Hi all,
It's been a while since I posted and I wanted to let you know what I've been up to lately. I started my senior animation position at RIOT games, a great game company located in Culver City, LA. They have been working hard for the last 4 years on a game called League of Legends. If you have ever heard of one of the most successful user generated contents of all times "DOTA" (WarCraft III) then you should listen closely. The people behind RIOT are the people that created DOTA.
Now, here is the best news: the game will be completely free. Yes, you read correctly, completely free. You can financially support the game by buying cool accessories or more champions to play with (but it's possible to unlock everything by playing, too). But wait, we talk about a multi-million dollar AAA-title here!
So, how does my job now look like? Just picture a multitude of characters, all completely different, from bipeds, to quadrupeds, up to spider-like creatures that have a wide variety of different moves (emotions to actions)... I currently skim through the sheer endless list of animations to help polish some of them before the game ships (they've done a great job so far) and I will help define how future characters are being created and implemented (streamlining the current process). Finally, later down the road I hope to animate on completely new characters.
The best part is the job is a lot of fun and the team is awesome. We have an artist's section where all the art is being created and all the guys are extremely nice, talented, and helpful whenever I have question. And man, do they know the game well. I haven't found a magic spell or special move that they wouldn't know by name and character. If you think that chess is complicated, try to balance 30+ different characters! It's really cool... but they still beat me with one hand tied behind their back, haha.
So, check out the game when it hits open beta this late September (estimated) and let me know what you think. It's easy to learn and difficult to master and won't let go of you easily... It was voted "Best strategy game of E3" and if you see how hard we are working then you know exactly why!
Have fun,
Lx
