SG60 Geek Spotlight: Nguyễn Khanh Duy Is In A League (of Legends) Of His Own

Growing up in Vietnam, Nguyễn Khanh Duy always knew he wanted a career in design, but it was only after he failed to get into the University of Architecture HCMC, Vietnam that he found himself on a path towards video games, even though upon hindsight, not getting into the university of his choice is more of a blessing than anything. 

“I have always known myself as an artist, so naturally, everything I do needs to be related to art,” recalls the 38-year-old Singapore-based digital artist and current Associate Art Director at Riot Games. “Growing up, I played a lot of games and was always so amazed with them, from the art to the story and the gameplay. Game developers are my childhood heroes.“

Even if you’re not a gamer, Riot Games’ League of Legends (LoL) will surely be an immediately recognisable franchise as it has grown to become one of the world’s biggest Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) game, making waves not only in the gaming community, but the wider audience as well thanks to the global success of the highly successful animated spin-off series, Arcane on streaming service Netflix.

“Looking back, I’m grateful that it happened,” says Duy on not getting into the university of his choice, even if he knew it was the expectations of his carpenter father and mother, who helped in managing the business. “It pushed me to do better at things that I was interested in, and although I was not good enough to get into architecture school, I worked hard and with some luck, landed my dream job.” 

It might sound simple, but after failing to get placement in a university in Vietnam, he “ended up studying 2D animation in a different, unknown university instead”. Subsequently, he opted to pursue higher education in the United States, and completed his Master’s degree in Fine Arts at The Academy of Art San Francisco, with a focus on video games, in what he described as “the best time of my life“.

”My family would have preferred me to be an architect, doctor or lawyer…, but they respected my choice and also acknowledged my capabilities and opportunities at the time. Now, I think they would say that they’re proud of me and are glad that they supported me when I was younger.”

For the last 11 years, Duy has made his mark as part of LoL developer Riot Games’ team, not just designing hero models for the game’s mobile port, League of Legends: Wild Rift, but also guiding the creative journeys of his peers. 

Now faced with the expansive world of 2D and 3D art, Duy’s inspiration came from a particularly hellish source – Blizzard’s iconic game, Diablo. 

“Back then in Vietnam, we didn’t have internet access. Someone would lend you a game, you’d install it, and it would blow your mind,” he explains, “And that’s how it was for me. Diablo was dark, atmospheric, and you’d see dead bodies, wander through cathedrals, keep descending into deeper levels, and pick up weapons along the way. It was incredible.”

With this inspiration in mind, Duy set his sights on his dream job with Diablo developer Blizzard Entertainment. It was a long and arduous process filled with attending and winning all manner of competitions and art contests, just to get their attention in the hopes of an opportunity. But alas, this marked setback number two, as Blizzard never reached out by 2014, bringing him back to square one.

Undeterred, Duy kept his chin up and pressed on, eventually snagging an opportunity with Riot, which kick-started his career. “That same year, I took an opportunity at the Game Developers’ Conference (GDC) – where Riot Games had a booth – and met a helpful Rioter who spent hours reviewing my portfolio and giving me feedback on my work,” he recalls.

Still, even though he appreciated the guidance, he wasn’t completely sure of this decision back then, and whether Riot Games would be a good fit. He even roped in his family to help, recalling that he “chatted with my cousins, who are all LoL fans in their thoughts and of course, they encouraged me to get on board to work on LoL in Riot Games.”

His big break came at the most unlikely time, as when the COVID-19 global pandemic struck, Riot reached out to offer him a role, but herein lies the rub – it required him to move to Singapore. Eventually, Duy accepted the offer and the move, and to this day, remains adamant that he made the right call.

Duy’s journey was a true embodiment of the Latin phrase “Sic Parvis Magna”, or greatness from small beginnings, as the then-aspiring character artist literally worked his way up from the very bottom, starting off as an intern with the most menial of tasks – creating rocks on a game map.

“I felt disappointed spending three months making only four rocks,” Duy admits to Apple App Store editors, who recently celebrated his achievements, alongside other Southeast Asian creative talent, as part of the third edition of its “Here’s to the Dreamers” campaign. This disappointment didn’t last, as a mentor eventually reminded him that although his work was small, millions of players around the world would see those rocks in-game daily.

This taught Duy a valuable life lesson and the importance of a small digital creation. “You never know when your work will become part of something huge,” he explains, and it encouraged him to keep building on the small things, and opportunity then came knocking in the form of champion skins in LoL, which he would eventually work on as a 3D artist at Riot.

From Storm Dragon Lee Sin, to Coven Morgana, and his personal favourite, High Noon Senna, Duy would go on to create a multitude of character skins for LoL. “It’s important for us to find a character’s edges; what makes the new character special and unique while making sure that there is no overlap with existing LoL characters,” he explains when asked about how he approached designing said characters, ensuring that each feels both original yet faithful to the game’s well-established universe.

“The key to keeping these characters faithful to the game universe is in their character story; through the region they originate from, their personal history, personality and even their weapons and making sure they relate and are consistent with LoL world building,” he adds.

Designing characters in a game like LoL presented its own set of challenges, as these aren’t mere side characters or NPCs, and as Duy eloquently puts it, “Every character, regardless of their style, gender, age or role, has the potential to be the main character of the game with a full story arc.”

“This gives every player a character that they can relate to and allows them to become the main character in their own journey,” Duy explains, adding that making sure every character has its own unique spark becomes a constant challenge, especially since not only are there so many of them, each must also be properly represented via the game’s top-down camera perspective.

Still, Duy took this challenge head-on, gradually improving his craft and steadily building up a portfolio of character skins. Even so, this only marked the first half of his success story, though, as he would eventually climb the ranks, eventually taking on a mentoring role as an Associate Art Director.

“There were a lot of changes when I transitioned, and it took me a while to get used to them,” he admits, “When I’m working on the art directly, I get to see my progress and results every day, and that feels great. But when you’re a leader and a mentor, you feel the results take longer because you’re not working on it directly, which could feel less rewarding on a day-to-day basis.” 

This hasn’t deterred Duy’s enjoyment of his work, however, as he has adapted to find new ways to garner satisfaction from his role, saying that “what excites me now is the opportunity to support others and being able to share my positive experiences in the industry to help other artists thrive in this field.”

Duy also recalls a moment that made him figure out just how important his new role was, when he was tasked to tasked to take over a concept piece while a team member went on sabbatical. 

“When he came back to see how I visualised his idea in 3D, he was really impressed and appreciative,” he exclaims, “It made me realise what real collaboration is about; being able to realise an artist’s vision and bringing his idea to life.”

“I believe it’s a powerful thing when you’re able to take what someone else started and elevate it together, and that kind of win feels way better than winning alone.”

On the topic of collaboration in the art and design space, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its encroaching takeover of the medium might be a concern for some, but in Duy’s eyes, it will always serve to assist and enhance, and not replace the human touch outright.

“For me, being an artist is a journey of growth; both as a craft and as a human,” he explains, “As people, we make friends along the way and learn from our joys and pains, and that drives our creativity and art. If I let AI entirely take over making and creating art for me, then I would lose its real purpose: to express ourselves in the process.”

In Duy’s opinion, although having new technologies powered by AI can speed up work processes and let artists focus on more creative aspects, it will always miss out on that personal touch, as at the end of the day, AI generates results based on existing databases, and can’t form unique ideas which are especially crucial in design.

“I do art because it’s fun and I enjoy every moment of it, even when I fail and realise that I need to improve my skills. So, because of this, I feel that using AI as a shortcut is kinda weak.” he exclaims, “AI could help with tasks like cleaning up or repetitive parts of the process but even so, why let the machine take the fun away?”

So, what’s next for Duy? Now in a true league of his own, his journey towards success will surely motivate more young up-and-coming artists to clinch the same success he now enjoys. For now, he is more than content, exclaiming that he is still living the dream, working on LoL at Riot Games, with no current plans to move anywhere else. And even though he is now based in Singapore, Duy has not forgotten his roots, hoping to inspire the next wave of creatives back home. 

“Being part of Apple’s “Here’s to the Dreamers” campaign, it is a huge honour to be able to represent creatives from Vietnam and share my story with young artists who may be working hard to get into the creative industry. I hope that my story gives them hope and motivates them,” he shares.

Nguyễn Khanh Duy is just one of the six local talents engaged by international companies. You can read our main story here, as our Little Red Dot celebrates not just 60 years of nation-building, but also the up-and-coming creators who are taking their work from our shores and on to the global stage. You can also read about comic artist Elvin Ching, digital visualisation artist Dave Oh (Lioncolony), and illustrator Kang Jing.