Riot Games has just revealed Valorant’s latest Agent, Harbor. He’s the first controller to be added to the game since Astra way back in mid-2021, and his unusual belt of water-themed utility should shake up the meta in some interesting ways — especially on maps where Viper is currently the go-to pick.
As part of Harbor’s big reveal today, the publisher has shared a bunch of interesting comments and stories detailing the Agent’s conceptualization and development to press outlets such as Twinfinite. Here’s what they had to say:
In describing the design goals the Valorant team had when creating Harbor, Riot Games designer Alexander Mistakidis explained:
“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.“
Harbor is Valorant’s first Agent of Indian heritage, a region where the game is hugely popular and looks set to continue growing moving forward. Narrative writer Joel Killeen weighed in on the extent to which the development team wanted to ensure Harbor reflected Indian culture in a suitable and authentic way:
“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. 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.“
As we’ve detailed in our article showcasing all of Harbor’s various abilities, the Agent has a very unusual kit that defines him from other controllers in the game. Killeen went on to speak about the team’s efforts in designing abilities that related to the Agent’s Indian heritage:
“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. 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.“
Of course, not everything went smoothly as the team prepared Harbor for his full launch next week. Designer Alexander Mistakidis highlighted one amusing issue the team encountered when testing Harbor’s water wall, High Tide:
“When testing early versions of how bendable High Tide should be, we had a few bugs allowing super bendy walls. People would make walls that looked like scribbles on a page, or loop de loops. Let’s just say… mirror matches with two Harbors in playtest got a little messy.“
For those who haven’t seen the latest on the new Agent, you can check out the gameplay reveal trailer and story trailer. Harbor will be playable when Episode 5, Act 3 launches next week, Oct. 18/19. Until then, we’ll have early access preview coverage for you to watch here at Twinfinite.
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