Riot explains why Gekko was Valorant’s most challenging Agent to date

Riot Games’ designers and producers gave some insight into Valorant’s newest Agent, Gekko, and the challenges of designing him.

Riot Games has revealed its newest Initiator Agent in Gekko. The new character uses creatures as his abilities to start fights and enter into space – a unique set of abilities that posed many challenges to Valorant’s designers.

Senior Game Producer John Goscicki said that the design of the creatures and the need to make them distinct from one another created challenges in making the new Agent.

“Trying to create four super distinct creatures that you will fall in love with, while keeping them within certain game limitations is… hard,” he said. “Throw in different states and it’s even harder. The team had to work through a whole array of building smart, so that we could maintain the design of the creatures, and keep the game within the performance boundaries.”

Gekko’s Valorant abilities made for unexpected challenges

Gekko’s creatures concept art.

The newest addition to the Initiator class features four different creatures (Dizzy, Wingman, Thrash, and Mosh) that players can use to attack the enemy. One is a flash, one concusses enemies and can plant or defuse the Spike, one is a grenade and one creature can detain enemies.

Three of the creatures turn into a “dormant globule” and can be picked up after their first use to gain another charge of the ability after a short cooldown. Other Agents in the game do not have this level of a side character to them that would make them complicated or that push Valorant’s “performance boundaries,” according to Goscicki.

The only close design within the cast is Killjoy, with her turret and alarm bot, but neither is designed to be particularly distinct from the other or even move after being placed.

Valorant fans can test to see if the Riot producers and designers managed to make Gekko stand out amongst the cast of Agent as he becomes playable during the next Act, which begins on March 7.