Who made Valorant?

Valorant has become one of the most popular tactical shooters in the world since its release in June 2020, boasting millions of daily players and a thriving esports ecosystem. But who made Valorant? The answer involves a talented team at Riot Games who spent years crafting what would become their first major title outside the League of Legends universe.

The Studio Behind Valorant

Valorant was developed and published by Riot Games, the Los Angeles-based studio founded in 2006 by Brandon Beck and Marc Merrill. While Riot had built its reputation on League of Legends over the previous decade, the company was ready to expand into new genres and prove they could create more than just MOBAs.

Development on Valorant began in 2014 within Riot’s research and development division, though it wouldn’t be publicly announced until October 2019 under the codename “Project A.”

Who Made Valorant – Core Development Team

The vision for Valorant came from several key figures who brought diverse gaming backgrounds to the project:

• Joe Ziegler served as the game’s director and is credited with the initial concept. Previously working on League of Legends, Ziegler wanted to create a game that prioritized teamwork and tactical cooperation in the FPS space. He left Riot in December 2022 to join Bungie.
• Anna Donlon was the executive producer who helped shepherd Valorant through development and launch. She emphasized that the game needed to be accessible to both newcomers and veteran tactical shooter players. Donlon is now the Studio Head for Valorant.
• David Nottingham filled the role of creative director, shaping the game’s unique identity and world-building.
• Trevor Romleski, formerly a designer on League of Legends, brought his game design expertise to Valorant’s mechanics and systems.
• Salvatore Garozzo, a former professional Counter-Strike player and map designer for CS:GO, contributed invaluable knowledge about competitive FPS design and map creation.
• Moby Francke, the art director, came from Valve where he worked as an art and character designer on Half-Life 2 and Team Fortress 2, bringing a wealth of FPS visual design experience.

Development Philosophy

The team built Valorant with two primary goals: making tactical shooters more accessible to new players while creating a game that would attract a serious competitive scene. They wanted to address common complaints professional players had about existing games in the genre.

Riot chose Unreal Engine 4 as their foundation, allowing the development team to focus on gameplay optimization rather than building core systems from scratch. The team set deliberately low hardware requirements to ensure the game could run on a wide range of systems, maximizing accessibility. The developers drew inspiration from classic tactical shooters like Counter-Strike 1.6 and Rainbow Six Rogue Spear, blending precise gunplay with ability-based gameplay borrowed from MOBAs like League of Legends. This combination created Valorant’s unique identity in the crowded shooter market.

After years of internal development, Valorant entered closed beta on April 7, 2020, generating massive interest on Twitch with over 1.7 million concurrent viewers on launch day. The full release followed on June 2, 2020. The game has since expanded to console platforms with PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S versions launching in 2024, and a mobile version that released in China in 2025 with a global rollout planned.