Original Post — Direct link
23 days ago - /u/Tryndamere - Direct link

Arcane was always written to be two seasons.

The confusion is because internally there was a budget conversation about “approving 5 seasons” - which simply means we were setting aside a bunch of money for lots of development and is completely irrelevant to the Arcane creative. The creative and making something great is what the priority should always be for Riot and our teams.

We have also always envisioned telling more stories and continuing to expand the universe. That hasn’t ever changed - people just jump at rumors or misleading headlines and Riot didn’t correct them - but given those rumors gained momentum, happy to clarify.

Just because that is our intent, doesn’t mean it’s easy or that we can pump these things out like a factory - just like making games that are worthy of players time / love is really hard, so too is telling great stories and making incredible shows / films (especially when we are building it from scratch for the first time).

That is always what Rioters are focused on (or should be focused on), no matter what 3rd party rumors say.

And since I’m here I’ll add - the “lol @ the cost” of Arcane arguments are silly from our perspective - as people have correctly pointed out the cost per minute of Arcane is about 1/3 to 1/4 of what Illumination / Pixar films cost.

The market for this (“high quality adult focused animation”) didn’t exist before Arcane so Hollywood has a hard time getting their head around why we would do this.

(And you spell my name with a “C”)

23 days ago - /u/Tryndamere - Direct link

Originally posted by crazyike

The market for this (“high quality adult focused animation”) didn’t exist before Arcane

Aand Riot in China and Japan just went bankrupt.

In the West (that was the feedback we were getting when looking for distribution partners).

23 days ago - /u/Tryndamere - Direct link

Originally posted by WolfAkela

Thanks for the insights Mack.

lol

23 days ago - /u/Tryndamere - Direct link

Originally posted by JustinXT

Don't worry I think aside from the spread of misinformation, the communication from Riot has been pretty clear.

The headlines on the budget were eye-catching and probably came as a shock for a lot of people who don't consider things like the length of development, and the quality of the animation.

Since you're here though I gotta ask, do you think we'll get to see Fortiche work on things like Worlds MVs again in the future?

Some other notes that may be helpful for everyone:

- All of Arcane's budget goes to talent. animators. concept artists. voice actors. sound designers. story boarders. composers. etc.

- The character animation alone makes up about 80% of the budget, because we hand animate every frame to hit this type of quality.

- Anyone complaining about the development budget being high is actually complaining about us paying talent, and complaining about us putting art first. Arcane is a great thing for every person working in animation as it helps point towards the value of higher budgets.

Re: other stuff... MAYBE??!?

23 days ago - /u/Tryndamere - Direct link

Originally posted by SanielTaniel

Hey! Dex guy here, mandatory speaking for myself and not the company note here

I've made a few edits to make the article a bit more accurate to what was said here and added a bit about this comment, appreciate the insight.

As for the name, to be 100% honest, my dad's name is Mark, I've always had a hard time correcting to Mar(c). My bad, I should have noticed. Hope this Cryndamere joke doesn't stick around too long cause of me lmao

Side note while I'm here, League of Legends is the reason I have a job and a roof over my head. I've been critical in the past for sure, but I do appreciate you guys keeping the game alive and thriving to the point that I can make a career out of it. Wishing you and the team all the best with whatever's next in the Arcane universe and beyond.

All good thx for hopping in and for the coverage / corrections!

23 days ago - /u/Tryndamere - Direct link

Originally posted by FarohGaming

As an actor, I appreciate you chiming in and taking the time to address these things.

Regarding budgets, I just saw another post about the brown and tan Wolverine costume from Deadpool and Wolverine (which was featured for all of like 10 seconds) took $100k to make and people were baffled. But when you explained that creating designs, prototypes, testing out materials, etc., takes time and $100k is basically like one $75k a year salary plus $25k of materials and other overhead costs or whatever, it made a lot more sense to people.

People tend to really underestimate how much things cost to create "from scratch". The creative process is expensive.

I hope maybe we'll see Tryndamere in some of the upcoming shows/movies! Between Trynd and Wolverine I have a soft spot for "bloodthirsty berserker" types I guess you could say. I should get "Get Mad, Never Die" as my next tattoo.

Yup - the closer to “from scratch” anything it gets incredibly expensive. Imagine building a chicken sandwich “from scratch”. (For the animation, we aren’t building (most) of the software, computer hardware, distribution network (Netflix), or many other components.

But building anything “from scratch” is insanely cumbersome - and yet due to sophisticated and efficient supply chain of the modern economy, making a chicken sandwich is very “cheap” / affordable for everyone.

Here is what chatGPT says about how long that would take:

Making a chicken sandwich entirely from scratch is a monumental task that involves farming, raising animals, and processing raw ingredients. Here’s a breakdown of the steps and the approximate time it would take to create each component:

  1. Raising the Chicken (1–6 months)

    • Obtain a chick or fertilized egg: Start with acquiring a chick or hatching one (~21 days for an egg to hatch). • Raise the chicken: A broiler chicken typically takes 6-8 weeks to reach slaughter weight. For a free-range chicken, it might take 4-6 months. • Slaughter and process: You’d need to humanely slaughter the chicken, pluck its feathers, clean it, and butcher it into parts (a few hours).

  2. Growing the Grain for Bread (7–12 months)

    • Plant wheat seeds: Wheat requires about 7-8 months from planting to harvesting, depending on the variety and climate. • Harvest the wheat: Cut and thresh the wheat to separate the grains (a few hours to days manually). • Mill the flour: Grind the grains into flour using a millstone or similar method (a few hours). • Make the bread: Combine the flour with water, salt, and any yeast (if you’re using natural yeast, you need to cultivate it, which takes 1-2 weeks). Baking the bread takes ~1-2 hours.

  3. Growing the Vegetables (1–3 months each)

    • Lettuce: Plant seeds; lettuce takes ~30-70 days to mature. • Tomatoes: Plant seeds or seedlings; tomatoes take ~60-90 days to produce ripe fruit. • Pickle (optional): If you want pickles, grow cucumbers (50-70 days), harvest, and pickle them (2 weeks to several months for fermentation).

  4. Producing the Cheese (2–12 months)

    • Raise a cow or goat: You’d need to raise a dairy animal to produce milk (cows take ~2 years to mature if starting from a calf). • Milk the cow/goat: Once the animal is producing milk, you’d need to milk it daily. • Make cheese: Cheese requires separating curds from whey, pressing, and aging. Some soft cheeses can be made in a day or two, but aged cheeses take months.

  5. Growing Oil Seeds for Cooking (6–12 months)

    • Grow oil crops: Depending on the oil type, you might grow sunflowers, olives, or soybeans. These crops typically take 4-6 months to mature. • Extract oil: Harvest the seeds or fruits and press them to extract oil, which can take several hours.

  6. Additional Ingredients

    • Salt: If starting from scratch, you’d need to evaporate seawater or mine rock salt (weeks to months). • Spices: If growing herbs or spices like pepper or paprika, factor in an additional 3-6 months.

Total Timeline

• Shortest: 6–12 months (if you optimize and skip aging cheese, raise chickens quickly, and use faster-growing crop varieties).
• Realistic: 1–2 years, considering time to set up, grow crops, and allow animals to mature.

Effort Involved

This process would require substantial daily effort: farming, tending livestock, and manually processing every ingredient. You’d also need tools like a millstone, a butter churn, and access to clean water and land.

Conclusion

Making a chicken sandwich “from scratch” in the truest sense would be an enormous undertaking, revealing how much we rely on modern agricultural and supply chains for something as seemingly simple as a sandwich.

23 days ago - /u/Tryndamere - Direct link

Originally posted by TheDiddlyFiddly

Thanks Mr. Tryndamere.

It always amazes me that such a big company like riot can still put focus on what counts, the love and passion for their projects. I very much look forward to future projects and can’t wait for the MMO that hopefully comes out in my lifetime./s

That is WHY Riot got big - ironically the hard part is keeping that emphasis though now that we ARE big (lots and lots of entropy in the system as there are thousands of individual humans to keep aligned).

23 days ago - /u/Tryndamere - Direct link

Originally posted by goADX

I want to ask, will you work with the same animation company, or will you find another one

Fortiche are our partners. They aren’t a “vendor” to us. They are uniquely talented and that type of creative chemistry doesn’t happen overnight or grow on trees :)

23 days ago - /u/Tryndamere - Direct link

Originally posted by beruon

I disagree on "high quality adult focused animation" market did not exist. Bojack Horseman existed, and that show, even in art is high quality. Different artstyle, sure, but high quality. Same for several other Netflix animated shows like Castlevania. And then you have all the non-western markets with literal decades of high quality adult focused anime...

I am saying that that was the feedback that we were getting when we were trying to find distribution partners for Arcane.

23 days ago - /u/Tryndamere - Direct link

Originally posted by Blastuch_v2

Arcane is top tier, but I hope what you said could be also said about artists that work on League.

Riot’s biggest cost bucket is people.

Ensuring our teams are highly effective at delivering great things to our players is our leadership team’s primary responsibility.

23 days ago - /u/Tryndamere - Direct link

Originally posted by Losticus

How do you feel about the claim that Riot is a music video producer that also makes shows and videogames on the side?

I think it’s a reflection of our incredibly talented music team and it’s awesome

23 days ago - /u/Tryndamere - Direct link

Originally posted by donlouisvuitton

they can not and will not keep it the same lol they are losing so much money on arcane, riot is a business and not a charity. its a small miracle that arcane has made it this far, they won’t do this twice.

O rly?