Valorant — New Game Mode: Confusion
Overview
Valorant is one of the newest additions to the series of Tactical First Person shooters we have seen in the esports industry. In the short span from its release in June 2020 it has gotten a lot of attention from various esports athletes across various games like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Fortnite, Overwatch, and Apex Legends. There are various athletes who have made a switch from these games and taken up Valorant as their main game. As of now, the game has 7 game modes that cater to different sets of audiences. These can be divided into two parts: spike plant/defuse (competitive, unrated, spike rush, and replication) and gun fights (deathmatch, escalation, and snowball fight). Although these game modes cover certain aspects of the game there is some more room for other game modes to co-exist.
Comparison with Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
Valorant has always been compared with CS: GO and that game has more than 10 modes that people can have fun in. Although the two games are separate in many ways there are some people across Reddit and Twitter who wants game modes like Spike retake added to the game. In this game mode, the bomb has already been planted and the counter-terrorists have to retake the site and defuse the bomb. The major problem that I feel with spike retake is that with so many utilities that are to play around in this game I personally feel this game mode will act counterproductive to the direction the game has been heading (it is not just a shooter game).
The current state of Valorant players
I conducted user interviews with different sets of Valorant players and created some basic user personas based on them. This helped me understand their relationship with the game and what motivates them to play more.
My goals for the new game mode:
- A game mode that is compatible with all current maps in the game.
- A mode doesn't shy away from the usage of abilities or gunplay which has always been the focus of Riot when they put out stuff in the game.
- Become a place where people can create a lot of content and have fun playing with their friends.
New Game Mode: Confusion
This game mode will fall into the category of spike plant/defuse. When the player gets matched into a game, they will have a chance to select the abilities that they want and not the agents they want to play. Currently, there are 19 agents in the game split into controllers, sentinels, duelists, and initiators. Every agent has 4 unique abilities which at default are key bound to Q, E, C, and X (Ultimate ability). For this game mode, they can choose one ability from one type of agent. For example, you can have Viper’s poison cloud, Sage’s healing orb, Jett’s cloudburst, and Sova’s hunter’s fury in one agent. I create the UI in Unreal Engine which can be used to understand how you select your abilities for this game mode.
This game mode will have 11520 types of combinations that the player can make from the current abilities and therefore making this game a pure mode of confusion for not just your teammates but also the opposition. I have an understanding that the game mode can also be broken in terms of some combinations becoming too overpowered in comparison to others but that is something that can be figured out in playtesting and more rules can be formulated on top of the agent type-based rule.
Game Mode Structure
This is a best-of-nine spike (Plant/Defuse) mode with 80-second rounds. Every round, Signature and Basic abilities are refreshed, players gain an additional ultimate point (except for Overtime rounds), and weapons and shields are reset. All players are given a set amount of credits each round that increases as the half progresses, regardless of whether they won or lost the previous round. Round 1: 900; Round 2: 2400; Round 3: 3900; Round 4: 6000. [Valorant Wiki for Replication]
The goal of the game would be similar to competitive games where the attackers would try and plant the spike and make it explode whereas the defenders try to stop the plant or defuse the spike in time.
What does this mode contribute?
- This game mode is compatible with all maps of Valorant just like the other game modes and is not restricted to a certain map. It would also be fun to see how the players select different combinations for different maps.
- This mode still is a combination of all the various abilities and gunplay where gun fights will still be the core of the gameplay. This means although there is a lot of “confusion” around the abilities that each player would have a way to win the game will still focus on gunplay and how you add the abilities to enhance your gunplay.
- The amount of content that can be created using the various agent combinations that you could create is insane. Imagine, Jett has knives but no dash, Raze has a showstopper but no satchels to jump with, Chamber has his ult and rather than teleporting uses a dash to get away after a kill. This sounds so much fun and you can create endless youtube videos about them.
I think this game mode can be crazy addition to the already existing game modes in Valorant. Hope you enjoyed this pitch, and I’m excited to see what new game modes Valorant brings to freshen up the players that are addicted to the game.
This pitch was heavily inspired by the work of Tri Nguyen who has worked on multiple system design projects like these.
