasy of another champion isn't necessarily off the table.

A champion who was tortured and brainwashed | Core Character | From Kamiroo Wolf This champion would probably be gibbering, insane, ragged, and might do weird things like lope around of all fours to stalk people, while still being fully human. Essentially someone now fully insane, but didn't used to be and was clearly tortured in the past. I'd say it's a little dark for league, but we already have a champion who turned executions into a spectator sport and another which seduces men and drains them of their lifeforce..... So yea....

An elemental master | Core Fantasy | Jalkan Pretty much what it says, a champion which uses spells of different elements.

A cyborg | Core Character | Vbunnie Arguably, Viktor already fills this role. But there are other ways you can take it. You could even make the champion be Viktor's victim, or follower, or minion, or experiment gone wrong, or something.

Can remove part of him/herself | Core Mechanic | Vbunnie A champion which an remove part of themself as an uncontrollable pet.

A literal tank | Core Character | LETSGETCOOKING You know they're technically called armored transport vehicles.... Anyway, LETSGETCOOKING technically specified a "giant, armored robot who turns into a tank." But we all know he just wanted a tank. 😜

Criticism so far: You want to bring a tank into the league world, and let it fight among other champions without looking tiny, that's gonna be kind of hard.

The ability to "Fake cast" abilities | Core Mechanic | From Shashiki The idea is that you could cast an ability, probably ult, and then your next ability wouldn't go on cooldown, but also wouldn't do any of it's effects or damage. Thereby faking people out.

Paint or Ink based | Core Fantasy | From Azteryz Pretty simple, either a champion made out of those, or a champion that uses those for all of their abilities.

An "Insanity" resource | Core Fantasy | From Professor Robsta It's a pretty simple idea, but one that a lot could be done with. It's a Core Fantasy rather than mechanic because it's not really specified what would be done with the resource, instead, it's a fantasy of your character is going insane as you play.

A "Balance" champion | Core Mechanic | From Big Bang Bob A Champion with a resource called "balance" or something which makes his spells most powerful when kept in the middle, but each spell shifts it in a direction. GaleWinUnleashed gave a nice description: this would a champion focused heavily on flowing smoothly between forms, taking advantage of the mechanics of both as often as possible, with penalties for relying on one form too much.

A Gravity mage | Core Fantasy | From MidEvilKnight3K This one's been done a lot by people in the community, but that doesn't mean we can't also do it.

A Magnet Wielder | Core Fantasy | From Tis a Nice Day Similar to a Gravity mage in some respects, but could also be completely different.

A Dancer Champ | Core Fantasy | From Felvyne This one has been suggested to Riot a lot, usually as a support champion, but there are a lot of other routes than just support possible for this one.

Radiation | Core Fantasy | From Felvyne A Champion who's moves are all based on radiation in some way.

A "Summoner" | Core Fantasy | From Felvyne There are problems inherit to a champion with uncontrollable minions, but there are other ways to frame a champion that summons things. Maybe the summoned being just takes a swipe with a sword then disappears. In any case, there are a lot of ways this could be interpreted into gameplay.

A champion with a "putty form" | Core Fantasy | From Felvyne So not a champion which completely changes forms, but rather one that does things like turn their arm into a giant sword, or hammer, or axe.

Centralized Vision Denial | Core Mechanic | From Felvyne The idea is that rather than just with Graves, where if you're in the skillshot you don't see, and if you're out of it you can see fine, one where from the outside you can't see in, and vice versa. Not sure this is enough to make a champion around, but you could probably build a playstyle around it.

A "combo caster | Core Mechanic | From a bunch of people Alright, so I dragged my feet putting this up here, for the main reason that Riot has publicly stated that they hate this idea. It's the idea that if you cast Q --> W. It makes W do something different than if you cast E --> W or W --> W. It ends up with the champion effectively having about 16 different spells. DOTA 2 has a champion like this, but Riot has stated a couple of things that they hate about the idea: It's super hard to balance, It's hard to make all 16 abilities feel like there isn't one better, many people just end up doing the same combo over and over again, since it's the optimal combo, it's really, really, incredibly difficult to learn. Anyway, if you guys want to choose this one, you can, but I'd recommend against it. (Sorry for including my own opinions, but I really do think choosing an idea Riot has repetitively condemned is a bad idea.)

A pixie | Core Character | From Vbunnie Not much more to say about this, a pixie or fairy.

A champion who shields with all of their abilities | Core Mechanic | From Skoonie Pretty much what the description says, a champion who shields in some way shape or form with every ability they cast.

Criticism so far: Shields by themselves are boring. There's a reason why no champion just plain has a shield. Instead, they get a shield from dashing, or from attacking, or their shield gives movements speed, or their shield gives AD. A shield by itself is just boring. Usually Riot uses shields for one of two things, either to soak up a tiny bit of damage to make the champion more tanky on champions which take high risks (lee sin, morde, yasuo), or the shields have a threat of, you need to get rid of this shield, otherwise the champion will do a lot more damage (naut, janna, sion). (There's also mr/armor buff shields and spell shields, but those are different). A shield by itself just isn't that fun to use, or to play against. That said, there are some clever things you could do with this.

A mimic | Core Fantasy | From Anomander Basically, a champion that would copy an opponents form, or abilities. Would be a pain in the neck to balance, but would still be awesome.

A melee champion that can gain range | Core Mechanic | From Doctor Dyment From this description it sounds like Kayle, but the original idea was one of sacrificing movement speed and draining a mana-like resource while it runs, which would make it perform very differently from Kayle, who slows you then shreds any defense you have.

An "item crafter" | Core Fantasy | From Ale non è male This idea is one of one of league's item crafters. Maybe specifically a gunsmith or armourer or something of that kind. There are several ways this could be done.

A being of pure rune magic | Core Character | From Kamiroo Wolf Riot hasn't really explored how rune magic actually works very much, other than that it's somehow related to leylines and nexuses are at places leylines cross. They've also said that wild rune magic exists. One of the cool concepts that exists in other fiction is the idea that the magic is in some way, shape, or form alive. This would be a being of wild rune magic, pursuing whatever goals magic may have.

A physic champion | Core Fantasy | From CrazedPorcupine A champion which can read other the minds of others. It would be very hard to fulfill upon this fantasy in game, but not impossible.

** Frog Knight | Core Character | From RustKnight** Frog Knight is an anthropomorphized green frog who defends the weak and guides the lost.

Criticism so far: So in my opinion, this idea is waaaaaaayyyy to specific. But RustKnight was super adamant about it, so it's up here!

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When reading the comments, please make sure you are viewing the thread in Chronological view in order to allow for new ideas to have equal potential for support as older ones. We don't want the "Reddit Syndrome" where an upvote or downvote can make or break an idea. If someone has an unpopular view, we want to understand why, not condemn it.

To check that you are in Chronological view, look directly below the text which says "Discuss". If the text reads "Show in Discussion view" you are in Chronological view. If the text says "Switch to Chronological view" then you are in Discussion view and should click the text to change to Chronological view.

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#Please refrain from commenting, or responding to comments, in this post, please move all conversation to: http://tiny.cc/openchampion

(Rioters, if you could lock this topic from conversation, that would be awesome!!!)