Full Fives League of Legends Team (Gameplay Design Sample)

PLEASE NOTE: I am not affiliated with, or employed by, Riot Games. This is a system design project I did building in a pre-established gaming system.

Team Size: 1 + 2 consultants

Role: Designer / Writer

Development Cycle: 4 Months

Description: For this project, I took an established system I was familiar with (League), and designed something that would fit into that system (5 champions). I was focused mainly on gameplay design, but did also look at baseline numbers, concept inspiration, and narrative for these champions. I also focused heavily on production quality for this project, as a lot of what I did was expository explanations for my choices. It’s a bit of a heavier read, but hopefully you enjoy looking at the logic behind my decisions!

Core Tasks:

- Concepting champions in every role from the ground up.

- Creating all skill values, including range, damage, and costs.

- Pitching these champions to other players for design feedback.

- Preparing all materials in a physical binder for presentation.

POSTMORTEM

What went well:

- Significant amounts of work, especially in a short period of time and outside of my core comfort zone.

- General approach and execution of decision making.

- Driving design decisions that are strongly grounded in the established system, and could find success if they were installed.

What went wrong:

- Completely lost the design of one champion (which I am hoping to tighten down and re-visit over the next few months).

- Kit variance is a weak point, as most of the core skills are the same but simply imagined in different ways.

- Other players I spoke with were similar in game skill to me, so our decisions and feedback will be influenced by that.

What I learned:

- Push designers beyond their comfort level, especially in established systems, to drive gameplay variation.