Saturday, October 6, 2012

Inside Design: the Evolution of Kha’Zix


The Fields of Justice are about to get even more dangerous, as Kha’Zix, the Voidreaver arrives to claim his place at the top of the food chain. Kha’Zix’s evolution gameplay influenced his entire design, from the abilities down through art, animation, voice, and story. To learn more about this apex predator, we caught up with some of the Rioters that helped make him a reality.

  • David “Volty” Abecassis (Champion Designer)
  • Steven “Socratocracy” Clay (Associate QA Analyst)
  • Alex “CaptainLx” Lehman (Senior Animator)
  • Jon “20thCenturyFaux” Herlache (Associate Creative Designer)
  • Josh “Huge and Fast” Smith (Associate Concept Artist)
ByronicHero: How did the concept for Kha’Zix originate, and how did it evolve (no pun intended) into the Voidreaver we know now?

Volty: The core idea of Kha’Zix was that this is the guy that evolves. He mutates over the course of the match. We wanted to capture that gameplay. That was just such a strong and compelling thing.

It was so compelling that when we finally got to do it we had like five designers all sit down and be like, “Okay, what is evolution going to mean?” There were all these possibilities and different directions we could take. When would you upgrade? How would you upgrade? Would you be picking one evolution from a first tier and then another from a second tier?

What we ultimately went with was to pick three from four and focus the evolution mechanic around the role. We just decided that Kha’Zix was going to do the assassin role, and you’d pick from fun, cool assassin tricks for him to evolve. Ultimately that seemed more focused and fun than having to decide to pick between fighter Kha’Zix and tank Kha’Zix... that seemed too broad.

Kha'Zix, the Voidreaver

What made you want to make Kha’Zix a part of the Void?

Volty: He wasn’t voidy at the start. Instead he was just a praying mantis type monster, but the Void just ended up fitting so well with the story of this creature that is out to consume things to become the ultimate predator. He has these evolution powers, and that’s already a theme in the Void. You have Cho’Gath who grows and Kog’Maw whose range gets larger and larger. There’s that whole notion of increasing power through biological enhancement.

20thCenturyFaux: We all felt very strongly that he should be Void, because a big part of the terror of the Void is that they come into your world to destroy your way of life and replace it with their own, spooky Void way of life. And that really fits with the themes of evolution and extinction. There’s this idea that there are massive, unstoppable big scary things in the Void. Growth into terrifying forms of life is a huge part of the Void.

The idea is that he kills his foes, grows stronger, and then adapts depending on what he fights. All of that is part of his core identity, and it makes sense for the Void to sort of send an infiltrator to coopt the traits of a world they’re going to be invading.

What is Kha’Zix relation to Rengar?

20thCenturyFaux: We were working on Kha’Zix before we started on Rengar, but when Rengar showed up it just made sense to pair them against each other because they’re both consummate hunters, but they come at it from completely different angles. Rengar is ego driven – he wants to kill the most dangerous prey and claim the best trophies. Kha’Zix is very instinct driven. There’s almost no ego to him. It’s more of a story of becoming – almost like the twisted, Void version of becoming a hero. He’s twisting and evolving and becoming different and better in a way that is very in keeping with the Void way of life. They’re opposites, but they have awesome chemistry. They’re each other’s white whale in a way.

Adding a lot of personality to a monster can be challenging. They need to have noticeable, defined personalities. One of the things that we focused on with Kha’Zix was this sense of Void superiority. Because he’s constantly changing and evolving, he thinks that that’s the best way to be, and if you’re not that way, you’re a lesser life form. We don’t hit it too hard in his VO, but it does come across. He’s clearly aware of his place in the food chain above his victims.

CaptainLx: Yeah, when I get my third evolution, it always makes me want the fourth, and I end up playing another round because I want to have the one I’m missing.

Kha'Zix, the Voidreaver forms

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