Riot devs open up about inspirations behind creation of Valorant’s new Fracture map

Fracture, the new Valorant map, will hit servers on September 8, 2021, with several tie-ins to the mirror verse lore theory and both the Kingdoms.

Valorant Episode 3 Act 2 will not bring a new agent this time, but a new map instead. Riot Games have dropped several hints about the upcoming map over the past couple of months.

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— VALORANT (@PlayVALORANT) August 31, 2021

Fracture will be the seventh addition to Valorant’s map pool after the arrival of Breeze in Episode 3 Act 2. It is the first-ever map to include interactive narrative objects. Moreover, the idea of having defenders spawn in the middle of the map pinched by attackers spawning on both sides is what makes the map unique.

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Valorant's new map Fracture exposes the Mirror Earth Kingdom

With Fracture releasing in Valorant Episode 3 Act 2, the developers opened up about the ideation and inspiration behind the new map. Valorant’s level designer, Joe Lansford, revealed how a certain interrogative thought of “what if?” led to the creation of Fracture. He said,

“The idea for the map came from a simple question: “What if?” Specifically, what if attackers started on both sides of the map, pinching defenders? We really wanted to ask players to rethink some fundamental assumptions and give them unique problems to solve. For example, for whom is the neutral space really for? From there, the goals just all focused on supporting that “what if.”

Developers have inculcated their ideas in the map, adding some unique features to it. Fracture is designed with an H-shaped layout, featuring long ziplines and neutral spaces to give a new experience. Previously, no other maps have had the defenders spawn in the middle of the map; thus Fracture will be the first one to do it.

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— VALORANT (@PlayVALORANT) August 31, 2021

Joe Lansford further mentioned how Fracture has been inspired by the Battle of Helm’s Deep,

“For gameplay, (weirdly?) I took at least some of my inspiration from the Battle of Helm’s Deep. As the orcs are breaking down the gates, Aragorn and Théoden (and the remaining squadzinho) ride out to meet them. “Now for wrath, now for ruin and the red dawn!” Gandalf and the Riders of Rohan storm down the mountain from the other side. When you’re on defense and both A and B players push out to flip the tables and pinch attackers instead, it always reminds me of this moment.”

Fracture focuses on narrative storytelling of the Valorant lore, which reveals more about the presence of twin Earth. Developers are aiming to make the players question past events in that location. Valorant lead artist, Brian Yam said,

“For visual development, we wanted to create a distinctive visual split for the two sides of the map to suggest that an accident occurred, which resulted in timeline a fracture caused by a rift.”