"In 2014, when Overwatch got announced...We all went and played it. And what we played was the best manifestation of a team action game that we can imagine. We're not beating this anytime soon, if ever", Valorant co-creator Stephen Lim on why Riot chose to go down the tactical route for its FPS.

"We never set out to make a character-based shooter...we backed into it," said Slim, co-creator of VALORANT at Riot Games, during a podcast interview about the inception of the hit multiplayer tactical FPS game VALORANT. This reveals just one of the many insights into the thoughtful design process behind creating a competitive multiplayer game built to stand the test of time.

VALORANT recently celebrated its two-year anniversary, proving the game has staying power as one of today's top esports titles. So how did Riot Games, best known for their juggernaut MOBA League of Legends, craft VALORANT into a visionary tactical shooter primed to dominate the next decade of competitive gaming?

This deep dive features never-before-heard insights from VALORANT's creators Stephen "Slim" Lim and Trevor Romleski, who participated in an a16z games podcast interview about their philosophies on game design, learnings from past projects, and the inside story behind building VALORANT from the ground up.

As game designers at Riot Games, Slim, and Trevor found themselves at a crossroads after shipping League of Legends. They recognized an opportunity to create a new competitive shooter but needed to navigate complex decisions like gameplay style, monetization, features, and technical infrastructure. Their guiding light ended up being understanding and serving the needs of their core audience - tactical competitive FPS players.

Let's relive the journey through Slim and Trevor's eyes to uncover the ingredients that make up a 10,000 hour game like VALORANT.

From MOBA Legends to FPS Visionaries

Before diving into VALORANT's origin story, it's worth understanding the creators' backgrounds. Slim and Trevor both joined Riot Games in its early days to work on League of Legends. Slim helped build some of League's most iconic champions as a gameplay and systems designer. Trevor contributed extensive balance changes and champion reworks during his tenure as a gameplay designer.

League of Legends went on to become one of the most successful multiplayer games ever created. Its meteoric rise informed Slim and Trevor's philosophies around serving players and building engaging long-term game loops. However, after nearly a decade on League, the duo felt the urge to pursue something new.

"I accidentally built this identity within Riot and elsewhere of being 'new game guy'," Slim explained.

Although many assumed they would create League 2 or another MOBA, Slim and Trevor's lifelong passion for competitive FPS games ultimately shaped VALORANT's genesis.

They knew that to captivate FPS enthusiasts for 10,000 hours, VALORANT needed to provide something fresh to this audience while also evolving key aspects of the tac shooter formula. Let's examine how they struck this balance.

Finding the "Tactical" in Tactical Shooter

In the early days of VALORANT's development around 2013, Slim and Trevor kicked off the exploration process by assembling a small team of designers. They began prototyping various competitive multiplayer concepts trying to hone in on the right gameplay direction.

However, the team remained divided on whether VALORANT should lean more tactical or arcade-like. To settle the debate, they held a vote that split the team down the middle, with Slim casting the deciding vote in favor of tactical. This pivotal moment cemented VALORANT's future as a methodical, high-skill FPS game.

But the tactical foundation only fully clicked into place for the team after a serendipitous encounter at Blizzcon 2014. Here's Slim describing the experience:

"In 2014, that BlizzCon where Overwatch got announced...We all as a whole team went on the floor and played it. And what we played was the best manifestation of a team action game that we can imagine. We're not beating this anytime soon, if ever. And as good as it is, it wasn't that compelling to us as a team. We were just more excited about what we had in our own game, even without all that production value, and that's what clinched the entire team. All action voters went all tactical at that point. It was like, overnight."

This anecdote highlights a key ingredient in VALORANT's appeal - it double downs on tactical, methodical team play rather than lightning-fast reactive gameplay. Slim and Trevor realized players passionate about Counterstrike and tactical shooters represented an underserved audience compared to the casual friendly action happening in games like Overwatch. VALORANT found its calling by focusing squarely on competitive viability and depth.

Crafting the Core Gameplay Loop

With VALORANT's high-level identity solidified as a tactical teamplay-focused FPS, Slim and Trevor's next challenge involved honing the core gameplay. This included nailbiting decisions around weapon mechanics, map design, agents, and abilities.

Their approach involved starting with a strong foundation before gradually layering on complexity. Let's walk through some of these key phases in VALORANT's journey from a gameplay prototype to a fully featured release.

Weapons First Philosophy

Slim and Trevor agreed weapons and gunplay formed the cornerstone of any tactical shooter. They decided not to reinvent the wheel here given the community's familiarity with Counterstrike's mechanics. However, this didn't stop them from obsessing over every nuance and detail.

Trevor, in particular, helped drive major investments into often overlooked areas like server tick rate, net code, and anti-cheat. He knew these elements facilitated the tight, precise shooting experience demanded by hardcore FPS players. Here's Trevor elaborating on their philosophy:

"We have so many examples of players that say they love a game. I'm trying really hard on the name specific ones, but they love a game and they don't show up the next day. And other games where they complain all day long, slam the forums and reddit and they can't help themselves and show back. Don't serve the vocal minorities."

This exemplifies Riot's maniacal focus on what players actually do versus what they say. VALORANT's weapons hit the mark judging by the game's passionate sniper community constantly trying to land crispy headshots.

Finessing Map Design

Maps represent the gameplay spaces that house all the tactical gameplay in VALORANT. Slim and Trevor knew that even standard FPS map design principles took on greater significance given VALORANT's methodical pace.

As a result, they devoted huge efforts toward playtesting map layouts and geometry even in the earliest prototypes. This helped them identify lessons like:

• The right number of entry points for defenders vs attackers to avoid stalemates
• Profile heights for verticality and long angles without being overly punishing
• Rotations that enable coordinated multi-prong assaults
• Sightlines tailored for common agent abilities

Every surface and object passed through rigorous examination and debate to facilitate balanced, dynamic encounters. This masterclass in map design established VALORANT's diverse launch collection of seven maps that continues to expand.

Abilities Support Shooting

Another pivotal decision was how to incorporate hero abilities into VALORANT's framework. Slim and Trevor toyed with dozens of ideas but avoided anything that detracted from the primacy of gunplay. They landed on a design where abilities act as tactical enablers rather than overwhelm shooting.

As Slim explained:

"The abilities are supporting and enabling shooting. And it would be tactical opportunity to shoot better, be in a better spot to shoot. It's about shooting. The abilities are supporting that."

This elegant balance manifests through concepts like smoke walls to safely enter bombsites, recon dart intel gathering, and teleports to outmaneuver opponents. Combined with gunplay mastery, abilities open up immense possibilities for squad tactics and strategies.

Curating the Agent Roster

Abilities may seem flashy, but they required just as much tuning and balancing as the core weapons gameplay. Slim and Trevor constantly asked themselves questions like:

• How do abilities elevate gunplay instead of overshadowing it?
• What new strategic opportunities do they introduce?
• Do they sufficiently counter and balance each other?

They playtested dozens of unique agent concepts over multiple years to find combinations that jived together seamlessly. For example, Breach's flashbang pairs nicely with duelists who can aggressively push site after blinding enemies. Sentinels like Killjoy bring durability and area denial to defense rounds.

As Slim explained:

"We thought, well, what if we apply some of those philosophies that we've learned to a shooter. And there weren't a lot of abilities in shooters yet. The abilities are supporting and enabling shooting. I would be tactical opportunity to shoot better, be in a better spot to shoot."

This methodical, audience-centric ability design process resulted in VALORANT's diverse inaugural agent roster that facilitated immense creativity. The variety of playstyles and abilities ensured each match felt fresh and demanded new tactics.

Slim and Trevor also had to be careful not to overload players, especially new ones, with a glut of complex agents and abilities from the start. As Trevor described:

"We had I don't know how many, 30, 40, 50 abilities in the store. And it was clearly ridiculous because you open it up instead of just buying like all vanilla, and you have to buy the whole library of spells versus if you kind of like, buy your loadout, basically."

The judicious pairing down to a launch roster of 11 agents with 4 abilities each helped ease players into VALORANT's systems. This control over scope was critical to avoid confusion and choice paralysis.

Managing Scope and Feature Creep

With so many cool ideas being playtested and prototyped, scope management became critical. Slim and Trevor constantly asked themselves - is this mechanic or feature actually vital for our core audience? Or just a superfluous layer of complexity?

They utilized small-scale playtests to quickly validate or invalidate ideas without overcommitting precious development resources too early. As Slim explained regarding some of the more exotic ability concepts:

"This is a little far fetched, but not that far fetched because it's very possible. Not easy, but possible."

This balanced approach prevented VALORANT from ballooning out of control with features that distracted from the core appeal. At the same time, the possibilities stayed fresh in their minds to potentially revisit post-launch once the foundation solidified.

Slim and Trevor also focused on nailing the basics first before considering where to innovate:

"I think it's pick your battles because trying to do everything from scratch, reinventing the wheel on everything is often not only extremely unnecessary, but a huge waste and an opportunity cost for the areas that are really going to matter and the change that's going to be appreciated."

This discipline ensured they delivered a polished product in a competitive timeframe without copious feature creep. VALORANT clearly resonated with its depth and quality rather than attempting to be all things to all players.

Assembling the Team of Avengers

Finally, Slim and Trevor firmly believe VALORANT would never have resonated so strongly without the right team united by a shared purpose. They prioritized finding competitive FPS enthusiasts rather than generalist game developers.

As Trevor put it:

"We have to put the time and effort and work into it. Maybe just talk briefly about the team that you guys have assembled. And I know that you're really proud of just how awesome the Avengers, so to speak, have been not only the team, but how you put it together, like, how you think about the composition, the team comp."

This shared lifelong passion for the core experience translated into a product tailor-made for tactical FPS aficionados rather than a generic appeal to all. The team's unwavering chemistry also enabled rapid decision-making and iteration even post-launch.

Slim elaborated on their unorthodox team-building philosophy:

"I personally think in vector math, where you can have two strong vectors pointed in opposite directions and you get zero or like they're like 90 degrees and it doesn't go as far as it should. I just look at super talented teams that don't have a core thesis, that don't have a basis for alignment, and I'm like, I have been there and I feel for you guys."

For them, skills could be learned on the job but a unified vision was almost impossible to manufacture later. This became the key ingredient in VALORANT's secret sauce.