AigisAegis

What stands out to me here is that it seems like Yone was designed in a very "top-down" way. Rather than starting with an idea for a kit and creating a concept, they began with the idea of Yone and designed a kit for him. Both his fleshed-out backstory and his kit evolved from a desire to make Yone a champion.

I don't remember whether that was the case for Senna and Kai'Sa as well, but either way, it's cool to see. Most League champions seem to be designed "bottom-up", so seeing some top-down design like this is really interesting to me. I think it paid off, because his kit seems really effective at reflecting his story and lore.

This whole article is actually a really fascinating look into how narrative and gameplay design intersect in League, with a lot of moments of one influencing the other and vice versa. It's a great read for that reason.

It was for Senna, but I am unsure about Kai'Sa (I wasn't at Riot then). EndlessPillows mentioned that he loves designing champions that are already someone, and using their story as a huge influence. The Yone team is incredible. They put so much passion into him. It was so clearly palpable from the way they talked about him.

AigisAegis

Yeah, the more I read about Yone, the more obvious it is that a ridiculous amount of effort and passion was put into this. I'm super impressed by him from a narrative perspective; everything from his reveal to his backstory to his kit feels like it was done with a lot of purpose. His team did a great job.

This was the first time I worked with /u/writerriotpls and he really put so much passion and thought into it ❤️😭

AigisAegis

Oh shit, I looked up Riot Pls just now, and I didn't realize he was Michael Yichao.

He was absolutely fantastic when he was working with Wizards of the Coast ("Endure" is one of the best stories they ever put out). I was super happy to see him move to Riot, and I'm glad he's smurfing the writing as hard as ever.

😭😅Thanks for the kind words! Working on Yone was such a fun challenge. ❤️

AigisAegis

What stands out to me here is that it seems like Yone was designed in a very "top-down" way. Rather than starting with an idea for a kit and creating a concept, they began with the idea of Yone and designed a kit for him. Both his fleshed-out backstory and his kit evolved from a desire to make Yone a champion.

I don't remember whether that was the case for Senna and Kai'Sa as well, but either way, it's cool to see. Most League champions seem to be designed "bottom-up", so seeing some top-down design like this is really interesting to me. I think it paid off, because his kit seems really effective at reflecting his story and lore.

This whole article is actually a really fascinating look into how narrative and gameplay design intersect in League, with a lot of moments of one influencing the other and vice versa. It's a great read for that reason.

I love our DNA approach to champ dev! It’s so inspiring to get to jam closely w gameplay and art and really discover a champion. EndlessPillows is an incredible designer who really thrives on bringing a character’s story and holistic fantasy to life, and RiotEarp’s work just blew us away at every stage.

AigisAegis

What stands out to me here is that it seems like Yone was designed in a very "top-down" way. Rather than starting with an idea for a kit and creating a concept, they began with the idea of Yone and designed a kit for him. Both his fleshed-out backstory and his kit evolved from a desire to make Yone a champion.

I don't remember whether that was the case for Senna and Kai'Sa as well, but either way, it's cool to see. Most League champions seem to be designed "bottom-up", so seeing some top-down design like this is really interesting to me. I think it paid off, because his kit seems really effective at reflecting his story and lore.

This whole article is actually a really fascinating look into how narrative and gameplay design intersect in League, with a lot of moments of one influencing the other and vice versa. It's a great read for that reason.

Kai’Sa didn’t start like that from the very beginning but evolved into that while still is discovery. BravoRay drew a illustration spread while in discovery and one image was of this amazing looking “void diver” that Bravo said was Kassadins daughter. We all got super hyped and we’re like “yeah we should make that.”

ToTheNintieth

Great article, exactly the sort of insights I like to see from this series. I really like the gameplay-story integration (ludonarrative resonance if you're feeling pretentious) they went for with his kit. He also looks like a blast to play, though like every skirmisher and assassin he's gonna cause some ragequits.

Just as with Yasuo, it's interesting what role his double-crit passive will play in shaping his itemization (and play pattern from that). On Yasuo, it means he has to spend two item slots on crit, which keeps him from just building straight-up bruiser and going for utility, and meshes with his Q's focus on attack speed. Since Yone appears to be a lot more focused on abilities (and possibly also a mana champion) then maybe IE-ER is the way to go? His passive suggests he wants some AS, but he certainly wants CDR unlike Yasuo. His scalings and numbers will determine if he wants AS or Lethality on top of AD and crit. Either way, it's an interesting design choice.

Another thing that stands out to me is his mobility, in a "well, yes, but actually no" sort of way. Yasuo has insane mobility but gated around minions (and with a fixed distance, cast time and direction). Yone instead telegraphs his Q dash in the same way Yasuo telegraphs his tornado. His E appears to have a small dash component to it, but probably one that doesn't go through walls -- meanwhile, his R is absolutely insane initiation. I expect that's one ability that might lead him to build tanky if it weren't for his passive. Again, depends on his numbers.

More than anything, I'm curious if he's gonna be more about extended trades, in-and-out assassinations or maybe hit-and-run kind of like Akali. SOme of his kit (mst notably his E) suggests assassin, but his W is pure skirmisher. It's gonna be very interesting seeing what people do with him, to be sure.

It's still early in LA, so I'm not sure he's awake, but I'll be sure to send your comment to EndlessPillows so he can talk more about the gameplay!

pedrohpf

I'm so hyped for Yone, yall did a great job. He feels like yasuo but has his own uniqueness

I've done nothing. It was all his team. They're so talented!

Tacer8

Cashmiir is a hardstuck ksing support main?

Yee.

ToTheNintieth

I love game design talk, and one thing that Riot does uncommonly well is transparent and detailed thoughts on how they go about designing their game. It's honestly one of the bigger things that draws me to League.

As someone whose whole job is aligned around that, it feels REALLY good to hear it said. <3

neonroad

Wonderfully written. Love getting to hear the care that gets put into these amazing works of art. When working on a champion for the most popular game on the web, it's probably hard to strike the perfect balance between making everything "lore appropriate" as well as "balanced". I always think about that when champions die in-game, like, what a bummer- the Aspect of War just died to a mushroom-loving yordle! So of course, while there may be many adjustments to Yone's kit in the future through patches and tweaks, it's fascinating to know the actual thought process that went behind designing our next favorite champ-to-ban (well, not before I get to try out a game or 10 with him ;).

Excellent work, Yone team! Give my congratulations to them when they wake up!

They've got the link to this thread and I'm sure are reading over their morning coffee!

pethas123

When your 0/20 yasuo-yone botlane carries the game... Best feeling ever

Playing around this powerspike

Mr_Simba

I don't wanna flame but after these most recent two lore releases do you guys feel like Kai'Sa should've been done differently? She's a cool champ but I truly rarely think about the fact that she's Kassadin's daughter. It just doesn't really feel like a part of her.

Comparing her release to Yone/Senna, the latter two each got a full lore-based cinematic showing them reuniting and their counterpart champ (Lucian/Yasuo) got VO updates to reflect the new lore, meanwhile the Kai'Sa hype was minimal w/no cinematic tying them together and Kassadin really got no respect in that department. Just a bit of a shame I guess, it would've been a great time to give Kassadin a VU and a new VO and to make them feel more fitting together somehow.

I think if we did Kai'Sa today we would have for sure made a bigger moment out of it. Kai'Sa was kind of a experiment and we saw a lot of players really excited about bringing a character from the lore into the game which is why we went big on Senna and now bigger on Yone as we saw how excited players got about Senna.

123janna456

TFT Gold Powerspike

Shots fired /u/WriterRiotPls

Cashmiir

Shots fired /u/WriterRiotPls

...why you gotta call me out like this

moody_P

which eminem diss track would you say best describes yone?

yes

Echoesong

If you're able to, would you be able to expand on the DNA/jam approach to champ design? From what you said it sounds like designers, artists, and writers come together to brainstorm some stuff and some of it makes it off the cutting room floor. That kind of design process is really neat/appealing to me, I'd love to learn more.

Each champion pod starts with three members (plus the producer): a Gameplay designer, a Narrative writer, and a concept Artist. Early meetings explore who the champion could be, and those early conversations result in really quick iteration on ideas and explorations of possibilities.

An artist will do concept sketches, the writer creates microfiction story sketches, and the gameplay designer will test out variations on initial kit explorations. We really start to figure out what the core voice, themes, and feel of the champion will be!

I could go on much longer about the process, but for now I'll say as the champ continues to develop, more folks are brought onboard the champion pod, from sound designers to engineers to tech artists to animators to so many more disciplines. It's really an incredible process.

Kanatama

According to Reav3 he can choose to return???

He can end the timer early, but there is a timer that forces him back to his body.

When playing him this just looks like reactivating his ability to end it.

LeFlop1337

It was for Senna, but I am unsure about Kai'Sa (I wasn't at Riot then). EndlessPillows mentioned that he loves designing champions that are already someone, and using their story as a huge influence. The Yone team is incredible. They put so much passion into him. It was so clearly palpable from the way they talked about him.

ya'all are designing a competitive game, not a singleplayer game. Ya'all are designing shit champions for a game that's based on ranked games. fucking toxic champions that are cancer and super unfun to play against. great idea

tfw you're not a game designer :)

Flabadyflue

You know you want to give us a skin line of your favourite champs in cashmere sweaters. You can disguise it as a Esports line and pretend they are in sneaky cosplay

Senna, Sona, Zyra, Xayah, Leona, Thresh, Yone sweater skins inc.

Seneido

They put so much passion into him.

kinda sad cause Lillia will end up like taliyah for such a reason as well. Regardless of how good she is she will be overshadowed.

What do you mean, exactly?

RenegadeExiled

im pretty sure he's talking about how Lillia feels like she was a throwaway champion release.

She's been out for, what, 2-3 days? And literally all anyone can talk about is Yone. There's no threads talking about Lillia, no discussion on what she should build, what comps use her, how she'll be in pro-play. Even this entire event, which is her release skin, is all about Yone now.

Ah. Yes. I understand that sentiment entirely. I worked with the Lillia team on her Champion Insights as well. As a jungler (and not a solo laner) I feel that a lot. I think that with the release of Kin of the Stained Blade and a champion who pre-existed in our lore it's easy for someone like Lillia to get swept up in all of this.

/u/Interlocutioner and I have talked a few times about it, but we think the silver lining is similar to something we saw on /r/LilliaMains recently. That Lillia would be happy not to have all the attention. She's a shy fawn, after all. She wants to blend into the background.

She and Yone also have a deep bond, and I think that the two of them care for each other enough that they'd be happy for one another.

And besides, League's not going anywhere, and neither are these champions. We have forever to talk about how Lillia performs, but only today to talk about how excited we are that Yone is back and that his team made something really cool.

Derpface6568

i got you, call it sweater squad and make it at Christmas time for like a ugly sweater party. boom entire skinline idea

Only if we can release it with an album of champs singing holiday songs.
"(Santa) Baron Baby" performed by Rek'Sai
"All I Want For Christmas Is A Gank" performed by The Top Lane Trio
"I Caught Lux Support Stealing All My Kills" performed by Your ADC
And, my personal favorite, "Silent Night" sang by Sona and Aphelios

Derpface6568

its perfect it will be bigger then K/DA and True Damage combined

Members of Riot Music Group, please credit me. Ty.

bz6

Did Riot Zimberfly do the VO for Yone?

VO team always on point imo.

The voice actor was /u/noshirdalal and yes, /u/zimberfly worked on the sound editing and mixing for it!

bz6

legends! love reading insights like these. grateful that Riot does these comms stuff for the players <3

also really digging the vibe of this event. and the skins are just so detailed. well done to all involved! when is Yone's theme releasing :D?

Glad you like it! And soon^tm

I actually don't know. D:

noshirdalal

Thanks for the shoutout!

You did an incredible job! While I was working on this article I creeped on your Twitter and saw your very cute puppy. <3