The Foundations Area team of Valorant has touched on their work in 2020 and moving forward.
The Foundations Area for Valorant is the multiple teams that focus on overall Valorant performance. They cover areas such as gameplay performance, tools, engine development, core gameplay systems, and data pipelines.
Their main goal is to ensure that players focus on playing rather than wondering if the game is working correctly. Valorant has become a major success, but has still had its fair share of issues. Patch 1.11 is the biggest that comes to mind, needing a complete rollback.
Riot Games releases Valorant End of Year
Valorant 2020
The teams in the Foundations Area are Game Systems, Content Support, Gameplay Integrity, and Data Operations. All of those areas touched on what they worked on in 2020, as well as what is to come in 2021.
In 2020, Game Systems was the staple for Valorant's gameplay. They partntered with the esports team and improved observation functions for better Valorant broadcasts. Also, they built the tech that allowed the game designers to create new maps and characters.
Content Support makes sure the game is running smooth by fixing crashes and keeping the engine up to date. In 2020, they worked on a variety of Valorant features. They helped with left-handed mode, prototype effects, supporting skin add-ons, and more.
Gameplay Integrity is the team that ensures the game is updated and that those updates release without issues. Naturally, they touched on patch 1.11. It was the one thing that stumped them. Overall though, they did a good job of rolling out content and features.
Lastly, Data Operations provided the Valorant studio with data that helps with decision making. In 2020, they focused on helping new game servers to be added, improving connectivity, providing data to adjust matchmaking systems, and more.
Valorant 2021
In 2021, Game Systems has many places they want to touch on. They intend on improving the experience for new players, providing new content creation tools, adding new characters and maps, improving esports production, and making sure the game is fair for all.
Content Support's focus will be on the perception of 3D sounds. They are looking to develop and release more reliable content in a faster way. Moreover, they want to make upgrades to key technologies like Unreal and Wwise.
Gameplay Integrity has their 2021 looking like a slew of performance based tweaks. They want to push the limits of Valorant. They spent a lot of time focusing on low end systems, so that anyone could play. Now, they want to make the experience even better on higher end systems.
2021 for the Data Operations team looks like working on behavioral systems. They want to add more personalization to the game. The team also wants to improve their anti-cheat systems, being able to detect and prevent cheating even further.
The future of Valorant, casually and competitively, looks very bright.