West Studio was pleased to work in collaboration with Riot Games on Tilted Fables, an animated short that spearheads a new initiative aimed at curbing toxic player behavior in the League of Legends community.

Under Riot's direction, we created a series of illustrations that were animated into vignettes, featuring four different player personalities as they descended into various states of tilt, or a state of mental or emotional confusion or frustration which causes less-than-optimal strategies and behaviors.

But according to Brand Strategist Beckett Snedeker-Short, who led work on the project, he himself was feeling a bit tilted at the outset of the project.

"When I first reached out to [West Studio], I was near the end of my rope trying to find the right illustrator," said Short about the self-described "weird project." Luckily, we're not scared off by weird or different.

After reviewing the script and getting a handle on the direction, we dove right in to breathe life into these cautionary tales. Over the course of a few months, we worked closely with the team at Riot to ensure the script came alive as intended. "The responsiveness and creative intuition of [West] was awesome," he added. "Everything felt easy and fluid."

More importantly, on creatively abstract projects like this, it's important to stay connected with our clients to ensure we not only produce what's asked, but are adding to their creative process. That effort ended up being a huge help to Short and his team.

"I loved how, every now and then, [West would] make a suggestion about the story structure or art direction; those things helped build trust and I always felt like my feedback was being interpreted the right way," he continued.

The end result is a uniquely cheeky, disarmingly charming way to engage LoL players in a conversation around a potentially sensitive topic.

"The art itself is beautiful and I am a huge fan of the Scarred Vet and Beserker in particular - the level of detail and richness of color in their respective images exceeded anything I'd hoped for. Overall, I'm incredibly grateful to West Studio for showing interest and helping me bring it to life. It was a creatively fulfilling few months, and myself and the team are very proud of the end result," Short concluded.

So are we!