Valorant principal producer breaks down the Deathmatch mode and hints about a future “drop-in, drop-out” infinite game mode

In response to a question, the Valorant principal producer breaks down the Deathmatch mode and talks about an under-development mode for infinite drop-in drop-out matches.

Deathmatch is one of the more fun and light-hearted game modes in Valorant. It doesn't last all that long and provides players with unlimited respawns and constant action. Players often enjoy playing a Deathmatch in-between their Competitive ranked climb, as it helps them relieve some stress along with training their crosshair placements.

Recently, James "hazed" Cobb, the TSM Valorant pro, tweeted out asking Valorant to include a never-ending Deathmatch game mode which one will often find in other popular FPS titles like CS: GO and Call of Duty.

His reasoning being that he would much prefer to have a 2-hour long Deathmatch session rather than constantly queuing at the end of every match.

In response, the principal producer of Valorant, Jarad “darkhorse4life” Berbach posted a thread about how, as a mode, Deathmatch is currently serving two different types of audience and also discusses the possibility of an infinite Deathmatch game mode.

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The Valorant Deathmatch and how it serves two different audiences

Mr. Jarad “darkhorse4life” Berbach started his discussion of the current state of free-for-all Deathmatch and the future of free-for-all and warmup style modes by mentioning that the team has a lot of plans, but also a lot of work to get the plans working.

He further mentions that there is a relatively healthy queue time, along with match quality with strong participation in free-for-all Deathmatch. Darkhorse4life further noted that the population participating in Deathmatch is relatively lower than other modes, but it is a dedicated one.

The Valorant developer team has concluded that even though the mode is singular, it is trying to serve two different types of audiences. The first kind of audience wants a free-for-all style match with a fixed beginning, middle, end, and a winner. Players need a short mode with quick action to fit into a limited time window between high-stress matches. The health pickups, respawn, map rotation, and match lengths are currently serving these players quite well.

The second kind of audience is the people who would prefer to warm up or relax by playing the mode continuously for 2 hours straight, without interruption. This helps them to get in the zone or practice aiming against an actual player.

To cater to the audience who wants to join in and leave at their leisure, the game needs some technology which is commonly referred to as “join in-progress”. This technology will essentially control the drop-in drop-out part of the infinite Deathmatch in Valorant.

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The technology behind Infinite Deathmatch

Darkhorse4life further confirmed that the team is currently working on a join-in-progress technology, which will be essential for a possible infinite Deathmatch. Currently, the Valorant game service does not check to see if a new player wants to join in an undergoing match. To implement the technology, developers will need to rewrite the matchmaking to accommodate players joining a match in-progress as well as controlling toxicity and skill differences.

The work is relatively complex, so the devs are putting in the necessary time to make sure it works properly and is a great plan for the future of Valorant. Darkhorse4life acknowledges that it can be frustrating for a player to wait for the mode, but the developers want to make sure that the mode is worth the wait.

Darkhorse4life further explains that once the devs have the tech working, they can create a game mode that is strictly for the second kind of audience. Valorant would let the players play infinite matches, and only close a match if it becomes “unhealthy”. It will create an option for players to join in and leave according to their will.

This type of match will also give options to change rules, such as full health and/or full ammo upon a successful kill. The developers want to give the players what they need to maximize uptime in practicing their aims and headshots.

For the other type of audience darkhorse4life mentioned, the developers aim to create a rotating type short mode experience for players who want to play a free-for-all Deathmatch while waiting for a match to begin. These will be more of non-tactical games, and the developers can also implement things such as killstreaks, or certain power-ups.

The developers also want to explore the idea of making the game mode similar to the latest limited-time game mode Escalation.