By Plarium Studio
What inspires RAID: Shadow Legends artists when they create new Champions for the game? Find the answer in this article by Valentyn Demchenko, Art Director at Plarium.
He talks about the source of his team’s ideas based on two Champions: Kaja the Wry and Timit the Fool.
Approach to Champion design
RAID has a collection of 800+ Champions, which we constantly expand for various themed events. To make a new Champion unique, the artists have to come up with unusual looks every time while sticking to the dark fantasy setting.
So, these special themed Champions were based on a unique collection of references, including carnival imagery, medieval costumes, and wooden puppets.
This creative direction resulted in a pair of surreal, fierce puppets!
Kaja the Wry
According to the original art concept, Kaja is the queen of the puppet kingdom who dreams of conquering the world with the help of her puppet army.
When designing her, we were inspired by carnival imagery from the movies “MirrorMask”, “Phantom of The Opera”, “Eyes Wide Shut”, and other similar sources. We put a cracked mask on her face and an elegant wig on her head.
Kaja’s outfit is based on a puffy medieval dress. We supplemented it with knight’s armor to emphasize the Champion’s fighting skills. Kaja actively demonstrates them in the game, boosting her allies’ critical rate and critical damage.
Wooden dolls tied up with ropes is a symbol of the Kaja’s sinister plan to turn all creatures into her own puppets. You can see in RAID how skillfully she manipulates Timit’s actions by activating his skills.
Timit the Fool
When we were creating Timit’s look, our inspiration came from evil movie clowns. We emphasized his aggressive nature in the game – the Champion is a master of Fear and Provoke debuffs.
The Champion’s main stat is HP, so we decided to point this out by making him stocky and unusually tall.
As an outfit reference, we chose a classic jester costume from the Middle Ages.
Connection between the Champions
Initially, we envisioned Timit as Kaja’s first animated puppet, her loyal and merciless guard. To emphasize this connection between the Champions, we added puppet loops, ropes, and a wooden collar to Timit’s costume.
The Champions’ connection is also reflected in their skills in the game. Kaja and Timit strengthen each other when they are on the same team.
