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[2020] VALORANT Premium Content Team, AMA on past and future cosmetic content


over 3 years ago - /u/oniram177 - Direct link

EDIT: Thanks everyone for joining us in this AMA!! We're signing off for the night!

Hey everyone!

We’re the Premium Content team on VALORANT (this is Sean Marino writing), responsible for the base weapons, skins lines, Battlepass content, and Agent contracts. Basically, if it’s a cosmetic in the game, then our team made it! For the sake of this AMA, you’ll notice we didn’t say pricing—we don’t decide on this, so we won’t have answers for you on that front!

This is your time to chat about the guns, skinlines, and every piece of content used to personalize your time in VALORANT.

We’re currently working on stuff for Episode 2 and beyond, so we’ll do our best to answer Episode 2 questions without spoiling all the goods. We’ll be here from now until 5pm Pacific Time, and we will edit this post to indicate when we’re signing off!

This is us:

Sean Marino, Art Lead - oniram177

Preeti Khanolkar, Producer - Riot_Preeti

Sammi Pedregon, Art Outsource Manager - heyyousam

Samantha Russo, Art Outsource Manager - samazonprim3

Stefan Jevremovic, VFX Artist - Riot_R4kiya

Lea Hughes, Researcher - aeneia

Isaac Kikawa, Audio Designer - RiotKarateMonkey

Sean Bigham, Concept Artist - Gutterworks

^ This isn’t our entire team. Some of us are shy (but we’re lurking)!

External link →
over 3 years ago - /u/Riot_Preeti - Direct link

Originally posted by Rumblemike

Do you guys like ValorLeaks on Twitter? Also any hints on future skins?

I love leaks.

over 3 years ago - /u/oniram177 - Direct link

Originally posted by Rumblemike

Do you guys like ValorLeaks on Twitter? Also any hints on future skins?

We love ValorLeaks, floxayyy, all the folks who join in and datamine. Its fun for us to see them find things that may or may not have been intentional. :)

over 3 years ago - /u/Pwyff - Direct link

teal axe?

over 3 years ago - /u/Riot_Preeti - Direct link

Originally posted by Pwyff

teal axe?

OMG CHRIS TOM

over 3 years ago - /u/aeneia - Direct link

Originally posted by LeekMany6245

Would you guys consider bringing back the old skin collections for those who missed the opportunity to purchase them when they were released?

Hey there friend -
We'd absolutely consider it! There are a lot of benefits to it, including helping out the players who missed it the first time around :)
We'd have to make special considerations for the exclusive content that comes with the skin lines (like the buddies and sprays) , but it's for sure been a point of discussion.
Thanks :)

over 3 years ago - /u/Pwyff - Direct link

Originally posted by Riot_Preeti

OMG CHRIS TOM

TEAL AXE!!!!!!

over 3 years ago - /u/oniram177 - Direct link

Originally posted by nxtha

Will new sorts of knifes release anytime soon (Instead of the usual Daggers / swords / claws?)

Will there ever be an opportunity to buy player cards / buddies from old bundles such as the Elderflame or Prime bundles?

Yes. This wasn't something that was widely talked about but we have what we call "archetypes" for our melee weapons. Originally we had "tactical, assassin, and aggressive," and those set up base expectations for the specific type of animations and movement sets we had. With Oni and Ion we introduced a new set we call "fury." Over time as we develop new skin lines and see new opportunities we will absolutely want to add more archetypes to create other sets from

over 3 years ago - /u/Pwyff - Direct link

Originally posted by Riot_Preeti

OMG CHRIS TOM

*do you hate teal axes ;~;

over 3 years ago - /u/oniram177 - Direct link

Originally posted by oniram177

Yes. This wasn't something that was widely talked about but we have what we call "archetypes" for our melee weapons. Originally we had "tactical, assassin, and aggressive," and those set up base expectations for the specific type of animations and movement sets we had. With Oni and Ion we introduced a new set we call "fury." Over time as we develop new skin lines and see new opportunities we will absolutely want to add more archetypes to create other sets from

And for the bundle content: there is a world where those come back but not in the same way. No definitive plans as of now

over 3 years ago - /u/Riot_Fragloser - Direct link

Originally posted by Rumblemike

Do you guys like ValorLeaks on Twitter? Also any hints on future skins?

Yeah! Before I got into the industry, it was always so much fun refreshing the leak sites for games I played to find out what was new before it was officially announced. To this day, I still look at leak sites/datamining from other games too :D

over 3 years ago - /u/Riot_Preeti - Direct link

Originally posted by Riot_R4kiya

Sometimes I go to check what is going to be in the next patch on ValorantLeaks :)

Same! I know the minute the patch goes out because the dataminers are on top of it!

over 3 years ago - /u/Riot_Preeti - Direct link

Originally posted by Pwyff

*do you hate teal axes ;~;

If you come back, I'll give you a teal axe.

over 3 years ago - /u/Riot_Preeti - Direct link

Originally posted by tumi12345

Can you guys give us a little hint as to what's coming in the next battlepass?

oooooooh what kinda hint do you want?

over 3 years ago - /u/Pwyff - Direct link

Originally posted by Riot_Preeti

If you come back, I'll give you a teal axe.

a compelling case, i will consider

also <3

over 3 years ago - /u/oniram177 - Direct link

Originally posted by blaukat

Hey guys!

In one of the more recent blog posts its mentioned that you guys want to add variants on melee skins and thats its something you want to try once you add more artists to the content team.

When you do add these artists are there any plans to retroactively add variants to existing melees?!

Hi! Yes we're looking to see what is the most effective way to get variants on melees. We first started this effort by adding variants to battlepass and because it was a bit quicker we did it for Ego and Winterwunderland.

As of now everything we do is a tradeoff so we're trying to balance the need for variants with the need for full other skinlines of similar complexity (convex, ego, serenity, etc).
As for adding variants to skins that exist, that's something we wouldnt do purely because of the fact that it then becomes a bit exclusive for those who already purchased it.

over 3 years ago - /u/Riot_Preeti - Direct link

Originally posted by mmm_oist

You guys have been smashing it with every skin design! I love seeing your work.

Question: Will you ever consider adding other guns to previous skin lines? Myself and many other people would love to see new gun skins in previous skin collections. I would definitely spend some money on something like a Glitchpop Phantom or even something like a Reaver Stinger.

Thank you, this is really nice of you! :)

Maybe! We've talked about wanting to add more guns to existing skin lines! I'd love a Reaver Phantom personally.

over 3 years ago - /u/oniram177 - Direct link

Originally posted by Saikuni

probably won't get an answer but, will the current FOMO-based store ever go away and give the player (far) more choice? or has it ever even been under consideration?

We're looking at all the questions so dont worry we'll try to get to them all!
Currently there are no other plans for the store to change the model that drastically. Like with night market we are trying different methods as an additional method of store engagement but for now we'll be sticking with the same featured bundle and set of rotating skins

over 3 years ago - /u/Nickwu - Direct link

Originally posted by cacmelo

Do you think about creating new weapons for the game? Many people want one on the rifle!

Yep! We definitely are thinking about expanding the Arsenal in the future =]

over 3 years ago - /u/Riot_Preeti - Direct link

Originally posted by Pwyff

a compelling case, i will consider

also <3

Miss you, friend. <3 <3 <3

over 3 years ago - /u/Riot_Preeti - Direct link

Originally posted by blaukat

we will never stop asking Preeti

we will continue to post, continue to comment, continue to ping, until you make it a reality

TEAL AXE TEAL AXE TEAL AXE

over 3 years ago - /u/Riot_Preeti - Direct link

Originally posted by tumi12345

anything you guys would be willing to share! gunbuddies, sprays, skins, anything just for a little teaser

Does this count? We'll eventually make a buddy for Dan the Penguin, but he isn't in the next battlepass.

over 3 years ago - /u/Riot_Preeti - Direct link

Originally posted by slowrmaths

Hey I’m just gonna ask this on behalf of everyone since it’s on the front page, spinning sheriff when?

Our animator isn't here :(

over 3 years ago - /u/Riot_Preeti - Direct link

Originally posted by GamerUp

Any chance on making more 'larger' (feeling) maps like Icebox compared to Split (which feels tiny) and also any plans to make a 2-storied map (Bombside B on lower floor, A on upper floor)

Wish we could answer this but that's the Maps team. We'll suggest they do their own AMA for you all!

over 3 years ago - /u/Riot_Preeti - Direct link

Originally posted by Paploo968

Will the christmas skin bundle (which is out right now) only be available during christmas time and not be in rotation afterwards?

It will go into the rotating afterwards!

over 3 years ago - /u/Riot_Usury - Direct link

Originally posted by TH3WH1T3W0LF

I have a few questions I would love to get answered.

1 ) Are all skins released so far in the game going to be retired with the end of this episode?

2 ) Will there be some way to reset the Night Market? With 32 days left and 6 skins (some people got nothing they wanted) it makes no sense. You have enough time to at least reset it weekly.

3 ) Will there be any way to obtain skins from previous Battle Passes? (even purchasing them?)

4 ) Will we ever see an increase in the amount of skins that are currently displayed in the store?

5 ) Will you ever offer a sale on Valorant Points?

Initial thinking on this:

1 ) No! They will have the same accessibility that they currently do - coming back in your rotating shop and the Night.Market.

2 ) Unfortunately no, though we do plan to bring it back for 2021.

3 ) We don't currently have plans to bring back Battle Pass content as we want to respect the players who grinded for it during the window it was available. However, we may look to reevaluate this if there is enough player interest and enough time has passed that we don't make those players feel invalidated.

4 ) We're still evaluating what the shop should look like in the long term, but there are not current plans to change the amount of skins displayed in the shop at this time.

5 ) No current plans to do.

over 3 years ago - /u/oniram177 - Direct link

Originally posted by BirdBoyfriend

I really appreciate the hard work you've put into making all these designs! They ooze with personality, something many games lack in that aspect.

Two questions (you're free to skip them): 1. Have you ever had to scrap a skin line very late in development? I know you were dangerously close to that scenario with the Elderflame set, but I wonder if it has actually happened yet.

  1. The EGO set is one of my personal favorites as it's a really good incursion into fashion, something I am a huge fan of. Is this a one-time thing only, or can we expect to see more cosmetics based around real life fashion?

Hi there! Thank you so much!
1. yes - we've scrapped a few skinlines specifically that were done for our alpha/beta. As we made more we found that we just got better and better and those early ones just werent up to the bar. We actually also scrapped weapons within a skinline as it came close to ship. G.U.N. actually had a phantom and we cut it because it looked too similar to the spectre, and the spectre was already complete by the time the phantom was starting.

  1. We want to have more like this! We actually set out to establish a brand with Ego - One Tap, in the hopes that we can bring back new skins from the same brand. SImilarly we also did that with Playzilla. haha. we want to have a few more sort of in world or lore brand identities that we can play with for skin bundles
over 3 years ago - /u/oniram177 - Direct link

Originally posted by N04Hr

Would it be possible in the future for you to give knives such as the elderflame dagger the same color styles as the weapons? I think it would increase sales

answered here!: https://www.reddit.com/r/VALORANT/comments/kbdl1i/valorant_premium_content_team_ama_on_past_and/gfghr8m?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

TLDR yes but not on skins that have already released

over 3 years ago - /u/Riot_Preeti - Direct link

Originally posted by Arzoz101

How do you guys get the inspiration to come up with new themes of skins? Reaver (dark), Ion (Sci-fi), etc?

Anything can give us inspiration! An image, a word, or even a memory. The Winterwunderland skins were inspired by a trip that u/oniram177 took a few years ago.

over 3 years ago - /u/Riot_Fragloser - Direct link

Originally posted by Dreamzymemes

Hey, I love your guys' skin designs and all.

But why did you guys get rid of the luxe upgrades? I've always had that in my mind and my question never got answered. Those skins upgrades were dope asf but you guys just straight up removed it without saying anything.

Is this the first time I'll get it answered?

Yeah unfortunately the skins in the beta were opportunities for us to explore skins and we were unsure which ones would ship and which weren't. I do love the variants as much as you all (I rocked the camo one myself), but I don't believe we will be bringing them back.

over 3 years ago - /u/Riot_Preeti - Direct link

Originally posted by RiotSuperCakes

I have a question. Outside of being an incredibly reliable, high quality and uber-player-focused team on VALORANT (all opinions are my own)... what are you most proud of this year?

We are so proud that we've helped bring a little bit of joy to players this year.

over 3 years ago - /u/aeneia - Direct link

Originally posted by Martvall

Hey you guys! Love the skins, the bp ones in particular. Will there be a skinline with variants/effects to spend radianite on in the next bp? :) You are doing great work!

+edit Thanks for the reply :) Also just wanna add that the wasteland set is super nice, and I hope there's some more very detailed, non flashy skin sets in the future!

Hey there friend! We're so glad you love the BP skins, and thank you so much! :)
For our next battle pass, we will have a skin line that has Variant upgrades through Radianite :)

over 3 years ago - /u/Riot_Preeti - Direct link

Originally posted by samazonprim3

My favorite skinline is Reaver because I'm an edgelord

same!

over 3 years ago - /u/Riot_Usury - Direct link

Originally posted by Express-Fox-8244

Will the Night.Market just be during Christmas season? If not, what times can we expect it to recur?

We plan to bring it back in 2021 but haven't landed on the exact timing.

over 3 years ago - /u/Riot_Fragloser - Direct link

Originally posted by billquentin

If someone wants to have a career similar to yours working with primarily weapon skin design and cosmetics within a game, what programs would you recommend a candidate learn to be able to show their skills and experience in their portfolio? What hard and soft skills make those remarkable candidates stand out?

There are definitely a few areas in Weapon Skin Design that people can head in! We have Concept Art, Weapon Art, FX, Animation, and Audio all as a separate discipline that comes together to create the final gun skin. Riot actually released a series of videos on the different art disciplines and what each of them do!

https://www.riotgames.com/en/artedu/intro-to-game-art

I personally use Blender, Zbrush, Substance Painter, Maya, and Unreal Engine 4 in development as a Weapons Artist.

In terms of game engine, I would say Unreal Engine 4 is definitely a great engine to know. For your modelling or animation package, I would go with whatever is the most accessible for you! I have used Maya, 3DS Max, and currently Blender at the studios I've worked at. The principles of the software kind of carry over between each so I wouldn't get too hung up on which one you choose!

over 3 years ago - /u/oniram177 - Direct link

Originally posted by BloodyThumbtack

First things first! I want to thank all of you for your amazing work the past six months, and prior to launch! I've had a few chances to interact with a few members of the team, and you are all so passionate!

  1. How much of a priority are new forms of Premium Content? (e.g. Animated Player Cards, Music Packs, Stickers, etc.)
  2. Are you considering expanding the Premium Content team going into 2021, or are you confident that the current team will comfortably deliver content at the current pace going forward?
  3. The dev blog regarding the first and only Ultra set (Elderflame) made it clear that Ultra sets take a considerable amount of time and energy to complete, should we temper our anticipation for the next Ultra set?
  4. I have an obsession with cute, pink, and purple-y stuff, and so far Glitchpop and Sakura are the only two sets that satiate that craving. Am I safe in assuming the "Blueberry Spray" teaser in the End of Year blog post is part of a set that will join that group?

Thank you for taking the time to answer our questions! Can't wait to see how the game grows next year!

Hello!

  1. New content types have actually been on our mind since february of this year. Its on our mind but at this moment we just dont have the bandwidth to support looking into new content just yet but we're looking to solve that!
  2. slowly but surely yes we'd like to expand the Premium Content team. We've actually added a bunch of folks this year alone. New 3d artists, producers, outsource managers, etc to ramp up to a sustainable pace for our content.
  3. Yeah they do take a lot of time and effort. We're already talking about what the next one will be.
  4. Blueberry was a fun thing for us to make, its actually a graffiti that you can find on Ascent. This was just a fun idea for a one off and is not included with a set, but we are always looking to add more bright, colorful, or cute types of content!
over 3 years ago - /u/Nickwu - Direct link

Originally posted by melancholic12345

Any new weapons being added?

We're definitely going to expand the arsenal in the future!

over 3 years ago - /u/aeneia - Direct link

Originally posted by N04Hr

Do you plan to rework the Night Market before it comes out again in 2021? I don't know the stats but I'm pretty sure it flopped as many people got only blues and greens and therefore didn't buy anything. I understand it's luck based but I still feel it's unfair :)

Hey there friend! We have a SUPER comprehensive plan for how we're going to determine the success of Night.Market, and we'll want to wait until we get all that information in before we start making calls for 2021.

Just like any other team on VALORANT, we're always looking to improve, and we have lots of ideas for how we can improve Night.Market if and when we run it again. Chances are it won't be exactly the same, even if those changes aren't player-facing :)

over 3 years ago - /u/oniram177 - Direct link

Originally posted by mlalssid

When will we see a feature that allows us to equip a different melee for each side?

We've talked about opportunities to have multiple skins brought into a game, the biggest barrier or issue with this atm is performance and load time. We've definitely discussed if this is worth doing (and how) but no definitive plans right now

over 3 years ago - /u/aeneia - Direct link

Originally posted by ACupOfCheese

Has there ever been a design you proposed that got shot down? Or something that got close to release and taken down right before launch?

Yes. It was the greatest skin idea of all time.
Then one of our artists was like, "Oh! We have one that we're making that's super similar to that!"
Then they showed me. IT WASN'T THE SAME. BUT THEY MADE THEIR IDEA ANYWAY AND NOW MINE WILL NEVER COME TO LIFE.

over 3 years ago - /u/oniram177 - Direct link

Originally posted by Arzoz101

Does Valorant take College interns for non-technical roles? I’ve gone to riot careers website, but it doesn’t have any so just wondering if there’s any back doors possible :)

Riot does have non technical intern roles, things like production, research and maybe some others. I dont think Valorant has any of those roles open atm

over 3 years ago - /u/Riot_Preeti - Direct link

Originally posted by Haze_Valorant

I wonder what even made them not do this in the first place

We're actually a pretty small team, so we had to make some hard calls to do some stuff but not other stuff. Imagine if we we'd done melee variants for Elderflame but that meant we didn't make Prime skins at all. :(

Once we have more artists on the team, we'd like to start doing melee variants. I don't know if we'll go back to add them to old sets or focus on the new ones though. It'll depend what players want more at that time. We run lots of surveys to figure out what players want, so it might seem like lots of folks on reddit want something but the wider playerbase is actually wanting something else instead.

over 3 years ago - /u/oniram177 - Direct link

Originally posted by tntttom1124

low chance but can I get the OG fist buddy.....</3 a k a m e#4427

sent!

over 3 years ago - /u/aeneia - Direct link

Originally posted by SOLIDAge

There has been quite the inconsistency with tiers of skins. It seems the tiers of skins you’ve outlined in the past are just about the PRICE, but what about the features? You have had some premium skins with animations like the Prime, some without like the Nebula.

 

Are there plans to make these more uniform so that when players see the specific icons, we know what we are getting?

 

Bonus question: I would buy more of these skins if I didn’t have to pick and choose them between game. When will be get the option to have a random skin show up when buying?!

 

Thanks for a great game and the AMA!

Hey there friend! We actually did a TON of testing on this in early player labs.
We found that for most players, they preferred the idea of price being related to an "awesome" factor, as opposed to features themselves. For example, players tested a gun that had feature upgrades...but it just didn't feel cool enough to justify a higher price. However, when they tested our Nebula skin, they felt like the "awesome" factor was way higher. So that's what we went with!
In addition, we didn't want to limit our artists with their creative vision. There's a world where we make a retextured skin (without model changes, upgrades, etc.) that takes a TON of time, and a TON of effort. (Hand painting can be a tedious process!) But if we could only charge the lowest price for that, it doesn't end up being super worthwhile on our end...so chances are, we wouldn't make it. Conversely, we may make a gun skin that has model changes and VFX that are super simple and easy to deliver on. It just wouldn't make sense to charge the same as Reaver or Singularity for that!
Hope that makes sense :)

over 3 years ago - /u/oniram177 - Direct link

Originally posted by Junho26

What about league champions as gun buddies as an idea?

we did a scuttle crab! baby steps!

over 3 years ago - /u/aeneia - Direct link

Originally posted by N04Hr

btw you guys rock

NO YOU ROCK! :)

over 3 years ago - /u/aeneia - Direct link

Originally posted by Haze_Valorant

I was really hoping gunbuddies and such were exclusive/limited

The jury is still out on that :) There's a big difference between bringing back gun skins to featured store, and bringing back the exclusive content!

over 3 years ago - /u/aeneia - Direct link

Originally posted by armanisme

Would player cards come back I'm trying to collect them all and didn't know they were limited initially :/

The jury is still out on that :)

over 3 years ago - /u/Riot_Preeti - Direct link

Originally posted by eunicelee

Hello! Thanks for all your work on the game. What's your ideal skin theme? I'd love some kind of iridescent/crystal themed skin. Much love :)

Also - shout-out to Preeti for Edison + RU rep! I love your sociology work. I want to follow in your footsteps :')

OMG RUTGERS AND EDISON REPRESENT!

My research at Rutgers with Prof. McLean is ultimately what lead me to Riot, so I owe him and Rutgers SO MUCH.

My ideal skin theme is everything edgy.

over 3 years ago - /u/Riot_Preeti - Direct link

Originally posted by N04Hr

get me on the team... jk.... unless...

What would you like to do?

over 3 years ago - /u/Riot_Preeti - Direct link

Originally posted by DEFINE-

Any operator skin coming? We didn't have one in Act 2 or 3 :DD

We will eventually make more Operator skins. Can confirm.

over 3 years ago - /u/oniram177 - Direct link

Originally posted by l3m0n4d3__

1st: Could we get more phantom skins with custom reloading? Most of phantom skins have the base reload with just a little detail that you can barely see like oni or ion.

2st: When will magepunk be availabe? 1 Quarter?

3rd: Please make a Elderflame-like skin line but based on FISHS. It would be so funny.

4th: New agent will, like Killjoy has glitchpop, have a skin line that totally fits him when he's relased?

5th: can u guys give me 11500 vp, i live on brazil and it's so expensive around here. id: cherry#11111

  1. Yes. Singularity was the first. there will be more
  2. What's magepunk?
  3. And the reload is it just slipping from your hands and you trying to catch it. I dig it
  4. We try to find opportunities to have some cohesion with our world, between the characters, skins, etc but obviously we go to a lot further and do more fantastical things with skins so there wont always be tie ins like that
over 3 years ago - /u/Riot_Preeti - Direct link

Originally posted by mmm_oist

Could you please ask them this question when they're back? I would love that animation

Sure! He and his wife had a baby, so he's been on paternity leave.

over 3 years ago - /u/oniram177 - Direct link

Originally posted by SuperNeebo

Do you guys have intentions to add more knife animations for new knives? I love most of the current ones and would like to see more styles.

yes. ive answered this more specifically if you look for "archetypes" in another thread here

over 3 years ago - /u/Riot_Fragloser - Direct link

Originally posted by eunicelee

Hello! Thanks for all your work on the game. What's your ideal skin theme? I'd love some kind of iridescent/crystal themed skin. Much love :)

Also - shout-out to Preeti for Edison + RU rep! I love your sociology work. I want to follow in your footsteps :')

SCI.... FI.... EVERY.... DAY!

We have a ton of different interests on the team though. It definitely helps a ton to have a variety of team members who are so excited about different thematic niches.

over 3 years ago - /u/aeneia - Direct link

Originally posted by kolimoli7

Oh cool! Where can we fill these surveys? I love surveys

WE LOVE YOU FOR LOVING SURVEYS!
Each time we run them, we have specific criteria in mind. (Things like engagement, what game modes you play, things like that). Those criteria change for every survey we do.
If you meet the criteria, you may get one! Just make sure you allow us to send you emails (that little box you check with you sign up with us). That's how they get sent for now!

over 3 years ago - /u/Riot_Preeti - Direct link

Originally posted by BirdBoyfriend

please give us the energy drink axe as well. you know which one

no what? tell me.

over 3 years ago - /u/oniram177 - Direct link

Originally posted by Zire_the_Rat

I really like the reaver collection and how it kind of ties into omen's theme. Will there be skin lines in the future that will tie into other agent's themes? Also, will there be the ability to choose a skin profile (weapons, sprays, etc) during agent select?

Wait, we didnt make an octopus themed skin yet so im not sure what omen tie you're talking about.

over 3 years ago - /u/Riot_Preeti - Direct link

Originally posted by eunicelee

Omg that's awesome! I'm finishing my master's rn and I loved the sociology department during undergrad. That's so awesome to hear!! ru rah rah :>

The sociology dept is awesome! I love psych too (I was a double major) but sociology was so small and tight knit.

over 3 years ago - /u/aeneia - Direct link

Originally posted by _feeliN

Are you considering new outfits for the characters in the game in the future? The glove will be nice.

Agent skins (everything from gloves to full on thematic overhauls) are one of the things players most often ask us for!

We've for sure talked about them, but executing on them requires A TON of strategy work and a TON of testing. The last thing we want is to deliver on something so desired by players, only for it to fall short of what players want (or worse - ruin the competitive integrity of the game!) . We can't say whether or not we've committed to undertaking such a big project, but the conversation is FOR SURE on the table :)

over 3 years ago - /u/Riot_Fragloser - Direct link

Originally posted by AgravainX

Do you guys have control over whether we will be able to swap what skins we use in game? Whether that be setting guns to certain agents or guns on attacks and defense?

Second question is, what is your take on making more guns like nebula and the winter skins? The ones that are bit reflective in nature. I read about the process for making nebula, and I was wondering if the process was just has hard for the winter skins or was it easier since you had experience with nebula?

Final question, what are your dreams skins the future? I remember in a video someone said the blastX skins were something he was super excited for, are there any other dream skins out there?

We definitely learn more with each skin we create. Creating something like Prime or Reaver (beta Reaver) allowed us to build the foundations to create Elderflame. So I'm not sure if I would say it's easy or hard, but we definitely learn a lot from previous skins that we can take into making future skins.

I don't know if I have a specific dream skin myself, but there are so many other thematics we have yet to explore that we're excited to start work on.

over 3 years ago - /u/oniram177 - Direct link

Originally posted by BloodyThumbtack

Oh! The one behind the crates next to the Butcher Shop right? Ascent, A Lobby. I love it!

Yep! this was done by one of our data scientists and she was so happy to see us turn it into a spray. the jam i think came out of confusion when the artist heard the name blueberry and thought thats what we wanted them to be eating. it kind of snowballed from there :P

over 3 years ago - /u/Riot_Preeti - Direct link

Originally posted by MrDrSlayer

Any plans to make Valorant World Champion Team skins, sprays, and gun buddies?

Would they be normal skins or upgradable ones with effects/ sounds/ finishers etc?

If you do, it would be a nice touch to have players' signatures writing out like it does on League.

I'd love to eventually do cosmetics tied to esports! I'm a huge fan of what League does with their championship skins. I don't know if we'd do the same thing, but you've got the right idea that we def wanna do SOMETHING.

over 3 years ago - /u/aeneia - Direct link

Originally posted by MedicalExamination54

Hey guys :) Do you plan on making it possible to select skins for each, Defender and Attacker Side? Would be great for both sides I believe :P

Hey there! So players have asked us for this a lot, and we've considered a bunch of different ways that players may be able to equip different skins during a match.

It's not something we've committed to yet, since working on this means our engineers wouldn't be working on other things. Changing out skins in-match is something that would fall into the "Quality of Life" changes category, as opposed to "Critical" category. And when it comes to our engineers working on things, we always need to prioritize the "critical" ones!

over 3 years ago - /u/oniram177 - Direct link

Originally posted by atlapse

i would love the fistbump buddy too atlapse#3392

u/atlapse i got you!

over 3 years ago - /u/oniram177 - Direct link

Originally posted by N04Hr

What are your guys favorite gun skins and why? :)

my favorite of what we've released is honestly wasteland. im generally not into apocalyptic thematics but i feel like this one was just so well executed by the team!

over 3 years ago - /u/Riot_Preeti - Direct link

Originally posted by TheyCallMeSpy

Hi! Dev team! Those skin haven blown my mind a lot, due to how much effort it take!

  1. I am curious on your process of creating weapon skin. Are you planning to create video of your process of creating weapon? I love development process, and I really want to see your process!
  2. Was bundle created way too long ago? I found it weird that elderflame existed way before beta. Can you tell more about it?
  1. Would love to do this! I bet we would be planning something like this except for the whole remote WFH situation. :(
  2. We start work on skins many months (even years) in advance! It takes a long time to develop and test skins that are complicated.
over 3 years ago - /u/Riot_Usury - Direct link

Originally posted by ElectroBird21

Is it out of the realm of possibility for the black market to have a more frequent reset?

It's a possibility. We're still figuring out the best path for the Night.Market for the future and haven't landed on the long term design.

over 3 years ago - /u/aeneia - Direct link

Originally posted by atlapse

Will you guys add new variants for existing skin lines

Hey there friend! It's something we've talked about, for sure, but if we're working on revitalizing old skin lines, that means we're not working on brand new skins for our players! It always comes down to what players will value more.

I don't think our team is opposed to it, but it would have to outweigh the benefits of making a new skin. So it's not something we've committed to, but we are open to it!

over 3 years ago - /u/oniram177 - Direct link

Originally posted by staleydude

I know you guys are shying away from putting in agent skins, but have you guys thought of other types of customization? (Gloves maybe? ;))

we have. they take a lot of time and effort even to just consider all the options, variables and ways of executing. what we have now is what we're capable of doing at the moment, and in the future we'll be looking into what else we can do

over 3 years ago - /u/Riot_Preeti - Direct link

Originally posted by yadnexsh

The man of culture !

I want some BOTW2 leaks :(

over 3 years ago - /u/oniram177 - Direct link

Originally posted by PotatoJoe26

Hey guys thanks so much for sharing your awesome artistic abilities in the form of the weapon skins, buddies, sprays and player cards! Oni Phantom and Reaver Vandal and Omen's Ghost are some of my favorites. Also whomever thought of making tge new Play Zilla guns shoot actually nerf bullets, you ma'am or sir are a genius. I do have two questions though: 1) Have there been talks about combining skin bundles? For example- Oni Phantom, Sakura Classic, Glitch pop Frenzy etc. Also, would y'all ever consider having community suggested themes for skins?

the blastX bullets were my idea. i was really cautious about it and we had to gameplay test it to make sure there were no bugs but i think it was a fun add!

  1. great idea!
  2. yeah i think so. we've seen league do this in the past where we pitch ideas to the community and have them weigh in, but no plans for us to actually do that on valorant yet.
over 3 years ago - /u/oniram177 - Direct link

Originally posted by luchokoldo

Why there is no Ion or EGO skins in the Night Market if those are Premium skins?

Night market was only act 1 skins (excluding XE and UE bundles)

over 3 years ago - /u/aeneia - Direct link

Originally posted by Haze_Valorant

Would u consider adding different colors to the Prism skins? it's the cleanest looking skin but I wish we had options for it in white or shining black

Not gonna lie, that's a SUPER dope texture, and I've been trying to convince the team to make it in more colors :)

over 3 years ago - /u/Riot_Preeti - Direct link

Originally posted by Vacre

You guys have been killing it with the recent skins. How do we go about getting one of those fancy gun buddies with the riot logo? Would match my oni skins 🥺

ooo you need to meet a rioter for that

over 3 years ago - /u/Riot_Preeti - Direct link

Originally posted by iLikeToBeep

I love the current skins and work that you've all done! The skins in this game are absolutely phenomenal c:

That said, one question that I have is... would it at all a possibility that we could see more options to adjust the skin color in the future?

Right now if you have a Reaver Vandal skin, there are currently four color options that we can purchase.

All four of these options will change both the vandal's color & the spray color.

It makes sense that there is only a few variations, as it seems that all of the variations are sort of "custom changed", and they are not just "cut and paste, changing the color alone".

However, I guess I was wondering if it would be a possibility in the future to find a way to more easily create variations of these kinds of skins, so that we could pick other colors?

I'd love to have a Pink Reaver Vandal for example, that looked exactly like the original Purple variation... except the gun being pink & the spray being pink.

If this isn't possible, can I ask if there are plans to release more pink skins soon 🥺🥰?

so many questions! i'll answer the last one: yes, more pink coming!

over 3 years ago - /u/oniram177 - Direct link

Originally posted by ValorantAscended

I won't lie, I keep thinking, "this is the last skin I'm going to buy for a while" and you keep pulling me back in!

All jokes aside, do you think that skin fatigue is real and do you have other plans for premium content that you can tease if you guys decide to stop being as regular with gun bundles if it looks like players are feeling satisfied wit3h their collections?

We definitely are aware of skin fatigue and we try to ensure that we release bundles in such a way that doesnt have players feeling that as much (no bundles with 100% the same skins or similar thematics back to back for example)

No definitive plans for other types of content yet

over 3 years ago - /u/aeneia - Direct link

Originally posted by RiotSuperCakes

I have a question. Outside of being an incredibly reliable, high quality and uber-player-focused team on VALORANT (all opinions are my own)... what are you most proud of this year?

I'm proud of how much the team has been leveling up in their high level strategy thinking :) They learn so well!

over 3 years ago - /u/agersant - Direct link

Originally posted by Kabzon4ik

Probably dead horse but nothing to lose cuz I am pretty sure I won't meet anyone from Riot in CIS lmao

Kabzon#000 from Ukraine

I gotchu

over 3 years ago - /u/Riot_Preeti - Direct link

Originally posted by FeatherPumpkin

This will most likely get lost in the comments but have you guys ever thought about making a melee weapon that resembled something like a PEZ dispenser? It would have different agents head on it, and use radianite points to purchase other agents heads.

Oh that's super fun!

over 3 years ago - /u/oniram177 - Direct link

Originally posted by Kryptc

are there any plans for a kill tracking system with weapon skins similar to stat trak in cs?

We've thought about it for sure. We would have to find the appropriate way to do it though for skins - for example if it were a literal copy of how CS does it and we had an attachment on your gun, that'd have to be themed appropriately, that could even have issues interacting with animations in somecases like with singularity or elderflame, etc. So we have to think about how or if we'll do it

over 3 years ago - /u/Riot_Preeti - Direct link

Originally posted by Kabzon4ik

I am 200% sure there will be crossovers sooner or later with other brands or titles. Could you please just tease us as to when or who will it be? Dying to see it

We've already done some content that crosses over with League in the battlepass. ;)

over 3 years ago - /u/Riot_Preeti - Direct link

Originally posted by teamdannyp

I’m spending hundreds a month on Premium Skins and I’m Iron 1. My higher ranking enemies kill me and then take them and write “nice Skin Sova” in chat. Is there any way to disable enemies from getting my skins for free during a game. I’m not getting better so that’s off the table.

Awwwww. No plans right now. I'm sorry people are so rude too. That sucks. :(

over 3 years ago - /u/oniram177 - Direct link

Originally posted by namdet

Is there any chance a normal player like me can get that Riot Fistbump Buddy?

Looks so clean! I love the skins as time passes by, they just keep getting better and better.

Question: Will the Battlepass ever have a skin with f(x) in the near future?

whats your in game name and #tag

over 3 years ago - /u/Riot_Usury - Direct link

Originally posted by DotaAlchemy

Will there ever be any expansion of the Agent contracts? 10 levels takes a while but once the game has been out for a couple of years, us 1-tricks might appreciate a few new things to grind on our favorite characters!

We're currently exploring the best way to let die-hard agent fans express their dedicate to their agent. Nothing come up any time soon, but it is on the radar though its likely to come in a form that isn't an extension to the current agent contracts.

over 3 years ago - /u/oniram177 - Direct link

Originally posted by blaukat

Some other games have very cool inspect animations, in my opinion this makes the knives in those games very cool.

Do you guys have plans to make more unique inspect animations on knives?

yes!

over 3 years ago - /u/Riot_Preeti - Direct link

Originally posted by BatRL

How far in advance do you guys make skins? For example, was the Winterwunderland set made recently, or was it made during development?

I think we started Winterwunderland like 6 months ago? It's hard to remember and I don't wanna check my tracking docs right now bc those aren't fun LOL.

Sometimes it back be a year or more. The shortest time is still 2-3 months.

over 3 years ago - /u/Riot_Usury - Direct link

Originally posted by [deleted]

[deleted]

There are no current plans to add fan-made weapon skins into the game.

over 3 years ago - /u/Riot_Preeti - Direct link

Originally posted by Haze_Valorant

Would u consider adding different colors to the Prism skins? it's the cleanest looking skin but I wish we had options for it in white or shining black

Black would feel too similar to the base guns, wouldn't it? We've talked about Prism variants but haven't decided yet.

over 3 years ago - /u/oniram177 - Direct link

Originally posted by i_am_exp

Butterfly knife in my store ASAP please ( ͡🔥 ͜ʖ ͡🔥). Also having blackmarket reset through RP would be cool.

https://i.imgur.com/9TVC3eE.png

over 3 years ago - /u/Riot_Preeti - Direct link

Originally posted by Rainofpain99

Is Secret Lineage part of next battle pass?

It's a secret.

over 3 years ago - /u/Riot_Preeti - Direct link

Originally posted by Fourt-Nuyt

I wish them luck!

<3

over 3 years ago - /u/oniram177 - Direct link

Originally posted by SupaMemeSalis

Do you guys plan on making another karambit knife in-game?

I love that players consider the gothic knife a karambit because that definitely wasnt our intent! haha, we just took it as being similar to reaver or dragon. we definitely want to do a "real" karambit that you can spin on your finger. soon(tm)

over 3 years ago - /u/Nickwu - Direct link

Originally posted by Inevitable-Word-411

potential round 2?????..... DOMjs#000

DOMjs#000

sent!

over 3 years ago - /u/oniram177 - Direct link

Originally posted by SnooCompliments7461

Can we get some day in the life vlogs from the premium content team? Also a community skin design challenge?

maybe when we all get back to the office. now it'd be a bunch of "hey here's me in my room on a chat with everybody" :P

over 3 years ago - /u/Riot_Preeti - Direct link

Originally posted by singlereject

Does that mean there won't be any skins for awhile with animations? Or do you guys have extra skins ready to go in the backup aisle?

Sadly it does mean we'll be low on skins with animations for a while. I hope you all still like the stuff we make.

over 3 years ago - /u/Nickwu - Direct link

Originally posted by tbone603727

Is this like a 2021 future or a 2040 future? Love you ok bye

likely before 2040 =] love u too bye!

over 3 years ago - /u/oniram177 - Direct link

Originally posted by the_kentai

can i get the riot gunbuddy for christmas :3 ign: kenter#bye

kenter#bye

ok!

over 3 years ago - /u/Riot_Preeti - Direct link

Originally posted by xc0mr4de

Prime is also my fav skin line! I really love how they look,sound & of course the finisher!

R4kiya did an amazing job!

over 3 years ago - /u/oniram177 - Direct link

Originally posted by dazedandused

Oh sweet! I didn't see that! Thank you.

I still wonder about question two though haha

for question 2. yes. we're actively working on some :)

over 3 years ago - /u/Riot_Preeti - Direct link

Originally posted by KidWhoLikesPCs

Will you ever have like seasonal events with skin rewards?

Would love to do that. Don't know if we'd do skins, but maybe sprays/buddies.

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