"Inspired by the countless tales of mythic heroes": Valorant devs talk about the inspiration behind Harbor

Harbor is the newest agent to join the Valorant roster. He will be the first hero of Indian origin in the game and comes with a unique set of abilities.

Being able to control water, Harbor can be safely dubbed an elemental hero. Apart from him, there are three other elemental heroes present in the game, namely Phoenix (fire), Jett (air), and Sage (earth).

Designing a brand new hero for Valorant is time-consuming and tedious. Here's what the developers had to say about Varun Batra, aka Harbor, and the inspiration behind this hero.

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Valorant devs reveal the secret recipe behind Harbor

As mentioned before, Harbor is a controller. Although there are four other controllers in the game, this new agent has the potential to redefine the entire Valorant controller meta. Before moving on to anything else, here's what Alexander Mistakidis, Senior Technical Game Designer at Riot Games, had to say about the goals they kept in mind while designing this agent:

"We set out to create a Controller that didn't have to go off into another world or look at a map to place their vision block. We also wanted to create an Agent that could compete with Viper on the maps where she is almost exclusively played. After Kevin Meier completed his initial explorations, he honed in on Harbor being an Agent that can shape their vision block on the battlefield in creative ways."

From the above answer, it's evident that Harbor was designed to be used as an alternative for Viper. Once the agent goes live, it will be interesting to see how he synergizes in a match with Viper on the same team.

Given that Harbor is an Indian agent, it's understood that a lot of Indian influence went behind the development of this agent. His name Varun also refers to the Indian god of the oceans, Varuna. The mythological inspiration behind the character's overall design can be seen in the selection of the name and abilities.

Here's what Joe Killeen, the Narrative Writer behind the agent, had to say:

"We looked at a huge breadth of Indian media and were inspired by the countless tales of mythic heroes whose heart and conviction and strength allows them to become an unstoppable force for good and become legends themselves. Finding the right way to do that in VALORANT, where every Agent shares that heroism, became the trick."

He added:

"To that end, we were inspired again by the many objects of power and mystery that are scattered throughout Indian legends and stories. It was from there that the idea of an ancient radianite artifact wielder was born. Our relic-seeking adventurer being someone whose mission is to protect and preserve these items of antiquity took form around that."

Moreover, representing agents who come from a specific real-world location can be a task. There are a lot of things that can go wrong in the absence of proper research. According to Killeen, the team worked in tandem with contractors from India to make sure that they got everything right in terms of representation:

"The team works towards authentic representation from a bunch of simultaneous angles. We contracted with multiple external consultants from India to aggregate for us a ton of research on the country’s: regions, cities, languages, traditions, values, pastimes, food and drink, media, and on and on - for the internal team to immerse themselves in - and be inspired by - and incorporate into their work."

He added:

"Then the iterative feedback cycle would begin, passing our work-in-progress back and forth with them to ensure our interpretations hit the mark. Our writers worked hand in hand with Indian Rioters both in Riot’s MENA office and the Los Angeles office to help shape Harbor’s voice and demeanor and use of Hindi language."

Harbor is all set to go live in Valorant on October 18, 2022, along with a brand new season in the game. Although the entire Valorant community is excited about it, it will be fascinating to see how players react to the agent once he goes live in the game.