Taking a Breather

Currently taking a breather. I am sick, and I have a wake and funeral to attend this week -- so there will be no new champion on Monday, February 25th. Regular updates resume the following Monday. I will continue to bump the forum thread and answer questions though, so feel free to post inquiries there.

Champion Concept: Shiori

Concept Lore

Ionia suffered greatly during the Noxian invasion. After Ionia wrought back their lands and became part of the League -- an order was made in secret. It was clear that the path of balance would not defend them from such a hostile invasion, and the League can only settle so many matters. The secret order began taking youths and training them to be weapons -- assassins of the greatest skill.

Katsumi is often recognized as the most gifted of these assassins. But her sister, Shiori follows close behind her. Always being in the shadow of Katsumi has made Shiori a permanent rival, and through that rivalry -- Shiori has become overly excessive in her violence. Where Katsumi chose the katana, Shiori chose dance. Channeling her energy, Shiori produces violent wakes of eviscerating magics through quick, graceful dances on the battlefield. The only thing more feared than Shiori's dances, is her temper. She has been sent to the League with her sister to test her ability to battle, and execute, legends.

Concept Game-Play

Shiori is a AD/AP hybrid stance-dance (lol) fighter who functions like Udyr. Shiori has a high focus on heavy AoE damage, high movement speed, and quick attacks. I picture her as using her arm ribbons much like Kratos (God of War) uses his blades. She would also be in constant motion as a dancer, the effect being amplified by her stance-dance abilities.

Art Direction

Shiori is the response to the community need for a Dancer-class champion, of which it has been agreed Orianna does not fit. With a viewpoint found in League, I knew that the most dynamic movements for a Dancer would be spins. Working off of that, I wanted Shiori to have a means other than her body to cause damage. So I took influence from ribbon dancers and combined it into Shiori's sleeves as her primary weapon (also fulfilling the use of cloth as a primary weapon). I chose pink tones for Shiori's appearance to convey elegance as a dancer, and to reinforce the archetype of dancers being girls/girly. At the same time, I motioned to make Shiori's sleeves much darker and aglow with energy to denote the violence in her -- the sleeves are her weapon, that's what players need to fear. Dancers are often linked to a sense of sexuality -- so I used this as an opportunity to actually make a female concept more in line of 'sexy female'.

Revision: Warin

Art Direction

So, a big problem I had with Warin was that at the time I made him, I was still really bad at textures. I still don't consider myself great at them, but I've gotten better. To reiterate Warin, I moved his design from heavy reds and steel because -- as someone mentioned -- he shared too much of a similarity with Darius. This time around, I've made Warin a creature with more exposed bone plating. I also thinned his frame a bit and expanded his shell. This was to give him more of a heroic silhouette. The bone plating helps adjust his color too, so he no longer reminds us of Darius. At the same time, I took care to make sure that he didn't remind people of Malphite either. This is why the shell forms a hard V shape.

Champion Concept: Algus Shade

Concept Lore

Algus doesn't remember much leading up to, during, or after the calamity -- What he does remember is that he was once some sort of nobility, was a praised tracker, and that his family had an affinity for wolves.  Whatever the calamity was, Algus woke up on the shores of Noxus in what seemed to him to be another time.  Another curious note Algus made was that he was in fact already dead -- but still somehow bound to the physical world.  Apathetic toward his plight, Algus sought a new medium for his skills in order to acquire fame.  His arrogance has led him straight to the League.

Concept Game-Play

Algus is a Shadow Isles AP jungler who can track and trap enemies.  There aren't too many champions that have traps available to them, but there is certainly no champion that specializes in them.  Algus turns into a wolf, or releases wolves, in accordance to whatever his kit would call for (ie: a gap closer would animate his lunge as a quick transformation; traps might release wolves; etc etc).

Art Direction

With Algus, I worked a bit backwards.  I came up with a conceptual lore on the basis that I wanted a proud tracking character.  I started tying Algus to the Shadow Isles, and I thought it'd be a fun way to play on the Black Dog ghost tales.  Instead of a dog though, I wanted to make Algus more vicious -- so dog became wolf.  To stand apart from other Shadow Isles champions, and other champions in general due to his time displacement, Algus has more black and silver integrated into his design -- something of which other champions don't have as a distinction.  Algus is thin of frame to denote that he is not a tank, and wears fur and pauldrons to denote that his key role is in the jungle.

Skin Concept: Dawn Break Leona

Dawn Break Leona is a skin I've been thinking of for a while. She takes on some futuristic elements without being akin to pulsefire or battlecast. At the same time, she represents more closely to the common theme of League in crystals. The crystals also give a magic type quality, so I decided they needed to be included. Leona also sports black and silver as opposed to gold and maroon for a more slick look. Silver helps aid the theme of light while the black helps push the contrast of Leona overall. Her equipment also is made of light, and would be visually transparent in game -- this is to emphasize Leona's full control over light in this form. Her visor is also a nod to wanting Leona to have a full helm -- while at the same time not necessarily giving her one.

1000 Upvotes

I just wanted to take a moment to thank the community for their support.  When I made this thread I didn't think it would receive the amount of attention it has, let alone the support and good wishes.  Imagine my amusement when the whole Quinn thing happened!  I have been incredibly humbled and I will continue to work to improve my craft so that I may have the best chance of joining the Riot team -- and in return, shoot for getting you guys more champions that appeal to you.  Once again; thank you community for your continued support and feedback.

Because the community was awesome enough to get me to 1000 upvotes, I'll be posting a concept "map" for League of Legends. And from here on out, I'll also make Concept Skins between champion releases.

Champion Concept: Bile

Concept Lore

Zaun has unleashed many horrors upon the world, but their only regret is Barton Shaw -- or better known now as Bile.  Barton was a madman bent on emulating his idol, Shaco.  His spree of murders were responded with a team consisting of specialty soldiers from Ionia, Noxus, Demacia, and Zaun assembled to work together to track and eliminate Barton.  They instead succeeded in making an already notorious murderer into some sort of nightmarish monster.  During their encounter, Barton fell into a vat of chemicals -- as he was presumed to be dead, he emerged as some sort of elemental of acid and poison.  The specialty team was later found partially liquidated.  Since then, Barton has taken up the name Bile -- and written in the liquidated remains of his most recent victims, he has promised to surpass his idol.

Concept Game-Play

Bile is a response to some community need for a blob-like/liquid-esque champion.  Bile plays as an AP jungler/assassin/mage that focuses on poisons, area control, and quiet approaches.  He attacks at range and his body is always "flowing" and "spilling" into movements and weapons.  Spitting, puking, shooting, and becoming poison and acid would be staples of his skill palette.  His dance would most certainly have to be modeled after wacky waving inflatable arm flailng tube man.

Art Direction

Bile, as a community response, was relatively easy to pull inspiration for.  I've wanted to make this character for some time, but it hasn't been until recently that I thought I had the artistic know-how to pull him off.  The biggest inspiration for Bile, to begin, is Spider-Man's villain, Carnage.  Moving from that influence, I knew how Bile would move and look.  The main differences between the two though would be that Bile plays and looks more like liquid and is as such, despite being able to form solid objects -- he doesn't wear a suit.  Bile is also purely poisons and acids.  Playing upon his toxic themes, I chose Bile's colors as purple and yellow-green to push the read as poisonous.  Included in his design are various forms his arms can make -- creating weapons for his deadly purpose.  This is much like his influences, but it plays nicely into the character.

Revision: Waitomo

Did you feel that Waitomo was too cute? I did.  So I creepy'd him up a lot.  This revision was a little overdue -- and I wanted to really really push Waitomo into an appropriately awesome League-worthy appearance.

So Waitomo's body has been slightly elongated to play further upon his "skittery" nature.  His luminous tails have been sharpened so that you know from looking at him; this character is an assassin.  His color palette has been switched up -- and this was to give him a more sickly look.  His eye changed from a high reflection to an empty pupil.  I also opened his jaw and revealed his disgustingly mucous-filled mouth.  So now Waitomo is still this highly exotic magical creature, but he's still something from the dark that plays upon being something of a stalking character.  The main influence for this rework was X-Men's Toad.

Revision: Rhodes

So here's a quick revision of Rhodes.  There was very little feed back on Rhodes from the thread -- but I pulled some quick points.

To start -- Rhodes' hammer is much more part of the character, and it's a little stylized to give a "heavy magic" feel to it's appearance.  The earthy gems have been pushed a little higher in color to contrast the armor.  The armor itself has been simplified and smoothed out -- because combined with the gems, Rhodes still reads as tough and tanky.  I also gave him some war paint -- I think it makes him more badass and it pulls a bit from his lore as a mercenary from the jungles.  Rhodes himself is a little shorter, but he's a little more built too.  He'd still be a beast in the League, but now he doesn't come off as being like Bolaji Badej in height.

More 'Quinn' News?

Quinn's shown up on the radar in a new way recently.

Surrender @20 posted that they had found mention of 'Quinn' in the PBE files.  As it says in the article, this file could be a placeholder for another champ, the name of an upcoming champ, or quite literally -- nothing at all.  it was brought up on my thread, but I'll say it here too; I don't know anything about it.  Riot didn't ask me about it or contact me about it in any way shape or form.

If it is the name of a new champ -- I'm just glad that they'll finally be filling the empty space where a 'Q' name needs to go.  That 'Q' name being Quinn is just a really really great coincidence that I totally approve of.

Getting to 1000 Upvotes

So the main thread on the League of Legends forums is almost at 1000 upvotes.  I'd like to point out that I never thought I'd ever have 100 upvotes, let alone 1000.  I'm really glad where the thread is going, and I'm happy about where it's been thus far.

To commemorate the occasions, I'll do something for the 1000 upvotes.  I still don't know what yet -- but we'll figure it out when we get there.  The current count is 969 upvotes as of this post.