Gaming
Gaming
Building Braum: Half man, half shield
Want to know how Riot create new LoL champions? Here’s how they built Braum...
Building Braum: Half man, half shield
© Riot Games
Braum, the Heart of the Freljord slammed into the world of Runeterra mid-May. The latest champion to be added to the League of Legends roster, Braum and his massive shield was intended to fill a tanky support gap in the game.
We've already given you a rundown of his vital stats and abilities, but we wanted to dig deeper into his creation. Exactly how do you go about building a new hero for a game like League of Legends? How many versions of Braum's ultimate were there? And the all-important question: is he more shield than man? Red Bull spoke to Riot's Associate Champion Designer, Jordan Anton, to find out the answers.
Braum was created to fill a gap in the champion pool in terms of tank support – how did you spot that gap in the first place?
Originally we had the idea to make a shield-focused champion in the support role. We started with the idea that tanky supports had been using body-blocking skillshots as a way to protect their allies, but overall it was hard to do. We took this as a concept, and with further inspiration from Wind Wall [Yasuo's ability which uses a wall of wind to block projectiles], used that as the focus for how we could get interesting and unique gameplay for a shield-focused champion.
How did you start to translate that into a champion? Was it a case of coming up with an ability set first and then building his personality, or did the characterisation come first?
Braum started with gameplay first. We had some great concept art floating around for shield-focused champions, and over time, built out the personality to match. It was a natural jump for the shield champion to be a defensive support.
One of the things we had to be careful of during his development was shifting too close to martyr, as that personality type creates a lot of feeling of obligation and disempowerment. Instead we aimed for a light-hearted and inspiring personality. The artists did an amazing job during this stage, with explorations of how we would show emotion on his face and how that communicates personality.
In the end we felt like Braum being a man who obviously can fight, but chooses not to, because he would rather use his strength to save others was a compelling way to make the player feel empowered and strong while doing defensive things.
How do the technical design and the artistic side bounce off each other?
During all phases of development, art and design were working really closely together. As abilities changed on the kit, we communicated with each other and discussed a number of ways to theme those abilities in a way that let the champion be totally cohesive. When art and gameplay work closely together it really improves how the champion feels in general. Visuals were informed by the mechanics of the abilities, and it helps us make elements of his kit feel really satisfying because we were giving them an appropriate amount of focus and emphasis from the art side.
Braum in action
© Riot Games
Were there any drastic changes you had to make?
Most of the changes were during the really early development process, specifically when we were identifying things like core personality, what faction he fit best in, and the relationship between Braum and his shield. Over time the shield became an increasingly large part of the champion until eventually we treated them as two halves of the champion. This helped to distinguish him from the rest of the champion roster.
At what point did you start testing Braum out, and how does that work?
Braum started as a gameplay concept before he was put into full development. We had an idea and made a playable version of it, then proceeded to figure out all the details of exactly how to pull it off and who that champion should be.
From the beginning though we were doing playtesting and kit tweaks. Champions go through a lot of abilities from initial inception to release. A lot of it is refining abilities that we know are core, but there is also a great deal of experimenting with changes to the pattern by removing and replacing things on the kit. We probably went through 10 ultimates before we found one that really fit.
When do you involve professional players and how does that type of testing work?
I was pleased to have some conversations with a couple of professional support players very early in his development, and even got people to play very early versions of the kit. It was helpful to get insight into what they thought defined the strengths and weaknesses of different characters and what tools they look for to be successful. I tried to follow up with those people when they were in town and let them see the evolution.
What are you most concerned about in terms of the pro scene when you introduce a new hero?
I wouldn't say we are as concerned about the pro scene specifically, more what a champion does to the game landscape as a whole. The pro scene, while very public, is a very small set of the full player base. It is important to make something the player base want and enjoy while also making something pros can use in interesting ways.
Some of the general concerns we have regarding a release's impact on the game are new champions replacing old champions. We place a heavy focus on identifying unique strategic reasons to pick champions so we avoid replacing the things that make the older champions fun and unique.
Braum doing his thing in-game
© Riot Games
At what stage will you decide Braum is ready for tournament draft and the LCS – is it the four week rule or are there more complex procedures?
Same procedure as normal. Four weeks after launch they become available for play.
Did you pick up on any weird bugs during testing?
Braum had a lot of issues during his development as his Unbreakable is quite complex in how it interacts with other abilities. One of the fun issues there was that when he blocked bouncing missiles (Sivir's Ricochet for example) it would actually duplicate them until there were a bunch of them bouncing around!
Did you need to make changes to other champions as a result of introducing Braum – any problematic skill combinations?
We didn't make any changes to other champions specifically to release Braum that impact gameplay. In general, unless something is really powerful and/ or lacking gameplay, I err on the side of preserving the cool and natural interactions between champions.
When you think of Braum having interactions, a natural lane partner that comes to mind is Ezreal. The interaction that Ezreal has at a really long range with Braum's passive is something we think is exciting and makes that lane unique to play against.
Now the champion has been released into the game proper, aside from bugs what are you looking out for?
Balance concerns, bugs and game health are the large ones. We have an idea of the patterns we designed and their game health, so it is important to make sure that if people are tweaking those, circumventing our expectations, or playing him in other positions or roles that we take the time to consider the game health ramifications of those. A number of champions have been released with a projected role in mind that has changed or evolved over time – Elise and Zyra are great examples!
