Saturday 25 May 2013

Contests



The contests I participated in and my submissions for them
  • The League of Legends Digi-art throwdown contest - October 2012
The theme was characters of League of Legends outside the arena; and there must be at least one season 3 item included.

Though my drawing was a little sloppy and far from the level of the professional artists that won the contest, I did a lot of effort and gave it my best shot even if I knew I had no chance of winning.



The picture will likely make no sense to a person unfamiliar with League and its inside jokes and references, but it's about the item vendor taking a break in the park and letting the champions enjoy themselves with the items they would otherwise have to farm for.


  • The J!nx T-shirt design contest 2013
The theme was champions IRL - or what would the characters do outside the game. 




So outside League Nocturne has his own weather forecast show.



  • A League of Legends unofficial contest - spring 2013 (a private contest with 2 parts - create a unique champion for League of Legends - with skills, lore and a drawing; and make a drawing of a scene on League of Legends)
This is the character I created.


Zamorak
the Void Hound

jungle/top/mid melee AP assassin

P: Void Beast
With every spell and basic attack, Zamorak applies a stack of Void Scent.  Void Scent makes the target leave a trail of void Zamorak can follow, lasting 2 seconds with one additional second per stack (5 seconds duration at 4 stacks)

Q: Ferocious Charge
Leaps forward a short(moderate) distance dealing magic damage to all enemies in his path. Zamorak can use this ability twice before it goes on CD, and his second leap has a slightly longer range.
*Deals small-moderate damage per leap, as it is his only aoe ability; short-ish CD

W: Void Bite
Zamorak bites his target dealing magic damage (medium range). Deals more damage the more void scent stacks the target has.
* High single target damage, moderate CD (for a melee spell)

E: I see you
Consumes all stacks of void scent on nearby targets revealing and slowing them for a short time. Slows by 10% per stack and lasts 1.5 - 3 seconds (3 when maxed)
Additionally Zamorak sniffs out all other nearby enemies that dont have void scent and applies one stack.
* Moderate range, high CD

R: Killing machine
Passive: Zamorak's basic attacks deal bonus magic damage on hit (scales with AP)
Active: Zamorak goes on a rampage gaining increased movement speed, tenacity and magic penetration for a few seconds. Killing an enemy champion refreshes the buff.
*small damage on his passive, moderate CD on active, small % scale with AP


* Exact scales with AP and Cooldowns are not set due to need of testing how OP/UP he gets in practice. There are only pointers to how big they are, all things considered.


Lore:
The blind, mute, seemingly tireless monstrosity horrified the scientists of the Institute of War as they caught it with their spells in an attempt to stop it from rampaging on Runterra - apparently the latest world the creature stumbled uppon. The beast broke through their bindings with ease and ran loose in the Institute bringing utter distruction to everything in its path. After a while the mages of the institute succeeded in restraining it as they found the only way to stop the demon was by binding it to the League.

As they studied the creature they learned it was incapable of verbal speech, yet it responded to it, and seemed to understand the meaning of words, proving a level of intellect unexpected from a beast whose whole purpose seemed to be nothing but destruction. Even more, after a while they found it responded to a name - Zamorak. 

It was clear the creature came from deep withing the void - but from what world, and why, they didn't know.
It took a while to find Zamorak's real purpose - the scientists saw the creature was cunning and smart in its own brutish way and it seemed as if it was jumping from world to world in an order known only to it - as if searching for something. Zamorak was clearly made for destruction, but more than just that. It seemed as if he has been trained - the bindings on his paws signified for it.

The Institute deduced that Zamorak was searching for his master, angry and tirelessly rampaging from world to world. What kind of demonic master would have this monstrocity as a hound dog, the scientists could only guess. But one thing was clear - Zamorak may posses a surprising intellect, but was far too dangerous and unpredictable to be let loose. So the Institute decided to bind it indeffinitly to the League - and in the meanwhile scientists continue to search for its origins and study it as it fights tirelessly for the summoners of Runeterra.


My idea is to create a champion who, even though not so unique and imaginative, was possible and fits well in the game. Most contestants would do amazing super-imaginative champions but that would never work due to being too strong and/or impossible to balance. The champion I made is meant to be easy to learn, with not too much skill required to play him, but able to do really nice plays and jukes when used by a skilled player. And the theme for him was to be as creepy as possible, with a little twist in his lore hinting he is simply misunderstood, kind of sad, yet still really powerful and creepy and would rather rip your face off than let you pity him, as he doesn't want nobody's pity.



And this is my drawing for the other part of the contest (also the part I won)


Again - it's a League of Legends inside joke. The theme of the picture was of personal choice, the only condition was that it is a pencil drawing and it related in some way to a person all contestants know. This is Teemo playing as a support in bottom lane, stressed out and about to be yet again grabbed by the enemy Blitzcrank (an annoying support robot that pulls enemy champions to their death unless dodged).


  • League of Legends comic contest - spring 2013
Unfortunately I never got to finish, nor submit my idea, but here is the sketch.




The comic is about a lonely minion making its way across the lane when it suddenly sees 2 champions -  Cho'Gath (as a Gentleman) and Nunu (on his yeti Willump) racing towards the scared NPC intending to eat it, as they both have an ability for which they need to kill a minion. Meanwhile Volibear is just coming in lane standing under his turret as he sees the minion approaching, running away from the 2 beasts each wanting the kill for himself. Volibear runs towards the minion intending to kill it as well but instead flings it into the tower - the tower killing it, and neither of the 3 get the kill because of Volibear's fail.



When it comes to video games (especially those I like) combined with fan art / comics / caricatures - it creates a combination I really adore, and I love involving myself into it even if my skill is not so great (yet).
Anything connected to gaming and art I find to be really interesting and fun, no matter how much effort and time I will need to put in it.

Software I use

  • Photoshop 6 
I've been learning to use Photoshop for quite some time, I believe I had my first tutorials and lessons 7 years ago when my father would give me tasks - to adjust levels, fix mistakes, remove labels etc on photos. And about a year ago I started using it to draw - I went through some online tutorials but have mostly been practicing myself.


  • CodeBlocks
I've only recently started doing programming, and I'm slowly but surely progressing through my book "Beginning Programming with C++ for Dummies". I'm getting accustomed to the interface and shortcuts, as well as the basics of programming and C++ grammar.


  • Blender
Blender was the first 3D program I got my hands on (besides SketchUp), as it is opensource. Though I still have a lot to learn about 3D modelling, I've gotten accustomed to the interface and controls of the program, and can perform basic things like creating simple objects, and editing those objects in various ways.


  • 3D Studio Max
Just starting, work in progress


  • SketchUp
Sketchup is a 3D modelling program slightly different than what I've seen. I was using (or more playing with) that program when I was 10 - 13 years old, and just like Photoshop I went through basic and advanced tutorials and got accustomed to it, spending a lot of my time exploring what I can do with it. And there is a lot to be done with SketchUp - it's large variety of tools focuses more on creativity and drawing in 3D out of your head, yet it can also be precise and exact like Blender, though I would probably prefer 3DSMax or Blender over it for professional modeling and school.


  • Other
I can work with basic programs like Adobe Acrobat, Libre Office (a free, slightly better version of Microsoft Office), Word and Excel and I sometimes would even use Paint.

Preparation

Books I've read (or am still reading) outside of school to help me get started with Game Design.
  • "The Art of Game Design - A book of Lenses" by Jesse Schell (a book about the process of making a game, brainstorming, and the elements that a game needs to be good); brilliant book in my opinion, that definitely helped me get an idea of what I'm getting myself into, and how to handle it;
  • "Beginning of Programming with C++ for Dummies" (a great book from the Dummies series, that helped me learn the basics of programming).

    Courses
    • Game Theory online course on Coursera (a 3 month long online course on game theory - predicting and understanding the actions of players in various situations - namely games, the possible outcomes, and the payoff each player gets) in January 2013;
    • Game Theory 2 (continuation of the course in janury) in May 2013.

    Tutorials
    • I did tutorials for Photoshop - basic and advanced;
    • Blender - basics;
    • An online sketching tutorial course - basic things to help out with drawing something fast.


    Other than those, I've mostly taught myself everything else I know, or learned in school.