Map design is inherently integral when it comes to low TTK, first-person shooters, and Riot Games ' Valorant game is no exception to this fact. Level layouts, corners, factory site entry points, and sniper angles all determine how the game is played on certain maps. It's safe to assume that every map in Valorant is as unique as possible. After the addition of Icebox to the game in Act 3 , Valorant fans wondered how the developers planned and developed such arenas in the game. So, to answer the community's curiosity, Valorant's 3D Environment artist Lydia Zanoti is here with a blog post titled " The Art of Valorant Map Environment ". In the post, Lydia goes into a lot of detail documenting the entire process of making a Valorant map, and the total effort and creativity involved.
Post level design
Map Basics
Out of Borders
Helmetless construction
Map Clarity
Map Motifs
Base
Each step in map creation is just as important as the next, and Lydia says the whole process is a true collaborative achievement, "from the graybox (the oldest playable version of the map) to the one that's ready for you, the player, to get a map."
Lydia suggests that the first step in designing a map involves Art Leaders and Creative Directors:
"Reiterating finding an iconic look for our maps using a range of blue sky concepts."
This stage includes many things:
" Sharing between artist and project leadership to make sure the map follows the VALORANT theme." However, after this stage, 3D artists like Lydia take over and begin to place the necessary foundations and motifs on the map.
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When it comes to building the map foundations, Lydia devotes it to greyboxing , art blocking, and art production.
“Our maps were created entirely using Unreal Engine 4, and most of the team uses Maya for 3D modeling (although a few of us use 3ds Max). When we start modeling the maps, we get to feel for gaps, check for errors, make sure there is correct collision, and make sure it's too noisy or visually competitive with our Agents. We try to test them on a weekly basis to detect areas."
This step deals with the performance of the new map, and Lydia realizes that aesthetic appeal alone isn't enough in a game like Valorant.
Lydia: "Performance is very important in tactical shooters, and when we finish a map, we spend a lot of time working with engineers to clean it up and keep it running as smoothly as possible. There are many ways we can do this and it's always like having to sacrifice visual quality to get a small performance gain. There are trade-offs. This adds up to small wins and is important to the game.”
Once the performance aspect of the Valorant map is complete, optimizing it and populating it with other textures and "scene tone" is the easier part of the map creation formula.
Lydia says: “We try to place and model the basic architectural shapes on the map before we start creating textures. When we start adding color to the cages, we make sure they are not too dark, especially indoors. The goal is to maintain game integrity by ensuring that the environment does not obstruct clarity and that the characters are always clearly visible. "
Clarity deals with the look and feel of the newly made Valorant map , but it always comes second to the game. This step takes care of visual clutter and Lydia uses the following phrases:
“To help with visuals, we make sure our materials are similar in value and not too much contrast or dark. We can also increase clarity by using lights to illuminate dark areas or to highlight areas that require the most visibility possible, such as a Spike factory area or a publicly watched corner. "
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Map Motifs are callout points, and every Valorant player can tell you how important such motifs are in tactical first-person shooters.
Lydia also understands the importance of map callouts , especially when it comes to Valorant's competitive landscape:
"For themes and summons on maps, it's best to find simple and easy-to-understand ones to avoid the pain of hearing your teammates shout 'there'! when they really mean 'garage' or 'market'. Also include description texts that are quick and easy to say when in the heat of a match. We take that into account. Some of our description texts, such as 'kitchen', are very clear. In other cases, we try to use colors as a way to distinguish certain areas and structures, such as the yellow shipping container at site B."
Lydia closed the blog with one final step to engage the wider Valorant community in map creation.
The new map will finally go live when the community gets a chance to try it out, as Riot likes to keep an eye out for its social media channels that care about player feedback.
