[2021] Dovagedys left LOR, but not Riot - AMA

Yes - I play all the time!

My favorite archetype of all time is Irelia and Azir. Followed closely by Lulu and Zed. That is mostly a product of those champions being some of my favorite from a lore perspective.

My favorite deck right now is Bandle Tree. I like alternate win conditions and I think there are so many cute and funny cards in the deck.

edit: Recently most of my time is spent playing Path of Champions! I love playing PVE and story modes.

This is a fun question, but unfortunately answering it would fall under revealing things Riot considers secret.

The good news is that the reason it is a secret is because the ideas may end up in the game some day!

There are so many fun and favorite stories from my time working with the team. It is impossible to pick just one.

But also I don't want to dodge your question so I'll share something I think was very funny. Many years ago when I was working on my Yasuo cosplay I was taking the work very seriously and putting a lot of time and dedication into the cosplay. Getting the hair right was proving to be the hardest part of the whole cosplay. I tried so many wigs and methods to try and get the hair to look good. One of the efforts involved using cardboard inside the wig to try and shape the wig, but the cardboard wouldn't reshape from it's square/rectangle shape, so the wig ended up being a huge rectangle on my head. It was garbage and so I threw it away. However, the lead designer of Set 1, Riot Unconkable, thought it was so funny that he dug it out of the trash and kept the wig to remind me and the whole team of the disaster. He is a hilarious person. Also as part of that story I was trying to find a place I could buy a gourd for the cosplay. When I received one it was way too small; the size of a small wallet. I couldn't use it for the cosplay and I was going to get rid of it, but an engineer on the team liked it so he kept it. I think he might still have the tiny gourd sitting on his desk at work.

As for RubinZoo, he's a great human and I don't really know anything he should be embarrassed about. Ask him to sing the Nimble Poro song on stream. We used to sing it all the time at the office while working on Foundations.

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Thank you!

11/17 was never a reference to anything.

It was simply the numbers the game designer responsible for the design chose at the time of making the card.

I think that we liked they were prime numbers, but my memory could be flawed here.

Ramen!

Nimble Poro - not close.

She will always be my favorite. She even has a song that RubinZoo created for her and I find myself singing it all the time at work.

All of the poros are cute and I love all of them, but Nimble Poro is definitely my favorite.

No. I'm working on an unannounced game.

Over the life of the game, I think I've played every archetype at some point. I have a very long list of favorites. I only listed the ones at the top of the list.

I'm sure there are some favorite decks we have in common. <3

I think it's a tie between one of the first versions of Katarina or one of the first versions of Legion Drummer.

There was a time when Katarina had text that whenever she was in combat if you had a spell or ability on the stack she would deal 1 damage to all enemy units. It was very good with cards like Boomcrew Rookie. She would essentially kill all the enemy units every time she attacked.

There was a time when Legion Drummer was a 3 mana 3/3 that had an ability that every time you cast a spell all your units would get +1 / +0 and Overwhelm. In that state of the game it was very common to be able to kill from 20 to zero on turn 3 and turn 4 of the game with Legion Drummer.

Thank you!

I was involved in his development. I think there were some different tweaks on Taric, but the general concept was the same from start to finish. We really liked it and it felt like it represented Taric in LOR very well.

I do think he released in a good state. I'm proud of Taric.

Thank you!

Thank you!

I like both and it depends on what I'm craving.

I guess if I have to pick, then I'll pick creamy.

Thank you!

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Thank you!

Butter and Salt from Sidecar donuts!

I love this question, but it's so hard to answer.

Lore is one of my favorite parts of games and being able to expand the lore or League IP on LOR was an amazing experience and I feel lucky that I was a part of it.

One of my favorite card interactions is Draven saying "What the F is that?" when he sees an enemy Teemo.

Can you explain what you mean by champ titles?

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LOL Uthgar!

It was extremely valuable. I wouldn't be here today without having had that experience.

Thank you!

Thank you!

I think it depends on the game and the goals of the game. Some are a product, some are a service, and many are both. I do think games as a service is becoming more common.

I did go to the Undercity Nights and it was fun!

I'm not on the MMO. I'm working on an unannounced game.

My least favorite dish is sauerkraut.

My favorite region is Ionia!

It's from Game of Thrones.

lol

Sorry. That's a secret.

This concept is simply not true.

Making games is a job. It is very common for people learn and grow and move on to do new things, which is what happens in all jobs and careers.

League of Legends is one of the most successful games in the history of video games. People leave and join that game all the time. In fact, a large number of people left League to create LOR and League is continuing to crush it.

People leave and join all games all the time. It's not an indication on the health or success of the game at all.

I love this question!

Playing with friends is my primary motivation for playing games. I think some of my favorite genres are MMOs, RPGs, Survival games, and building games. Any game I can play with my friends is probably going to be a fun time for me.

Yep :)

My favorite champion is Yasuo.

Miss Fortune! She is one of my favorite champions and I have played her a ton in LOL and LOR.

I do like Gangplank, but not as much as MF.

Piltover!

This is a complicated question to answer. When you say community response do you mean all of the community or do you mean this subreddit community? Because the responses were very different.

Overall the response to the K/DA cards was extremely positive. The cards hit all of our design goals and expectations regarding the impact we'd hope they'd have on the game and their inclusion rates.

I know it became a meme on this subreddit, but we did a ton of research and survey work to learn how everyone felt about them and the response was overwhelmingly positive.

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The LOR team has not gotten smaller.

I love this question! My path was pretty weird and I don't recommend others to try and replicate it.

I see this question and questions like it frequently.

From my perspective, I think it's most important to try and understand what you want to do and why you want to do it. Once you understand what you want and why you want it, then you're able to set a long term goal that should then enable you to set a medium term goal and then some short term goals that all ladder up to the thing you want.

As an example, the concept "I want to work in games" is very broad and vague. It makes it hard to build a plan with such a broad goal. Whenever someone says that to me, I ask them what do they want to do in games? Do they want to do art? Do they want to be a game designer? Do they want to be an engineer? Knowing what you want to do is the best first step to finding a path on how to get what you want.

Additionally, knowing why you want it is also hugely helpful. Understanding your motivation can help you identify if the goals you think you want may be misaligned with your motivations. I see that very often and it sets people up to be disappointed, because their motivations aren't aligned with the goals they have. Are you motivated by money? Are you motivated by achievement? Are you motivated by recognition from your peers? And So on.

Another important call out on this topic is the topic of expectations on timing. It's a popular theme to believe that a person must be successful or find their path in their 20s. I think this is a very unhealthy mentality. Most people's careers are going to last for 30 or 40 or 50 years of their life and being focused only on the beginning can lead to impossible expectations. Related to my statement above about setting Long Term -> Medium Term -> and short term goals, having good short term goals to achieve after school is a good path forward.

As an example, I started my career in games when I was 34. I had a few careers before I got into games. And in those previous careers I was developing skills that would eventually help me find my path in the gaming industry and help me find an opportunity at Riot. I didn't develop those skills with the intention of getting into games, but I wish I had been intentional. I wish I had been learning skills that would help me make games.

You and others like you can be intentional. Set some goals. Highlight some skills that will help you achieve those goals. And get to work on learning and developing those skills.

Another tip I have is to not be too hard on yourself. Don't compare yourself to others. Compare yourself to past you. Monitor your growth over time. Be proud of how much you grow year of year. Everyone's journey is different. And we spend the majority of our time in the journey and not at the destination. Try and find journeys that you enjoy and make you feel satisfied.

Don't be afraid to change goals or skills. It's all part of the journey. It's okay to spend years on learning skills or on a specific path and then learn that maybe that wasn't the path you wanted. Or maybe as you get farther on your path you realize you want to move to another path. That is normal. That is okay. It is not failure. It is learning.

Finally, if you want to make games then you should start making games right now. You don't have to be a Riot or EA or Ubisoft to make games. Look at the mobile app stores, look at Steam, look at Epic store and you will see thousands of games made by small teams of people. You can make a board game on a single piece of paper. Some of the most fun games I've played in the past 4 years were made by teams of 4 to 6 people. If you want to make games, then just do it. You can do it right now.

I love this topic and I'm happy to share more perspective if you have more questions on it.

Lux.

Lux is in a tough position in the lore, because she is a mage that lives in a region that hates mages. Because LOR is focused on region, we had a tough design problem of making a powerful champion mage, Lux, in a region that would not be focused on spells or magic. And in fact, one of the region's core pillars was to be effective against spells and magic.

All of this is exacerbated by the fact that Lux is extremely popular and everyone has high expectations for her and her execution.

I think we did a pretty good job and I definitely wouldn't call anything we did a mistake, but it's a tough problem and I think if we had waited on Lux we may have come to different executions that may have lead to Lux feeling more supported and having a better fit holistically within her region and the game overall.

All that said, I do think Lux's place in LOR has improved over time and I'm really excited to see her role in LOR develop over time.

It's a simple song. It's more about the energy of the song when we sing it.

She's nimble. She's a poro.
She's nimble. She has a mustache.

Vi!

Vi has always been one of my favorite champions!

I have watched it. Vi is my favorite!

I'm really proud of all of those champions! I think they are all great representations of the champions in LOR.

Exactly!

I have so many favorite card interactions. I love so many.

The team has had to deal with me saying them and yelling them all the time in our design pit, in meetings, in the hallways, everywhere...

A few of the ones I've said the most I think are:
"My name is Z O E." (rapping)
"Them whumps do like a yordle in uniform."
"To shine like the sun you must burn like it!"
"Suppertiiiiiime"
"We did it together."
"Here I am! Wherever here is."
"Never look a tulip in the eye."
"You call that a sword?" - Tryndamere
"Some didn't... but I changed their mind." - Yasuo

The list really does go on and on.

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Thank you!

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Thank you so much!

My favorite was when Dovagedys and RiotUmbrage had a running race for some reason

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Yasuo
Leona
Lulu

Champion level up!

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Thank you!

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Thank you!

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