11/3/23 05:00 PM
DevHey everybody, I’m your Dev-For-A-Day Rusticles! You may have either run into me in past Seasonals, or seen my Twitter about playing LoR while living with ALS* thanks to my eye tracking software.
I stumbled into LoR in the Spring of 2021 (back when Atrocity was 6 mana!). I had never played a CCG before, although I was always interested in MtG but was scared of the learning curve and the cost. LoR looked like something I could functionally play and I loved the LoL universe so I gave it a shot. And now, a few top cuts and almost two years later, here we are! I fell in love with the game and the community and together you've all made managing the ups and downs of my disease much easier. It's been very important to keep myself mentally engaged while my body functionally deteriorates, and LoR has helped ease that transition. I greatly appreciate everyone who has poured their soul into making LoR; and I’m excited to be a dev for a day while making my own follower in the game!
To provide some context, ALS is a rare terminal illness that slowly deteriorates the muscles, eventually leaving you paralyzed. There is no cure or even a treatment method, and the prognosis is 2-5 years. It generally affects an older age group, but it can be diagnosed at a young age. I received my diagnosis at 28, and 5 years later am now basically bedridden with a feeding tube and ventilator.
As I’ve progressed through the various stages of ALS, I’ve had to keep adapting to keep gaming. At one point, some good friends of mine built me an arcade-style gaming cabinet so I could play Xbox when my fingers stopped working! Later on, I incorporated foot pedals when my hands weren’t cutting it. Now, I game exclusively with my eyeballs! With the help of some generous organizations, I was able to receive an eye tracking device. It’s amazing technology that lets me operate a computer in full capacity. With it I’m able to play various games, but I spend most of my time on LoR.
I want to give a specific shout out to the LoR team for their dedication to accessible gaming. They have created a beautifully accessible game, and since my introduction have continued to strive towards building a game that can be played by anyone. I’ve enjoyed talking with Sweta (UX Designer) discussing how LoR can continuously improve its accessibility features. I even heard some rumblings that my story piqued the interest of the entire Riot team, so hopefully these conversations help pave the way for future projects to be accessible to all gamers.
But enough about all that; let’s talk about this awesome card and being an honorary Dev for a day!
When Julez first reached out that the LoR team had been following my journey and wanted to work with me on some in-game content, I was floored. It was a surreal experience and I just felt incredibly honored and humbled to be approached with this opportunity. The invitation was emotional for me; my days with ALS are challenging and I’ve put a lot into LoR, so to be recognized and presented with a chance to advocate for ALS awareness melted my heart a smidge. Obviously we had to be a little hush hush before I could just start blabbing to anyone who would listen, but telling my family just before the holidays was perfect. Only a few happy tears were shed I promise!
We spent a little back-and-forth trying to lay down some specifics about the collaboration.The Dev team was open to all sorts of ideas, including creating a personalized emote or cardback. Ultimately we landed on the premier card gamer dream: to create my own custom card. A card has so many avenues for expression, and it was the perfect candidate for telling my story and putting the spotlight on ALS and accessibility in games.
With a tentative plan in place, it was time for the exciting dive into Riot’s DNA (Design, Narrative, and Art) experience to create my own Follower with the Dev team.
The first step of making my follower was getting paired up with a Designer to figure out the gameplay mechanics of
the card. I was introduced to Riot Durdle and we were off to the drawing board!
My very first question was where do we start? Do we begin with an archetype, a region, a wincon, or a meme idea? The correct answer was all of the above! Ideas spawn from everywhere, and I was encouraged that there are no bad ideas when brainstorming a design. Tyler Morgan AKA Riot Durdle was instrumental in invoking the original concepts. He asked questions about my life, my family, and about my experience with ALS, and from there we generated a bunch of really cool designs. There’s a handful I want to highlight that didn’t make the cut, so here we go!
3c 3|3 Targon “Round Start: Grant me -1|-1 and grant allies in hand +1|+1.”
The intent of this design was to mimic the progression of ALS by starting strong but gradually deteriorating. But we wanted to highlight perseverance and showcase that even with a debilitating disease like this you can still accomplish amazing things! This was the most dynamic design and went through several iterations, with some discussion over how to distribute the buffs and how best to generate the effect, via strike, last breath etc.
6c 4|4 PnZ “Play: Predict, then deal damage to a unit equal to the predicted card's cost.”
We nailed this one really quick, and were inspired by a tweet that said I was destroying people on ladder with my eyeballs! I thought it would be cool to represent my eye-tracking device that has made playing LoR possible. Predict encapsulates the action of “seeing,” and the damage output mimicked me ruining someone’s win streak on ladder.
Overall we manifested about a dozen cards in the design phase. From there, we whittled it down to 4-5 cards that we wanted to continue exploring, which brought us to the next phase in developing a card; playtesting!
Playtesting was a blast. Riot Durdle and I played together for a couple hours, enough to run a game or two to see how each card felt. Don’t worry about not drawing the card though, the developers have hacks to place a card directly in your hand! Every time I saw the cards in play it would crack me up, because they all had generic placeholder art and our silly adlib names. Some of the cards were wildly overpowered, but it made the matches we played very memorable. I’m pretty sure I came out with the most wins, but Riot Durdle and I had some nail-biters!
The hardest aspect of playtesting was the insider knowledge I had to keep to myself. We played on the upcoming patch and I’ll always remember shocked Jinx emoting when Riot Durdle hit me with nerfed Quietus! To have all that knowledge and keep it under wraps is tough. I have a newfound respect for the game designers' mental fortitude!
Once we wrapped up testing, Riot Durdle forced me to narrow it down to one card :( A few stood out and I wanted to make them all, but ultimately the choice was easy. I was in love with the design and playstyle of a card we haven’t talked about yet: Papa and Kiddos. I’ll talk about the story and art behind the card first, and then we can come back to what I love so much about the design.
My story isn’t just mine; my family has been with me every step of the way. It was important to me that they were included, because I wouldn’t have made it this far without their love and support! With family in mind, we evaluated some of the regions within Ionia. Meaghan AKA Littleleaf (Creative Lead) gave me a rundown of the Ionia lore, and we landed on two regions to explore: the Navori and Vastaya!
The Navori are wartorn survivors recovering from a long, costly war with Noxus. This region really hit home with me, as the Navori’s war, suffering and recovery aptly matches what a family goes through with an ALS diagnosis. It’s definitely a battle, and the losses are devastating and scarring. But hardship empowers unity and support, and overcoming the obstacles strengthens the foundation of a family. I loved the tone of the region and was thrilled to discuss incorporating Navori into my card.
The other region, Vastaya, was the perfect encapsulation of family values. The Vastaya live a minimalist lifestyle
rooted in magic, but are fiercely loyal and protective of family and friends. If there was an ideal region for
highlighting my family, this was it! The entire theme of this region exemplifies everything I could hope to express
about my family and what they mean to me. It seemed perfect and, as it turns out, it was! We decided to move forward
with Vastaya and I couldn’t be happier with the decision.
*Rusticles Note: There was actually a third proposed region (Karma) that I really enjoyed thematically focused on
strength and perseverance, which describes my journey through ALS pretty well. Unfortunately, it has Karma, and
uh… Karma and I don’t get along on ladder, so I had to put an ax in that real quick.
Lastly, I began working with the Art team in dreaming up initial drafts of how my Follower would come to life.
My main goal for the art was to highlight the journey of ALS, from the beginning to the end. It’s a little somber, but I wanted it to be real. There is no cure, so the finality of this disease is written in stone. Despite that inevitability, I wanted to show that life persists and to remind others living with a terminal illness that their lives are impactful beyond the expiration date. In addition, I thought it was important to highlight my disability, as evident in the beautifully crafted wheelchair. And finally, I wanted my kids to be included, all three of them!
Expressing a story through the art was the hardest aspect of the design process for me. Luckily, I had Littleleaf to help reign in all my jumbled ideas, and we got some additional support from Illustration Lead, Crystal Chang, to focus all those thoughts into some beautiful art narratives. I want to showcase a few concepts that I loved and definitely didn’t ugly cry when I read them…
Idea #1:
Art 1: Papa is moving across Ionia on an enchanted tree chair with a journal. Documenting things to pass during a sunset.
Art 2: Daughter is exploring with siblings and enchanted tree chair (without Papa) holding the journal and pointing at something their father once pointed at, perhaps the flower. Sun rising or perhaps night time. Kids in back could point at stars or something, potentially tie back to Papa. Or could be a difference in seasons to show time has passed.Idea #2:
Art 1: Showcasing Papa enjoying his time with his children, perhaps teaching them how to fish or doing some sort of activity that shows their bonding time. We would imply Papa has ALS but it is less at the end of the road.
Art 2: Showcasing Daughter leading the activity now that her father is gone. She could be showing her younger siblings how to fish now, just like how her father showed her.
Perhaps the father was wearing a necklace and now she is wearing it. Or perhaps the fishing rod is a very specific shape and style and now she is holding it instead.
Perhaps if they have the old enchanted tree in the image showcasing it is now empty as they are gone.
Idea #3:
Art 1: Papa is staring at a tree, he is at peace. This could be during fall as the tree's leaves fall
Art 2: Daughter is climbing a tree. When the illustrations are put together it looks almost like one giant image.
Perhaps the daughter is trying to grab a ball for the other kids to indicate some sort of active sport like lacrosse or something. This would be during spring as flowers bloom.
Ultimately, we ended up utilizing bits and pieces from all the different concepts to incorporate in the final version. With a story in place, let’s dive into the finished artwork!
The first thing to notice is the changing of seasons between the two cards! We wanted to signal that time had passed, and that Papa had passed with it. The change from Fall to Spring is a perfect symbolic transition. The leaves are falling and the sun is setting, and Papa is content. Conversely, in spring, we see the kids thriving and exploring nature and all the new life that accompanies spring. It’s beautiful and the artists captured the essence perfectly!
The second element I want to point out is Papa’s journal. The journal is important for a couple of reasons. First, we see the journal in Papa’s hand, but later it passes on to his children. Apart from insinuating that Papa is no longer around, the journal is meant to preserve Papa’s legacy, specifically with his kids. My own kids mean everything to me, and I hope to forever positively impact their future whether or not I’m here. To see the kids playing and loving life with Papa’s journal is exactly the sentiment I hope to pass on to my own children!
It’s finally time to talk about the design of Papa and Kiddos! I was in love with this concept as soon as it popped into my head, and the original design is almost exactly the same as the final product, give or take some number tweaks for balancing.
I have been fortunate to watch my youngest daughter grow up these past couple years. As my daughter progressed from walking to talking, it struck me that she was evolving inversely to me. As she took her first steps, I was moving into a wheelchair. As she said her first words, I was losing my own voice. Throughout her childhood, I’ve held onto the belief that I’ve been “giving” my abilities to her to help her grow, rather than simply losing them. This translates perfectly into the card, where Papa helps Kiddos grow!
Throughout this article, I’ve expressed the importance of family, and how I’ve only succeeded in life because of their support. I wanted this card to reflect how much they take care of me, so the Support keyword was the perfect solution. This card is a symbol of duality, both Papa and Kiddos need each other in order to thrive.
The final design decision was replacing our temporary development name of Papa and Kiddos with an official card name. After a brief brainstorm session I landed on a couple things I wanted to see represented in the cards. Starting with Papa, the most important thing was getting my longtime nickname “Rusty” into the card! The word “rusty” doesn’t fit thematically within Ionia so we had to be creative and sneak it in there! As for Adnere, this is a shout out to my programmer buddies from my previous employer. My real name (Andrew) was obfuscated in the database as Adnere, so they started calling me that instead since it’s surprisingly close to my real name.
For Kiddos, I just wanted to try and include all my kids generically into the name so they were all equally represented. The design team at Riot landed on Aviarists, which was perfect since it relates to the card art and narrative while also including all my kids. By a happy accident, my family noticed an awesome Easter egg. Not sure if it’ll apply to all languages, but here we go! My kids are Avy, August and Arya, so check this out:
Avy - i - Arya - i - August - s = Av - i - ar - i - st - s = Aviarists! Every one of my kids made it into the name!
And with the name finalized, that’s a wrap! I couldn’t have been happier with how everything turned out. The design itself was perfect and showcases the mutual love and bonding from a parent to their child. The story encapsulated the essence of family, including the ups and downs of a parent battling a terminal illness. And the art makes me grin from ear to ear and tear up every time I see it. There was so much detail and thought behind every aspect of this development, and I can’t express enough how thrilled I am with the end result. I low-key hope the card is busted just so I get to see it in action every other game 🙂
As a final thought, I just want to express my gratitude towards everyone who made this opportunity become a reality. There are too many people to list—creating a card takes an incredible team effort across multiple departments, it’s actually insane. Thank you Riot and all of those involved! It’s been an amazing experience I will forever cherish. A final thank you to my family, for all the love, support, tears, laughs and memories we’ve experienced throughout this journey together. I love you all!
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Rusticles
Eyeball Gamer
Andrew Liebel AKA Rusticles quietly eased his way into the competitive scene on the shoulders of Akshan Sivir, earning some top cuts and a Worlds Qualifier along the way. When he's not terrorizing ladder with his eyeballs, check the cheap seats at your local hockey game, or the dinner table with his kids playing board games.