Chapter 286: BGM Summoner's Glory
Arriving at the art department, Zhou Hanyu was busy coloring the concept drafts for the champions.
Before developing *League of Legends*, Zhou Hanyu had recruited several more people, including an experienced concept artist, two UI artists, three 3D modelers, and two animators, essentially establishing a relatively small art team.
In truth, based on the experience with *Warcraft* and *Diablo*, all the art could have been outsourced. It would just mean higher communication costs and slower progress.
However, Chen Mo considered that *League of Legends* would eventually require a massive number of champion concept arts and models, including new champions, new skins, and so on. Frequent outsourcing wasn't a sustainable solution, so he decided to first build a smaller in-house art team.
Moreover, Chen Mo now had much more abundant R&D funds, so maintaining an entire art team on a regular basis was no longer a burden.
The current art workflow involved doing a small portion in-house and outsourcing the majority. In the future, as the team expanded further, it would shift to outsourcing a small portion and doing most of the work in-house.
"How is it? Any parts of these champions you don't understand?" Chen Mo asked.
Zhou Hanyu replied, "No, the designs for these champions are all quite clear, and the progress is going smoothly. But I do have one question. Teemo, Annie, Nunu, Amumu, Lulu—their feature notes all mention 'cute'? This..."
Chen Mo nodded. "Yes, they're all cute, especially Teemo."
Zhou Hanyu said, "Mm, I know that. It's already very clear in the line art. But I'm a bit puzzled. With only 25 champions in the initial release, having 5 of them made like mascots—is our game... aimed at children?"
Chen Mo couldn't help but laugh, then said seriously, "Our game is for all ages, but elementary school students will be an important player demographic."
Zhou Hanyu scratched his head, a bit confused.
Elementary school students as an important player demographic???
Among the current domestic games, aside from casual puzzle games, it seemed none really treated elementary school students as a key player group.
The reason was very simple: generally speaking, they were less skilled, had no money, and had limited time.
Basically, mainstream domestic games targeted players aged 15 to 45. These people preferred cool, realistic art styles. They might not be extremely averse to chibi styles, but there was ultimately a mismatch in appeal.
Among the first batch of champions, cute heroes (Teemo), cool heroes (Ezreal), ugly heroes (Malphite), traditional heroes (Garen), and unique heroes (Blitzcrank) each accounted for one-fifth. This made Zhou Hanyu worry—what kind of hodgepodge was this game?
Although the bright art style, somewhat chibi heroes, and simple controls would expand *League of Legends*' player base, was it going too far?
In a game like *Warcraft*, it was hard to imagine characters like Teemo and Annie appearing.
Moreover, take Amumu for example. He was a mummy. Why not make him a proper, normal-sized mummy, fully wrapped in bandages, summoning scarab beetles?
Why did he have to be made with a big head like a child?
And his design had him constantly crying, with an attack animation that looked like bowing...
Zhou Hanyu had many more questions, but these could only be answered once the game was released.
Chen Mo then checked the current progress on model creation.
Since the line art had already been provided, the champion models and concept art were being produced simultaneously. Currently, two models had been completed: Garen and Ashe. However, because the animations were still being adjusted, they hadn't been swapped into the game yet.
In Chen Mo's previous life, Garen's model had undergone a rework. Chen Mo didn't take that detour and directly created the post-rework model.
The reworked Garen had significant improvements in textures, animations, and details. Overall, it maintained the previous style—heavy, steady, and giving a very reliable impression.
As for some players finding him sneaky, always hiding in bushes, waiting for someone to pass by, shouting "Demacia," and then charging out to spin his big sword... that was due to player playstyle issues.
The current Garen model stood upright like a rod, with both hands angled 45 degrees downward, and his great sword placed separately to one side.
If you looked closely, you'd notice the model's proportions differed greatly from a real human.
His shoulders were exceptionally broad, his arms thick, and his legs thick. The whole figure looked like a short tree stump, infinitely approaching a square shape.
His legs were about the same length as his upper body, giving the impression that he could bend over and walk on all fours without any effort.
Clearly, normal people rarely had this body proportion, especially heroic characters.
These days, if you didn't have two long legs, you couldn't even claim to be the protagonist.
However, there was a reason for making the model this way.
Because *League of Legends* used a top-down perspective, players didn't see the model from eye level but from an angle looking down.
From this perspective, Garen's proportions appeared just right—tall, mighty, and well-balanced. Elements like his massive shoulder armor and great sword effectively highlighted the champion's characteristics.
If the model were made strictly according to real human proportions, it would actually look ugly from this angle, and details would be hard to distinguish.
These were all points Chen Mo had specifically emphasized. With the production experience from *Warcraft* and *Diablo*, Chen Mo's team was already very adept at model creation.
The art side had no issues; progress was smooth.
Chen Mo then went over to Fu Guangnan's area to ask about the progress on music and sound effects.
Fu Guangnan said, "For sound effects, most of the requirements have been sent to the outsourcing company. It's the most professional sound effects team domestically, so there shouldn't be any problems."
"As for the background music, it's going smoothly too. Boss, that track you composed is really excellent. I feel the next step is just to enrich the various elements of this piece. It's sure to become a classic game BGM."
"Oh, right, the first version of the background music is ready. Have a listen."
Fu Guangnan handed the headphones to Chen Mo.
Chen Mo took them, and a very familiar melody played in his ears—*Summoning Glory*.
This track was the victory BGM for the LPL professional league, hailed as a divine war anthem. Its English name could be translated as "Summoning Glory," but Chen Mo felt that translation was a bit stiff, so he set the Chinese name as "Summoner's Glory."
This piece would serve as the login background music for *League of Legends* in the first version.
Chen Mo listened. The current version, though still lacking in instruments and some details not fully polished, already captured the essence of the piece very well.
Chen Mo nodded. "Mm, good. Add more of that blood-pumping, adrenaline-rushing feeling. Make it so that when people hear it on the street, they can't help but want to shout 'Demacia.'"
Fu Guangnan: "...Got it."