Riot Games game designer Q&A
I've been slowly working my way through the answers here after Ruan linked to one of them, and I've found it super interesting for exposing some of the information I might not have thought about when it comes to designing League of Legends' mechanics and systems. Some of it is pretty basic, but it's pretty easy for me to forget basics as a noob game designer. XD
For example:
For example:
http://ask.fm/RiotGhostcrawlerYou recently said (regarding Quinn) "It's [a bad thing if] Quinn's weaknesses are so poorly defined that her position is irrelevant." Are a champion's weaknesses your primary tool for defining the roles that they can play in a team?
When we think about champion design, the ideal champion has four things: unique inputs, unique outputs, strategic depth and non-class weaknesses. Not every champion needs all 4 but it is nice when they do. I am also avoiding things like thematic resonance and a good back story and elements like that.
Unique inputs we define as the little things you have to do as a player to get better at that champion such as Draven axe catching or most skill shots. Other players in the game may not know or care about those things you are doing to master the game. For a long time we focused on this element too much at the expense of others.
Unique outputs are the things other players, both your team and the other team, have to pay attention to. These are he things that keep champions from feeling interchangeable. Imagine these are the things a player would tell you if you had never seen a particular champion before and needed to know the two second version of what to look out for. "Tahm Kench can eat you. Ecko can rewind time."
Strategic depth is what new strategies that champion lets your team explore, such as split-pushing or wombo combos or even protect the Kog. These are the things you are thinking about when you're in champ select and deciding how you'll complement the other champ selections on your team or maybe counter picks for the other team strategies.
Finally we talk about real weaknesses. Every class has weaknesses such as juggernauts being slow or ADCs being squishy. Ideally a champion has weaknesses beyond those generic ones because those then provide interesting counterplay, require knowledge to play against, and make it harder to just replace one champ with another in a team. Ideally we try to enhance weaknesses when we need to nerf a champion rather than weakening the signature strengths they are supposed to be good at.
Thanked by 1dammit