Riot Reveals How Valorant Skins Are Made

Free-to-play games can live or die by the quality of their cosmetic content, and Riot's new shooter Valorant is no exception. In a recent blog post, the team behind Valorant revealed how it develops the game's premium skins.

According to the post, the process begins with a brainstorming process to determine the fantasy and genre that the weapon skin promotes, from sci-fi to high fantasy. However, the team sticks to a number of core rules, chief among them that the skin's unique visual effects and animations are only seen by its owner in first-person.

The developers also take great care to ensure that the outline and shape of the specific weapon is still recognizable, for the sake of fair competition. Since the skins in Valorant have unique animations for headshots and reloads, playtesters sample the skins in order to make sure that they aren't too distracting for the user.

Valorant will leave its closed beta this Thursday ahead of its full release on June 2. All player progress from the first beta will be reset, and shortly after the game's launch, Riot will release new characters, game modes, and maps to keep it fresh. The most-recent patch introduced massive changes to the game, including a lower cap on credits and nerfs for its strongest agents.