Update in Client Skin Bios

Riot Stellari·May 17, 2019·30 votes·25,462 views

Hi everyone -- I’m Riot Stellari, a product manager for Skins and product lead for Thematic Development. I just wanted to give you a quick update on where we are with skin bio release cadence, but first I want to talk about our philosophy behind them.

Skin bios (or "skin descriptions”) is a product I pitched two years ago when we first created the Skin Collections Tab. The original idea for the tab was that it’d be a cool way to categorize skins, and it’d also be fun for people who like to collect things to see what they were missing. I pitched that it’d ALSO be an amazing way to show players some of the “head canon” we had for skins like Blood Moon and Program (many people didn’t know it was part of the PROJECT universe) and also a cool way to make brand new alternate universes. Also it would be fun, because I personally have always loved browsing skins in games and reading flavor text on things. I got to work categorizing skins with a team of writers and concept artists. We got through about 25% of the skins before we realized more skins had no "story" or even connective tissue. Some splashes had easter eggs to things that were "internal lore" while others just had something random and funny in the background. We had to dig through ancient Boards posts to see what the original marketing material was.

But it was worth it because a lot of you guys have become really invested in some of these skin sets! That makes us really happy. I love seeing the community theorycraft about a "skinline" that, to be honest, was just a collection of skins. Something I've had to explain a bit on Twitter is that the vast majority of skin sets are still simply that: a set of skins for the Skins Collection Tab that also happen to have flavor text. They aren’t considered “full universes.” Only the skins listed in the Universe page are skins we consider to have full alternate universe lore.

But every once in awhile, one of those skin collections gets to level up! We decide to reboot the line, or invest in world-building. For example, High Noon was reboot from a collection of joke cowboy skins into a demon-filled spooky Western. Carnival Knights, our narrative writer, wrote out an entire narrative world for the Skins team to dive into and be inspired by. And based on reception, players appreciated that the skins had lore and depth.

Okay, so now that I’m done explaining our philosophy around skin descriptions, I wanted to give you guys an update that we are going to slow down the pace in which we update these. Going forward, we will only be releasing descriptions for new skins. Old skins will get descriptions if they’re part of the same skin set AND it seems valuable for us to update that. This was a side project we were really passionate about, but we also want to make sure that Carnival Knights and other writers get the chance to write really awesome stories like Trial of the Masks and The Man with the Grinning Shadow to continue to build on these skin lines so they can graduate from collection of skins, to something we want to invest in.

Here to answer questions!

41 Comments

ForgottenLuckMay 17, 20194 votes

not going to lie don't like this choice, I mean skin lore has never been that big for me but it exists now and it will just make it feel like champs already forgotten forgotten almost twice now in two difrent lore worlds

The IcebornMay 17, 20194 votes

Good to have you on the boards Stellari! Drop by more often ;)

4 Step CadenceMay 17, 20193 votes

There are some skins that kind of bug me because they look like they belong in a universe with other skins but they aren't. Take, for example, Blood Knight Hecarim. This skin looks like its a part of Blood Moon, but its not. It has no lore suggesting that its connected to that universe in any way and its not included in the Blood Moon universe in general.

Do you guys have any future plans to take a look at skins like this and try to work them into other universes, or will they just be lonely, loreless one-offs forever?

Riot StellariMay 17, 20192 votes

[{quoted}](name=4 Step Cadence,realm=NA,application-id=6kFXY1kR,discussion-id=pGW5OETU,comment-id=0002,timestamp=2019-05-17T01:41:43.150+0000)

There are some skins that kind of bug me because they look like they belong in a universe with other skins but they aren't. Take, for example, Blood Knight Hecarim. This skin looks like its a part of Blood Moon, but its not. It has no lore suggesting that its connected to that universe in any way and its not included in the Blood Moon universe in general.

Do you guys have any future plans to take a look at skins like this and try to work them into other universes, or will they just be lonely, loreless one-offs forever?

Those are the skins I'm talking about, there's a few that are honestly from a different time at Riot. These days, every skin has some kind of internal back story, so it's just a matter of putting it into the client. For some of these older ones, it's a conversation with Champion team about what their plans are for reworks, hunting down old marketing stuff, etc. We do want to eventually make sure everything has a description, it's just some of these outliers will take longer because we want teams to have a chance to turn them into something cool.

Jeddy017May 17, 20192 votes

Something I've had to explain a bit on Twitter is that the vast majority of skin sets are still simply that: a set of skins for the Skins Collection Tab that also happen to have flavor text. They aren’t considered “full universes.” Only the skins listed in the Universe page are skins we consider to have full alternate universe lore.

Then what special criteria make a skinline into "Full universe" as opposed to a regular old skinline?

Riot StellariMay 17, 20194 votes

[{quoted}](name=N1C Jeddy017,realm=NA,application-id=6kFXY1kR,discussion-id=pGW5OETU,comment-id=0001,timestamp=2019-05-17T01:38:53.306+0000)

Then what special criteria make a skinline into "Full universe" as opposed to a regular old skinline?

Backstory on the world, additional narrative or cinematic pieces, etc. Most modern skin lines have a little bit of this (Cosmic, Dark Star, etc) but most don't. We're currently building some older ones out into proper thematics with backstory.

XJ99999999999999May 17, 20192 votes

cool story brother

GarentheonMay 17, 20192 votes

Any plans for the academy to join battle academy?

Riot StellariMay 17, 20199 votes

Academy is an example of a skin line that was made for purely cosmetic reasons.

Battle Academia went through a thematic development stage of several months where we decided what the look/feel/sound was, who the students are, the weapons, the world, etc.

There's a chance in the future that the Academy skinline could be reworked into Battle Academia. But I personally view this akin to how we can have different flavors of anime skins, or mecha robot style skins, or Chinese fantasy skins. Academy is rooted in more real world schools, Battle Academia is like a shounen anime in League.

GarentheonMay 17, 20192 votes

Makes sense.

As an anime/manga fan I was really eager for this skinline to come out. And you guys did not disappoint.

And this is coming from someone who plays none of the champs you guys picked. Kudos to the team

Here’s to hoping Garen will be including in its sequel (it’s gotta have one). And Kassadin (whom I don’t play) gets the legendary and is a rival to Ezreal

Crimson AnamMay 17, 20191 votes

[{quoted}](name=Riot Stellari,realm=NA,application-id=6kFXY1kR,discussion-id=pGW5OETU,comment-id=00070000,timestamp=2019-05-17T02:45:18.910+0000)

Academy is an example of a skin line that was made for purely cosmetic reasons.

Battle Academia went through a thematic development stage of several months where we decided what the look/feel/sound was, who the students are, the weapons, the world, etc.

There's a chance in the future that the Academy skinline could be reworked into Battle Academia. But I personally view this akin to how we can have different flavors of anime skins, or mecha robot style skins, or Chinese fantasy skins. Academy is rooted in more real world schools, Battle Academia is like a shounen anime in League.

Is there a particular reason the Battle Academia anime trailer is available on the Latin American LoL official youtube channel but not on the NA channel? The one where the four students get reprimanded by Prof. Graves and Yumi and stuff.

d00mfaceMay 17, 20192 votes

Do you think you'll ever do more world-building for the mecha universe? I love me some giant robots and have become really invested in that universe as of late. ~~It helps that my main has a skin in that line too tbh hahaha.~~ I know it's very pacific rim inspired, but I'd love if you went a more GaoGaiGar route (ie kept the mecha sentient and not piloted/controlled in any way... maybe gave them a few plucky kid sidekicks too?)

Deep Terror NamiMay 17, 20191 votes

Are there any skins you're finding it hard to place into a group?

Riot StellariMay 17, 20194 votes

[{quoted}](name=Deep Terror Nami,realm=NA,application-id=6kFXY1kR,discussion-id=pGW5OETU,comment-id=0000,timestamp=2019-05-17T01:37:08.965+0000)

Are there any skins you're finding it hard to place into a group?

We could theoretically put anything into a group, but we want them to be good and have effort put into them. Skarner, for example, has some skins we don't super know what to do with. I imagine if/when he gets reworked, Earthrune Skarner could be super cool.

JabalorMay 17, 20191 votes

Can we still expect Old skin to get rearranged into fitting collections and universes? Like for example the galactic skins getting their own collection or also being in the odyssey universe?

Riot StellariMay 17, 20191 votes

{quoted}

Can we still expect Old skin to get rearranged into fitting collections and universes? Like for example the galactic skins getting their own collection or also being in the odyssey universe?

Yes, that will happen eventually. Either when new skins for that set comes out, or just later. We will still release them, just slower than before.

Sweet an SourMay 17, 20191 votes

[{quoted}](name=Riot Stellari,realm=NA,application-id=6kFXY1kR,discussion-id=pGW5OETU,comment-id=00040000,timestamp=2019-05-17T02:26:52.736+0000)

Yes, that will happen eventually. Either when new skins for that set comes out, or just later. We will still release them, just slower than before.

Were you planning on reworking Dryad soraka then (in the future)? :O

Ryze on RoidsMay 17, 20191 votes

WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO MAKE A NEW KASSADIN SKIN

Blades in ExileMay 17, 20191 votes

I looked at the Alt Universe tab in the universe part of the website but I noticed there was no Project section, Was it just forgotten and will be added later or what?

TerozuMay 17, 20191 votes

Im pretty sure it was there a few days ago.

Riot StellariMay 17, 20192 votes

[{quoted}](name=Blades in Exile,realm=NA,application-id=6kFXY1kR,discussion-id=pGW5OETU,comment-id=0005,timestamp=2019-05-17T02:02:00.462+0000)

I looked at the Alt Universe tab in the universe part of the website but I noticed there was no Project section, Was it just forgotten and will be added later or what?

I think this is a bug.

AnotherPurple379May 17, 20191 votes

Wait, is there a PROJECT section of the Alternative Universes tab in the Universe page? Because I've never seen it for a long time. The only ones I can see are Star Guardian, Odyssey, and K/DA, with the only PROJECT content being the Neon Mice story. Is there supposed to be more PROJECT content on the Universe page?

LarrietMay 17, 20193 votes

Although PROJECT, High Noon, and Blood Moon got stories, none of them have full "universe" pages with character bios, etc.. They haven't since the start; not a bug!

Morning RavenMay 17, 20191 votes

These flavor texts are what interns are for. I imagine the infinite variations on "strong warrior" from pantheon is giving you trouble. Lol.

How many outlier skins are there that would fall into the "when it makes sense" left, proportionally?

Also how many are part of skin lines that probably shouldn't be? Like how there are more than one tech skinline, but they aren't all the same universe; is every say snow themed skin belonging to the extended snowday universe? Are there any you feel should be reckoned elsewhere since you started this project?

Grizzley117May 17, 20191 votes

There's so much potential for vast and deep lore for skin lines! For example, I really like the idea of the "Silver Age" skin line that you added very recently. I would have never thought to add those specific skins together, but you guys made an intriguing backstory for several skins that were completely different from one another.

I did have a question, though. Considering Popstar Ahri is confirmed to be apart of the K/DA universe, there is no description for the skin and it is not apart of the in-client skin collection for K/DA. Is there any reason for this? And the Eve skin and her prestige edition skin have the same description which is different from the other three?

ZeanixMay 17, 20191 votes

I’m so glad for the skin bios! They’re really fucking cool!

So i was wondering how you guys figure out which skin goes where or make it a unique world like Blackthorn Morgana and Viridian Kayle. Rather than putting these two into Elderwood, you guys put them into a unique world which was cool.

What kind of process did you guys do? And how would champion’s like Wukong who have two skins for the same event (Radiant and Jade) or like stand alone skins right now like Elementalist Lux, Spirit Guard Udyr and DJ Sona work with that process?

XedlordMay 17, 20191 votes

XIII VanitasMay 17, 20191 votes

[zombie-nunu-tears]

T2K BakaMay 17, 20191 votes

Can Katarina get a legendary skin please?

0cean MannMay 17, 20191 votes

Question: do you listen view what's in the Concepts page or you just think and come up with it.

Just asking not plotting something against skin designers

Daedric EtwahlMay 18, 20191 votes

Not gonna lie, pretty disappointed with this decision, honestly feels like yet another thing Riot starts and then jumps ship on because it's "too hard"

Been waiting on lore for certain skins (Guqin Sona, as an example. She's like the only Lunar Revel skin that never got lore. Did you guys just forget her or something??) And it's a shame they won't ever get any.

Riot StellariMay 21, 20193 votes

To clarify, we're not jumping ship. It isn't that it's too hard, it's that this is a passion project.

All skins will eventually get descriptions, we're just prioritizing new skins and older skins part of sets with new skins.

In retrospect, perhaps we shouldn't have written any of them if we couldn't do all of them--but we're trying our best to get all of them completed.

Daedric EtwahlMay 22, 20191 votes

[{quoted}](name=Riot Stellari,realm=NA,application-id=6kFXY1kR,discussion-id=pGW5OETU,comment-id=00120000,timestamp=2019-05-21T20:51:38.459+0000)

To clarify, we're not jumping ship. It isn't that it's too hard, it's that this is a passion project.

All skins will eventually get descriptions, we're just prioritizing new skins and older skins part of sets with new skins.

In retrospect, perhaps we shouldn't have written any of them if we couldn't do all of them--but we're trying our best to get all of them completed.

Ah, I see then. Thank you for clarifying and I apologize for jumping to conclusions.

Xenos von FaneliMay 19, 20191 votes

I'm still waiting for a Real World Jobs universe, you know for the likes of Corporate Mundo, Pizza Delivery Sivir, etc... I'd probably put Baker Panth here too it just gets tricky because a part of me would say K/DA would be in the same universe but then Akali has a chef skin and is in K/DA. I think mainly I just want an excuse for Fast Food Manager Azir (THE ORDER IS GIVEN!) and Car Saleswomen Illaoi (wavy arm men)!

KuroganoMay 20, 20191 votes

[{quoted}](name=Xenos von Faneli,realm=NA,application-id=6kFXY1kR,discussion-id=pGW5OETU,comment-id=0013,timestamp=2019-05-19T02:35:11.839+0000)

I'm still waiting for a Real World Jobs universe, you know for the likes of Corporate Mundo, Pizza Delivery Sivir, etc... I'd probably put Baker Panth here too it just gets tricky because a part of me would say K/DA would be in the same universe but then Akali has a chef skin and is in K/DA. I think mainly I just want an excuse for Fast Food Manager Azir (THE ORDER IS GIVEN!) and Car Saleswomen Illaoi (wavy arm men)!

That already exist as "Day Jobs"