When did gaming become a trend? What makes "Valorant Mobile" drive young people crazy with excitement?

In today's digital era, a game's influence has long surpassed mere entertainment; it permeates every aspect of life, becoming a cultural phenomenon and even setting trends. "Valorant: Operation Source" (hereafter "Valorant Mobile") is exactly such a game with powerful impact and unique charm. It has achieved tremendous success in the gaming world and, through its distinctive art style and innovative design concepts, profoundly shaped the aesthetic tastes of contemporary youth, becoming a fresh symbol of trendy culture.

1. The Comprehensive Penetration of Gaming Culture

Unconsciously, Valorant Mobile’s influence has extended from the virtual gaming world into many corners of real life. It has gradually "invaded" players' lives as a cultural craze, becoming a unique cultural phenomenon. Whether in intense competition at tournaments, lively offline events, or impressive showcases at gaming expos, Valorant Mobile's presence is unmistakable. Cosplaying characters, merchandise sales, and other cultural scenes are everywhere, and its unique, highly recognizable art style makes it stand out among many games, becoming a classic cherished by players.

Last weekend, Today at Apple collaborated with "Valorant: Operation Source" to hold a special event at the Apple Store in Guangzhou Tianhuan Plaza. We were fortunate to attend and listen to Vincent, the head of Valorant’s China publishing team at Riot Games, and Zheng Hu, Valorant Mobile’s lead artist, share the game’s design philosophy. Their insights gave us a deeper understanding of Valorant Mobile’s design concepts and unique appeal.

2. A Distinctive Artistic Style

Before Valorant Mobile’s release, shooter games generally fell into two visual categories: one was realistic styles, represented by CS and the Battlefield series, focusing on hardcore, immersive battlefield experiences; the other was highly saturated cartoon or semi-anime styles, like Fortnite and Team Fortress 2, attracting players with vivid visual personalities. Valorant Mobile’s art style sits uniquely between these two, truly one of a kind.

This art style is actually Riot Games’ signature design, characterized by bright colors, strong emotions, and an inherent trendy vibe.

In this short time-to-kill (TTK) shooter, the art style balancing realism and cartoon elements delivers an outstanding gaming experience. The adrenaline-pumping visual feedback from precise kills, diverse weapon finishing effects, and the unique gameplay built on the art style combining hero abilities with tactical shooting all immerse players deeply.

Notably, this art style greatly facilitates subsequent world-building and artistic creations. The game’s CG microfilms use a "2.5D" animation style similar to "Arcane," blending hand-drawn textures with three-dimensional dynamics. Most of the annual world championship theme songs are presented as 2D animated shorts, a format that eases storytelling and scene transitions while adding dramatic tension. The 2023 world championship theme "Light Speed" stands out as one of the finest game music MVs in recent years with its exquisite visuals and moving melody.

Additionally, this blend of partly realistic, comic-style low-poly modeling enables smooth gameplay across different systems and configurations, perfectly aligning with the product’s positioning and market vision. This design not only ensures playability but also enhances the player’s overall experience.

3. Everything Serves the Gameplay

Valorant Mobile is a highly competitive tactical shooter, so fairness is always the top priority. The art design must be restrained—not overshadowing gameplay or disrupting the competitive experience, yet not too plain to lose the IP’s unique character. This design philosophy can be summed up as “art serving gameplay.”

This philosophy is first evident in the game maps. Valorant Mobile’s maps are very “clean,” with mostly dark-colored ground contrasting sharply with characters. The map layouts are orderly, with simple bombsite structures, clearly defined cover and spike plant zones, and no meaningless decorations or distractions. These are necessary designs made for competitive integrity.

Take Valorant Mobile’s unique Chinese-themed map “Ancient Village” as an example: the attacking and defending sides are distinguished by warm and cool color tones, and the wall paintings on each side differ accordingly.

To maintain color consistency and avoid map elements interfering with normal gameplay, the design team adapted the style of eaves from the real location, discarding the somewhat jarring white in favor of green hues that better match the overall map aesthetic.

The hero designs in the game also adhere to the “serve gameplay” principle. Each character has only one or two theme colors, and based on that, their outfits, skills, and accessories are designed to tightly align with these colors. For example, Neon’s theme color is deep blue, Skye’s is grass green, and Killjoy combines yellow and green. This design strengthens character identity and improves match clarity. Players can distinguish heroes simply by color, eliminating unnecessary distractions during matches.

Moreover, characters follow a “complex top, simple bottom” design. Most heroes have darker, less detailed lower garments, which helps reduce visual focus and enhances gameplay convenience. The density of design between upper and lower body is on different levels, allowing players to recognize characters more clearly during matches, boosting competitive integrity.

4. Art Design Full of Details

Looking at design details, we can analyze the thoughtful touches in the character “Sage” Wei Lingying, a girl from Shaanxi. According to her background, she spent years practicing quietly in a Taoist temple, so her outfit naturally draws inspiration from Taoist training robes. However, since traditional long training robes are impractical for combat mobility, the designers transformed it into a short skirt style, preserving Eastern charm while fitting tactical needs.

Considering the training robes’ limited protection, the designers added armor pieces on Sage’s shoulders, waist, and legs to enhance her strength and design logic.

Additionally, Sage is the only female character in the game with waist-length hair, reflecting her regional background. Long hair is a classic symbol of Eastern classical aesthetics, and as a representative Chinese character, having flowing long hair feels natural.

Zooming out, heroes from around the world in the game each represent their local culture. Raze’s wild skillset and graffiti-like effects embody Brazil’s fiery passion; Chamber’s elegant one-shot combat style symbolizes the French appreciation for romantic beauty; Yoru’s futuristic outfit and skill effects correspond to Chongqing’s nickname as the “Cyber City.”

Because of this, every match in the game is not just a contest between characters but a collision and fusion of different regions and cultures. This is one reason Valorant Mobile is wildly popular worldwide: no matter where you come from, you can find reflections of your own culture in some map or hero, gaining a sense of belonging and identity.

Besides character design, the maps also showcase the designers’ hard work. As mentioned, to maintain competitiveness, Valorant Mobile’s main map areas are kept simple. The non-interactive parts of maps are where designers demonstrate their craftsmanship. The island breeze with sunlight filtering through palm leaves on Breeze, the floating city spectacle in Ascendant, and the layered urban design of Neon District are all vividly and appropriately presented in the game.

It’s worth noting that all game maps are based on real-world locations. For example, the Hidden Sanctuary map is inspired by Bhutan’s Yambhu, known as a “paradise on earth,” fitting perfectly with the map’s name; Deep Sea Pearl is modeled after Lisbon, Portugal, one of the world’s most famous port cities; Sunset City draws from California, where you can feel the strong West Coast vibes in various game details and Easter eggs.

At the end of the sharing session, we also heard a detailed explanation from lead artist Zheng Hu on the design concept of Valorant Mobile’s original map “Ancient Village.”

Ancient Village is Valorant Mobile’s first original Chinese-themed map, inspired by the millennium-old Miao villages distributed across Guizhou and Yunnan. Inside, you can spot many familiar Chinese elements like bamboo forests and stilt houses.

To enrich the map’s detail, the team took real-world references, replicating items from Miao villages such as water ladles, winnowing baskets, and raincoats.

The towering ancient tree at the map’s center comes from local old trees. According to lead artist Zheng Hu, many Miao villages have century-old trees thick enough to require several people to encircle. The team incorporated this by placing an ancient tree as a landmark in the center area of “Ancient Village,” greatly enhancing the map’s vertical layering.

In fact, this isn’t Valorant Mobile’s first original Chinese cultural content. Before Ancient Village, the team designed Chinese-themed skins like “Celadon Dragon Rhythm,” which received unanimous praise from players.

According to Zheng Hu, the production cycle for a Valorant Mobile skin is usually around 12 months. Whether it’s weapon or outfit themes or art design, every detail is carefully considered and polished to deliver the best and most worthwhile content to players. He also revealed that more original Chinese-themed content, including maps and gun skins, will be coming soon. Several projects are currently underway, so fans of this style can look forward to it.

5. Trendy Aesthetics Breaking Scene Boundaries

Vincent’s words at today’s sharing event left a deep impression on me.

In his view, Valorant Mobile was created to break the limitations of platforms and scenarios, allowing more people to experience Valorant’s charm anytime, anywhere.

We can already feel this change online. Since Valorant Mobile launched, the squad has become noticeably livelier. Even friends who used to complain about being tired now are willing to jump in for a few rounds at any time. The convenience of mobile truly achieves “pick up and play anytime,” letting players enjoy a few matches easily during their free moments.

Valorant Mobile’s in-game voice communication is very well-developed, further enhancing player experience. This breakthrough isn’t limited to the game itself. Offline, various Valorant Mobile events are breaking scene boundaries, delivering trendy aesthetics to players in diverse forms. From the Valorant Carnival in the second half of this year to Valorant Show, from the CJ Expo to the Valorant ONLY exhibition, every event brings Valorant’s trend culture offline, impressing audiences each time.

As I mentioned earlier, Valorant Mobile is far more than just a game. It invades players’ lives as a cultural wave, influencing young people’s aesthetic direction.

Its unique and trendy art style fully inspires creators. Since the game’s launch, fan creations related to it have never stopped. A quick search on social media easily uncovers high-quality fan works.

The heroes in the game have become style icons for players. Many dress following the characters’ design philosophy: complex top, simple bottom, emphasizing theme colors. This method surprisingly works very well.

It’s clear Valorant Mobile has transcended the game itself to become a wearable “fashion item.” The player community expresses themselves through game elements, wearing the game’s aesthetics on their bodies and onto the streets. This “real-world invasion” of game elements influences more young people’s tastes and spreads into wider cultural circles. Over time, “Valorant style” becomes a highly recognizable label and part of the trend.

I believe this is what true “crossing the circle” really means.