Monday, August 12, 2013

Champion Concept: Mort


Concept Lore

Bilgewater is a busy place.  Between trade, thievery, bounty-hunting, and other shenanigans -- occasionally a story is told about Mort, the great Water Sage.  The stories vary from traveler to drunkard; How Mort uses the ocean itself to crush pirates, or calms the currents to provide safe passage for ships.  Everything said about Mort has been just a story.  Few believed Mort even existed.  Until the old sage himself rowed into Bilgewater from the ocean.

When he appeared -- the only thing Mort would say is "must warn the two of the danger," and then proceeded to hobble toward the League.

Concept Game-Play

Mort is a Bilgewater Mage and Support that specializes in titanic ocean spells that shield, slow, and crush.  Some of his abilities are meant to be terrain altering or terrain creating.  He's meant to be a little more tanky than typical Mages and Supports too.

Art Direction

This is my first approach at painting the champion without being reliant on outlines and sketches (looking for feedback about that).  Mort is super old to provide a change of pace from the typical hyper-athletic champions we already have.  He also fills the old hermit/sage archetype.  He houses this really colorful shell on his back, which is about as big as he is.  I wanted players to think "what's under that thing?".  One of Mort's eyes are missing and he has a crab claw for an arm -- which suggests that Mort may not be human at all.  He's also missing a leg, which is why he has a staff -- it's for walking and magic!

Monday, August 5, 2013

Champion Concept: Millia


Concept Lore

In Bilgewater, thieves are commonplace.  But no thief has a reputation as Millia does. As a master thief; Millia is one of the most wanted criminals in all of the world -- not because of her crimes, but because she is a thief for hire.  Looking for more of a challenge Millia has sought to test her abilities against the champions of the League... and perhaps make a little coin doing so.

Concept Game-Play

Millia is a Bilgewater support that scales off of Attack Damage and Critical Chance.  She manipulates gold gain both to the advantage of her allies and to the detriment of her opponents. She is quick and agile with abilities that reflect her cunning.  She is supposed to fit a role focused on speed and gold manipulation that is currently absent from support archetypes.

Art Direction

Millia has been one of the most difficult champions I've had to design -- mostly in part because I didn't quite know in which direction to go in for a Bilgewater champion.  Eventually I decided to make another thief type champion, and I started putting a pirate take on rogue tropes.  I put her in leathers for armor as it was more appropriate considering her thematics, and added a lot of yellows and golds to represent her obsessions as a thief. She came out a little too bland, so I had to pop her with a violet tint in her leather and a magenta tattoo on her arm.  Afterwards, I added just a little bit of silver to contrast the leather more so.

Friday, August 2, 2013

Revision: Castor/Pollux


Art Direction

The long awaited Castor/Pollux revision is here! Going off of the feedback I received from the original versions -- this Champion is now a mirror of the Summoner's Rift minions.  This all ties back to an attempt at duality -- and as such, Castor and Pollux both represent two different kinds of minions.  Of course, they're their own champion, so they're a little more "beefed up" than the minions.  I think they share enough resemblance to get the idea across.  Also, Castor and Pollux are different enough from each other to dictate how they play differently depending on which one you are playing.  One's a hero, one's a villain -- and they're both very childish about it.  Hope you enjoy the revision![