Champ ideas and unexplored regions
Splash reworks, brainstorming champions, and hidden Runeterra secrets.
This week we’re talking champion ideas, reworked splashes, and whether there’s more to Runeterra than what we’ve seen.
Do you plan to add new regions to Runeterra? Like, we know about Ionia and Demacia and Zaun, etc., but what about regions we haven’t seen?
Never say never! While there’s no plans to right now – there is still a heck of a lot for us to discover and develop within the regions that are already named – in the future this could be a cool thing to explore… So where DID Kalista, Hecarim, the Ruined King et al come from again, hmm?
How do you come up with ideas for champions?
Ideas for new champions can start anywhere. These days, we try to design a champion from the ground up with owners from gameplay, narrative, and concept design all present from the start so that no piece needs to be pasted on later in development. This means the hook for a new champion can be a single ability that doesn’t exist in the game yet (like hook-shotting to a wall), an inspiring piece of concept art (like a pink-haired punk with giant punching gloves), a unique role not in the game yet (Jungle Marksman), or a thematic archetype (Druid, or Space Dragon). The hook can then help inspire the rest of the champion’s design, gravitating towards what feels clean, cohesive, and natural with everything else.
Generating those ideas is the responsibility of creatives (artists, writers, designers) on the League of Legends team. Primarily this falls to those working on new champions directly, but often with the inspirational help, feedback, and pitches of others around the organization. We have folders bursting with short stories, paper kit prototypes, and quick and dirty as well as intricate pieces of concept art of champions who never made it past the earliest stages of ideation. It often takes dozens of ideas to come up with the one that feels fresh and iconic for our always-growing roster!
I hear there is a tank rework incoming — does that mean you’ll be updating all the tank splashes?
We won’t be updating all of the them, but we will be doing a few. The ChampUp splash team’s main priority is updating Splash art for our big VGUs, but in between big VGUs we have been going back and updating the splash art for the champions that got VGUs or VUs in the past. It just so happens that both Sejuani and Maokai had VUs in the past so we will be updating both of their old skin splash art for the Tank update. Their base splash art still looks great, so we won’t be altering those, though.
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We are listening, though, so keep asking. We’ll make sure your questions are heard by the Rioters working on the stuff you’re curious about.