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Hey, everyone! |
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I'm Anna. |
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And I'm Andy. |
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And it's been a while since
we've had a chance to talk like this. |
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And since then, we've shared
some pretty incredible moments together. |
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We ended 2023 on the highest of notes |
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with Potter and EG winning it all at Champs LA. |
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And, of course, Shopify Rebellion,
grabbing that Game Changers crown. |
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Earlier this year, |
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we added some additional firepower
to the VALORANT arsenal with the Outlaw. |
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We welcomed our death-defying (literally)
Scottish Controller Clove into the game, |
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Sentinels took the Masters Madrid win, |
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oh, and a couple of weeks ago, |
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we launched Act 3 with lots of pink
awesomeness with Mystbloom. |
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So yeah, a lot has happened and honestly,
we've got a lot more planned. |
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We're working on a ton of cool stuff
for the rest of year |
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and we'll touch on some of that
in just a bit. |
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Beyond today, you can expect
more Dev [Updates] from us |
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when we have something to share, |
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and regular communication
from devs across the game |
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when topics bubble up from the community. |
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Since the beginning, we've been fortunate
enough to serve this incredible, |
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passionate, and engaged
global community around VALORANT. |
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And look, you're never shy to share
what's on your mind. |
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And we love it! Sincerely. |
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We're grateful for the feedback.
We see you, we hear you, |
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and we appreciate you. |
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We want to keep the conversation going, |
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so be sure to tell us what you think
of our chat today |
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and share what's on your mind. |
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Okay, first topic. |
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VALORANT is continuing to grow rapidly as a game
and a sport and a community. |
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It's an entire ecosystem of experiences now. |
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And we have these huge dreams for the future. |
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So, we're leveling up
our leadership team a bit. |
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I'm excited to announce that VALORANT
is getting a new Executive Producer. |
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And... we really didn't
have to look very far. |
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It’s him, it’s Andy! |
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I'm not going anywhere, |
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I'll still be leading VALORANT, |
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but now at the Studio level, |
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thinking about the entire player
experience throughout the whole ecosystem. |
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And I've asked Andy to focus on
what's going on in the game itself. |
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So I'm handing over the dev team to Andy... |
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but we still get to be partners. And I love that. |
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Yeah. |
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Thanks so much, Anna, |
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and thank you all for making VALORANT
such an incredible game. |
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We're still committed as ever to
keeping the core game healthy |
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while evolving it with new updates. |
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And we want to introduce you |
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to more of the dev teams
who bring these updates to life. |
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With that, here are Coleman and Dan
to talk about the map rotation, |
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overall game health, and some gameplay changes
to expect through the rest of the year. |
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Hey, all. I'm Coleman. |
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I’m a Product Manager on VALORANT gameplay. |
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And I'm Dan. |
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I work with Coleman as a Game Designer
on Agents and Live Balance. |
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We're here to discuss some of the work
we've been doing this year |
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and give you our thoughts on
additional changes coming down the road. |
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But first, we've heard a lot of feedback
from you all about map rotations lately, |
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and we've been talking as a team |
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about how we can make
this experience better overall. |
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Rest assured that your feedback
has been heard loud and clear. |
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As a starting point,
we're going to be more transparent |
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around map rotations going forward |
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so you all know when they're happening
ahead of time. |
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In the spirit of this, |
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we want to confirm |
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that the map pool will be rotating
with Patch 8.11 in early June— |
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Breeze and Split will be rotating out, |
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and Haven will be rotating back in. |
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Now, let’s dive into our
main topic for today—role diversity. |
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For context, the live game team’s top priority for 2024 |
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has been to increase intra-role diversity across the roster— |
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basically, looking at each role |
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and ensuring more Agents are viable in each one. |
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And promoting role diversity
sometimes means toning down the power |
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of an Agent whose dominance prevents
other agents in that role |
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or even other roles entirely
from getting picked. |
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That was the reasoning behind our changes
to Skye and Viper earlier this year. |
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On the other side of things, often
this can mean we also have to give |
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a little power back to weaker Agents within a role—
like Chamber, Deadlock, or Gekko. |
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With changes like these,
we often see players ask— |
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why not just buff our weaker agents
to match our most powerful ones? |
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And we hear you. Buffs are fun! |
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But, there are two main reasons why we don’t focus |
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on buffing weaker agents as a primary balancing approach. |
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The first, VALORANT, as a game, is more than just Agents; |
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it’s a tactical shooter. |
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The VALORANT experience is a balancing act
between Agent utility, |
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lethal gunplay, and tactical map design. |
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If we buffed all of our Agents to match our
strongest ones in terms of power, |
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we’d run the risk of Agent abilities
overshadowing everything else. |
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Instead, we strive to maintain
a healthy power level for our Agents |
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and then tune our roster accordingly. |
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Second, as you all keep playing the game, |
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your aim, creativity, and teamwork
keep getting better. |
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So we have to constantly reevaluate
the game. |
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For example, Jett from the Open Beta
would be an absolute terror |
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if she was unleashed on VALORANT in 2024. |
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And back then, she was widely considered underpowered. |
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So we have to ensure we're maintaining that balance |
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while also keeping up with the community. |
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None of this is to say we won't ever buff Agents. |
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In fact, we'll talk about some buffs in a minute. |
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But nerfing agents is also a
very important responsibility of ours |
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and ensures that VALORANT will feel like
VALORANT for years to come. |
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Okay, let's talk about some balance
changes that you'll be seeing very soon. |
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In early June, with Patch 8.11, |
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we’re shifting our focus to the Duelist role. |
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Over time, we’ve seen pick diversity
decline among Duelists, |
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especially in higher-skill and pro play brackets. |
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So we’ll be shipping some nerfs to Raze
focused on her satchel mobility, |
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as she’s been an overly dominant pick in this space. |
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And as for buffs, |
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we see several candidates
who have an opportunity |
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to be more relevant in the current meta— |
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Iso, Neon, and Reyna. |
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Don't worry. |
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We'll explain that last one. |
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Yeah. |
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For Iso and Neon, we’re leaning into
strengthening what makes them unique. |
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Namely, we’ll be adjusting Iso’s shield paradigm |
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and Neon’s slide, as well as some other small tweaks. |
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And for Reyna, we know she’s quite strong in ranked, |
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but she actually struggles
in more coordinated team play. |
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So, her changes aim to improve her viability
in those team environments like Premier and Pro, |
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while also reducing some of her current ranked strength. |
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These balance changes in 8.11 will most likely be |
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the last significant ones
you see from us until after champs. |
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We want to make sure pro teams
have plenty of time to get used to |
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these changes after Masters Shanghai
and adjust accordingly. |
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Of course, you'll still see
smaller patches roll out during this time. |
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We'll just only adjust balance
if something major bubbles up. |
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Also, we're working on
some pretty exciting stuff |
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for after Champs that you’ll get to
play closer to the end of the year, |
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like larger balance updates and modes changes. |
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We'll be back to chat with you
more about all that after Champs. |
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Also, keep an eye out for more comms
from the Maps team coming this summer. |
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Now we'll toss it over to Preeti and Sean. |
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Hi everyone. |
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I’m Preeti, Product Manager
on VALORANT cosmetics. |
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And I’m Sean, Art Director
on VALORANT cosmetics. |
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We’re here to talk to you about weapon skins! |
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When we launched VALORANT back in 2020, |
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Sean and I were in charge of figuring out skins for the game. |
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It was really, really intimidating. |
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Tac shooters were a completely new genre for Riot |
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and we sort of had to guess what kind of skins you’d all like. |
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Yeah, we had our own ideas about what types
of skins would be popular or well-received, |
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but we also knew we had to serve different
types of tastes, styles, and vibes. |
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We felt like there was a really unique opportunity |
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to push the boundaries of what skins
could do in the tac shooter landscape. |
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Over time—lots of surveys,
reading all those spicy hot takes, |
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looking at what people actually buy in-game—
we started to learn your tastes. |
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And they are so much more diverse than we originally thought! |
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For many of you, gun skins are basically fashion — |
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our Collections page is an extension of your own closet |
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kinda like Tenz and his all-red Collection. |
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- You think all his shirts are red too?
- Probably. |
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Ah, Sentinels. |
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So, one of our design goals |
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is to make sure there’s at least
one skin out there for everyone— |
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something that feels like it was made just for you. |
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And something we've been hearing over and
over again is “where are the pink skins?!” |
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I said on stream probably what,
like a year ago or something like that, |
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that we were working on “non-edgy pink skins.” |
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At the time we were, and we still are today. |
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But we don’t just take any skin and recolor it pink. |
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It needs to make sense for the theme,
otherwise it’ll just fall flat |
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and it seems like we're just trying to check a box. |
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And I wanna be clear here. |
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We’ve also been making efforts to understand |
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what you mean when you say you want pink skins. |
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Because “pink skin” means something different to every one of you. |
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Some mean cute or whimsical, some mean elegant and high-end,
some mean feminine, |
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and no one can agree on which shade of pink is the “right” shade. |
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Sometimes even you, Preeti, get the distinction
wrong between pink and purple. |
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Yeah. I don't know what color Reaver is.
Is it pink or purple? |
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Once upon a time it was both. |
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For our first real attempt in this space, |
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we took your feedback about what
you enjoy most from high-tier skins— |
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hype finishers, satisfying aimbot audio, |
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unique animations, stunning visual effects and |
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...sorry about the wall hacks.
That was not intentional. |
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We’ve put all of that into Mystbloom. |
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Speaking of feedback, we heard you
last year on the Champions Kunai. |
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We know one of the most important parts about a melee skin |
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is the inspect animation and how good it feels to spam. |
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With Mystbloom, we kept the super clean, |
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Jett-style equip you all love, |
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and we really leaned into what makes Mystbloom special as a theme. |
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We added a brand new inspect animation and mystical musical loop |
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that’s perfectly zen and BM at the same time. |
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After you get that 4K clutch,
you're super hype, |
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your team is screaming in chat telling you to clip it - |
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we know that you want to add
a little bit of style to that play. |
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And we know that the inspect
should be really satisfying for that. |
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So we really hope we've made something
you'll love with these skins. |
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And I swear we'll continue to work hard
on making more skins for all of you, |
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no matter your tastes. |
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Mystbloom is just our first take on “pink skins,” |
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but we promise, it won’t be the last! |
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[mysterious magical sound] |
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Anyway... |
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next up is Outlaw. |
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We know you've all been waiting
for a sick Outlaw skin. |
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And with every new hype bundle
you’re asking “Where’s the Outlaw?” |
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“Is Riot trolling?” |
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“Why doesn't Mystbloom have an Outlaw?” |
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No, we're not trolling. |
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Making high-tier skins just takes time. |
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A really long time. |
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It's going to be a few more months, |
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but I'm not going to say anything else
about that. |
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We can say something. |
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I'll say something. |
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Fine, I guess. |
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One of your favorite high-tier skinlines of all time |
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is gonna be expanding to include a CLEAN, new Outlaw skin. |
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I felt like it’s really worth sharing. |
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That's right. |
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We're bringing a Smite Outlaw to you. |
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[record scratch] |
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No, Sean. We scrapped that idea. |
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We're actually doing the other one. |
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The one that people actually want. |
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Not the Night Market meme. |
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Not the one that you bought
just to troll me. |
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Okay, okay. |
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I mean, but some people do like Smite
though, right? |
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Yeah, the other one's cool and everything, but... |
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Yes, all right. Either way, |
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we are working on really good Outlaw skins. |
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We promise it'll be worth the wait.
Just let us cook. |
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Yeah, Chef. |
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We've got a lot cooking,
and it can’t all fit into this video. |
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So we’ll be back later this year |
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to give you another update on skins, accessories, and more. |
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Now back to Andy and Anna. |
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All right, thanks so much for watching. |
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- We’re so g—
- Wait. |
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There was something else
we wanted to talk about, |
| 617s |
and I cannot remember what it was. |
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Oh. |
| 623s |
Replays. |
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Yeah, it seems there's been some increased chat
in the community about Replays lately. |
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Seems as though some folks want an update. |
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Yeah we've seen some really
creative inquiries about Replays, |
| 633s |
and I actually want to hand it over to Marcus,
VALORANT’s Technical Lead, |
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to talk about where we’re at with Replays in more detail. |
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Hi, everyone! |
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I’m happy to be able to stop by and
nerd out a little bit with you all on Replays. |
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First off, we have been working on Replays. |
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You’re actually looking at a freecam view |
| 649s |
from a prototype build of our Replay system right now. |
| 652s |
But I want to emphasize the word prototype here, |
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as this is nowhere near launch |
| 656s |
and you’re about to see one of the
types of challenges that we need to solve. |
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From the beginning, VALORANT was designed from the ground up |
| 663s |
to maximize performance, stability,
and competitive integrity online. |
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We built gameplay logic and in-game assets
around a multiplayer session. |
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Player does a thing, |
| 672s |
their game client relays that thing to the server, |
| 674s |
other players in the game
see that thing in real time. |
| 678s |
Replays, though, |
| 679s |
introduce new requirements
that aren't present in normal games. |
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For example, when viewing a Replay,
time might be paused, |
| 685s |
or you might want to review
a specific round in a match. |
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Unreal gives us a lot for free on Replays, |
| 691s |
but we didn't plan for these scenarios upfront. |
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There are a plethora of issues with maps,
abilities, weapons, as well as visual |
| 697s |
and audio effects that we need to work
through to make them Replay ready. |
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Otherwise, defects show up when viewing
moments out of the game and in a Replay. |
| 705s |
Some of these defects are pretty funny. |
| 707s |
For example, |
| 708s |
here’s a side-by-side clip that shows me
interacting with a door switch in a custom game |
| 712s |
beside that same interaction
when viewed in a replay. |
| 715s |
Not sure that door in the replay
is very good at being a door. |
| 719s |
Other defects are more subtle, |
| 721s |
but for replays to be valuable
to all of you, they need to be accurate. |
| 724s |
In this clip, we see another side-by-side of a moment |
| 727s |
in a custom game vs. that same moment in a Replay. |
| 730s |
Notice the game clock in each frame. |
| 732s |
As Brim takes the corner in the Replay frame, |
| 735s |
we see the smoke deploying from the start of the ability’s animation— |
| 738s |
but it should have already been active |
| 740s |
as it was deployed
before Brim rounded the corner. |
| 742s |
Then when the smoke timer ends, |
| 744s |
the replay smoke disappears without the dispersion animation. |
| 748s |
These clips only show a of couple defects
with a couple of individual assets. |
| 751s |
VALORANT’s gameplay is built from thousands of these |
| 754s |
individual assets that all need to be audited for correctness |
| 758s |
and possibly adjusted to be correct in Replay scenarios. |
| 761s |
And we need to do all of that work without
breaking anything in the live game. |
| 766s |
So yes, we're taking our time
to make sure that we get it right. |
| 769s |
Now back to Anna and Andy. |
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Oh hey, we’re back! |
| 774s |
Thanks for taking that one Marcus. |
| 775s |
VALORANT community, please trust me when I say, |
| 777s |
we are right there with you |
| 779s |
and we’re committed to building this Replay system. |
| 781s |
We’ll give you all another update on Replays |
| 783s |
when there’s more to share in the future. |
| 785s |
We know you’ve all been more than patient with us on this issue, |
| 787s |
and we thank you for that.
We will get there! |
| 790s |
Alright, that’s it for today.
Thanks again for watching. |
| 792s |
And we'll be back a bit later this year. |
| 794s |
Thanks, everyone! |
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