Today's red post collection includes a new /Dev blog on the
Volibear champion update, details on choosing a charity for your region to receive a part of the
Dawnbringer Karma fundraiser money, and more!
Continue reading for more information!
Table of Contents
/Dev: A Storm is Brewing
Check out the
most recent /Dev blog on the
Volibear champion update - "Our latest on progress on Volibear’s update, with an early look at his model, VO, and more.":
"Hey all, hopefully you’ve recovered from the psychological terror that is the Fiddlesticks VGU because today, we’re diving into the second champion you chose for an update last year: Volibear, the Unforgotten Storm. I know it’s been unbearable to wait for more information, but on the bright side, the time between this /dev blog and Voli’s release will be shorter than it was for Fiddlesticks.
Since Volibear isn’t too far away, we’ve decided to keep in-game footage under the veil of the storm and will instead be diving deep into our progress on his VFX, SFX, VO, and gameplay design—plus an early look at his reimagined Northern Storm skin.
A Storm is Brewing
Before we jump into the new stuff, here’s a quick recap.
From the start, our goal with updating Volibear was to fully deliver on his promised theme of “lightning-fueled Freljordian demigod” and create satisfying, modern gameplay to match his legendary status in the Freljord.
One of the early challenges with Volibear was figuring out how to bridge his personality as he appears in game with how he appears in thestories on Universe. His current voice has a calm resonance that gives him a certain honorable dignity. But he’s also a ferocious, ancient god and a literal bear who can overpower you in a fight with the wrath of a storm. In the lore, we’ve seen Volibear as the terrifying entity with many eyes, a monster whose back is studded with the swords of lesser men.
Early “Grotesque-Horror” Volibear Exploration
We explored some of these more grotesque-horror visual designs at first, but one common thing we heard—especially from Volibear mains—was that these designs felt like they strayed too far from live Volibear. We decided that, for his VGU, we wanted to show Volibear as he is to himself, in his most prime, original, godlike form.
Still, some players really liked the “Eldritch Horror” direction, so we’ve decided to take that concept across the finish line and release it as a skin.When Volibear launches, we’re going to give this skin to anyone who already owns him (or picks him up that patch) for free. After that it will join his collection as a regular, purchasable skin.
Volibear Mood Piece
As for gameplay, we started by exploring the idea of “feeling unstoppable” and tested a kit where Volibear couldn’t be stopped by immobilizing effects (only slowed). We moved away from this design in favor of making Volibear feel more like a god of storms, bringing thunder down upon his enemies and the structure they hide behind. (For the latest on gameplay, check out the section below.)
NOW FOR THE NEW STUFF!
To kick things off, here’s a sneak peak of Volibear’s current in-game model, and let me tell you from experience, it is terrifying to see this guy running at you in-game!
Volibear’s In-Game Model
Shock and Awe
Nathan “Riot Lutzburg” Lutz, Gameplay Designer:
“Relentless.” This one word drove my inspiration as we started to work on Volibear’s abilities. My hope is that each one feels savage, unforgiving, and inevitable. Volibear’s role sits somewhere between a Juggernaut and a Vanguard, allowing him to dive and disrupt teamfights while ramping up his own threat level over time. While he doesn’t have the perma-unstoppability and slow-conversion we originally tested, there’s still no escape from Volibear. He WILL catch you, and only death can stop him.
So just what are these abilities? We hope you’ll be pleased to learn that most of them will feel like modern takes on his live kit. He still runs on all fours and locks down a single target. He still has a targeted bite, only this time it’s both his opener AND his finisher. He still has ramping attack speed and chain lightning, only now it lasts for as long as he remains in combat. We’ve worked hard to bring in more skill expression to Volibear’s kit, which should make both fighting as (and against) him more satisfying.
Our biggest innovations came from his E and R abilities. With the “savage bear” angle locked, we really wanted to push his fantasy as the Freljordian god of storms. These abilities will grant Volibear several new utility tools he’s never had before, and aim to give players more to master over time. We’re really pulling out all the stops for Volibear’s ultimate, and we hope you don’t find it too shocking.
Lightning Strikes
Neal “Riot Nailock” Wojahn, VFX Artist:
While we aren’t quite ready to reveal what Volibear’s E does, we are going to show you what it looks like… through its VFX. Let’s break it down!
First thing you’ll see is a Freljordian rune carving its way through the earth. This appears with something known as an “erosion map.” Now this might not look like much aside from rainbow puke, but when we separate it into the respective channels, it becomes more clear.
Basically the way these channels work is that anything that’s shown in black is invisible, and anything white is visible. We then run a graph through these channels, and as the value progresses—or goes from light to dark—it reveals more of the texture starting with white and ending with black. The end result looks something like this:
After these runes glow, the storm begins to gather. This storm is represented with three elements. One is a pretty simple particle of clouds that fades in and erodes out; these orbit and move downward. You’ll notice that there are four different clouds on one sheet—this particle system is set to randomly pick one of these four to help create organic variety.
The second element of the storm is the static that arches up. Those sparks are created by modeling simple meshes and spawning them in a random rotation. Again, we put a lightning texture on them that randomly picks one of four cells.
The last element of the approaching storm scrolls a windy texture over the mesh as it fades in to create the sense that air is rushing downward.
Next we have the lightning, which is represented by this bolt texture that flashes in at high opacity, then quickly scrolls downward to create the crack of the bolt.
Then we have a shockwave that lets us know the storm has struck. This is achieved by spawning in arches of wind and shooting them out in a radial direction as they change scale to fit the circle shape. Little things like this can go a long way to clarify gameplay.
After the shockwave flash, there is a glowing crater that's left behind. This uses the same erosion techniques we used for the Freljordian runes, wiping in the shape of the glowing lightning and cracked earth. This then fades away, giving the feeling of rocks sinking back into the ground.
If you put all those VFX together, this is what you get for Volibear’s E ability!
Thunder Roars
Jayvon “Riot Jirsan” Rymer, Sound Designer:
With every champion, we want to find a unique sound palette that makes them instantly recognizable. VGUs are always a fun challenge because we need to update something that’s existed for years while staying faithful to what it was before.
I definitely wanted to keep some of Voli’s key pillars within his kit, such as “God of Storms,” “Primal Power,” and most importantly, “Ferocious Bear.” I wanted it to sound like this really pissed off lightning bear is running at you andwill catch you. To make him feel more primal and aggressive, I wanted to incorporate some wardrum elements, so I took a few recordings of avalanches and started layering in different drum pieces to accent the cool patterns it was producing:
This started becoming layers for some of Volibear’s spells, like his Q:
For his Q impact, I used a drum hit that I treated to sound more like a thunderclap and added more bear elements to the cast:
Lastly, while working on some bear vocalizations for his kit, I experimented with layering in elephants. Fun fact, they do a lot more than just the trunk trumpet sound that we all know and love… they sound terrifying doing everything else. I worked in a tiny bit of it into his passive breathing loop:
No comments:
Post a Comment