Rising from the cracked, dried lakebeds of Urizan is a tower, shaped like a huge grandfather clock. Impenetrable and unassailable, there are no doors into it, nor any openings to climb or fly into.
There is no water or vegetation within a hundred miles of this structure, only the desiccated remains of what was once a beautiful flourishing lake, now destroyed by the ravages of war and the hands of time. This is the way he wants it, the man who constructed this tower out here in the middle of nowhere. He has no need of supplies. Has no desire for visitors.
Inside, Zilean tinkers with his clocks. They cover his workshop. Hundreds of them, maybe thousands. Some work; most do not.
He is obsessed with time. For he is both blessed and cursed by it. Blessed because he has discovered the way to manipulate time, making it move forward and back at his whims. Cursed because each time he does, he leaves a little piece of himself behind, doomed to see the world how it was, is, and eventually will be—all at the same time.
That is why he lives here, in the middle of a drained, dead lake. When he looks out the window he can see it as it was, hundreds of years ago, beautiful and alive. But at some point he must look away, for watching it be destroyed over and over again for all eternity could drive even the most solid mind insane.
Forging A Champion: Part II
by Colt Hallam
It’s Colt Hallam again and I’m back for part 2 of our Forging a Champion blog series. I want to start off by saying how much I appreciate all the feedback I received on part 1, and just in case you haven’t read it yet then you should check it out here before continuing. In this blog I’ll be adding more information on our Champion Jax the Master at Arms, this time going into detail on two of his abilities. I hope that all of you enjoy this view into the League of Legend’s champion design process...
Fog of War
by Joel Anderson
Hi, my name is Joel Anderson, a game programmer at Riot Games, and I’ll be talking a little bit about myself and what I work on. I realized my love for video games from the day my dad brought home my first PC (286-12). One day while indiscriminately running programs, as you do when your 7 years old (much to the annoyance of my dad), I stumbled upon a program known as basic. I soon realized that I could use this to create whatever-game-I-wanted, and I began to tinker with it. From that moment on, I knew I wanted to be a game programmer...
Colt Hallam
Class: Game Designer
Skills: PvP Pwnage +15
Colt hails from San Diego, California where he grew up playing every competitive game possible. Over time, Colt’s gaming tastes shifted from tabletop strategy games like Warhammer 40k to online competitive games like Starcraft. As a diehard DotA-Allstars fanatic, he has been playing Defense of the Ancients since its humble Starcraft beginnings in the Aeon of Strife map. Prior to coming to Riot, Colt graduated from the Claremont Colleges where he studied Psychology and Organizational Economics, all the while working on passion projects in game design including mods of Half-Life and Neverwinter Nights, or joining a pickup game of Ultimate Frisbee.
Special Ability: Colt 45
Gifted with nerd references, Colt can create 45 shadow Colt clones, allowing him to manage game balance, create video references for the art department, and design new characters with amazing efficiency.
Edmundo Sanchez
Class: 3D Game Artist
Skills: Caffeine Fixation +15
Edmundo Sanchez joins Riot after getting his feet wet at Double Fine where he worked on the critically acclaimed game ‘Psychonauts’. Edmundo is addicted to coffee, sketching and really enjoys taking a breather to read a good book on Sundays. His favorite games are ‘Shadow of the Colossus” and the ‘Zelda’ titles.
Special Ability: Twisted Mind
Mild mannered and extremely composed Edmundo, reaches into his subconscious and wrestles with his inner demons causing all his cute and cuddly drawing style to go berserk and mutate into the twisted concept art that the team knows and loves.
As our first Emissary of the League, can you tell us a little about yourself, and your interest in our game?
Of course, my name for start is Jeff Hunter, thus my name online “HunteR_” Not too original I guess. I’m a hardcore RTS/RPG gamer since I was a child. I’m 26 years old now, and at the age of 14 I remember the release of Command and Conquer, it changed the way we saw real time strategies forever. It was the first game to break the bounds of the slow internet that restricted most fun games to being turn based. I’ve played Defense of the Ancients (DotA-Allstars and previous versions) for four years and have owned and operated the largest DotA Inhouse Leagues on the net. Of course, this is what truly brought me to an excitement when I heard the first rambles of League of Legends.
What about League of Legends made to decide to get involved?
First off, I love DotA, so it’s relation to the game in theory got me interested. What got me involved was the realization that DotA is outdated. DotA has shown that the genre of game is a void not filled by a standalone title and that there is a great market for it. When I saw Pendragon_ and Guinsoo were the minds behind this behemoth of a genre breakthrough, it wasn’t even a question whether I wanted to get involved, more like how soon.
I’m assuming you were a big DotA player. Are there any things you wish you see in our game that you enjoyed in DotA? Differences?
I see many similarities and differences. I wrote a small article about how this genre has been limited by the Warcraft 3 engine a month ago. It’s good to see that the abilities I’ve come across on League of Legends are much more free ended and less constrained. I’m excited to see a few of the concepts, like “Twisted Fate, the cardmaster”, an all too familiar concept released in a previous DotA version called “The Gambler” who has been greatly redone. The idea of a critical strike AoE buff sounds crazy to say the least. I’m ecstatic to play around with this in the Beta and see how it turns out.
I see you are also the owner of www.gamebend.com, and also one of our League of Legends fansite, www.LoLgathering.com. What made you decide to create these sites?
Well, the gaming community has always been the odd ball community. There’s a myspace, and facebook for people to chat and try to hook up with people they like. A hole I found is the gaming genre community, a place for people to go and communicate a like interest: Gaming. I work in information technology management for a school district here in California, and you’d be surprised how many gamers there are and how disconnected they are from each other. I’m a big gamer, always will be, and my goal would be to get other gamers to collaborate, communicate, and destroy each other (in games).
So we know you are excited about our game. Is there anything you wanted to see in our game that will totally blow your socks off?
Oh yeah, you know it. And to tell you the truth, I’ve already experienced something that has blown me away and drawn me to the title. It’s the game developer’s commitment to the community and the vast amount of input they pull from it. I’ve talked to Riot staff about numerous things they should implement and they’ve commented on all the ideas. I’ve seen them very interested on the forums on the community’s involvement and collaboration to make this game EXACTLY what the people want from this genre of game. I hope there is a way to implement leagues, I am very competitive and I can’t wait to create an environment for those others who care about winning such as myself.
Stay tuned for more:
-Exclusive new champion previews!
-Contests to win awesome T-shirts and other cool stuff!
-The latest news on League of Legends!
