We interviewed the producer and lead artist from Valorant to tell us all about the new weapon skin coming to the game.
From the beginning, one of the mottos of Riot Games has been to listen to its community of players in order to know what they want at all times and how they receive the updates that their works are getting. After the expansion of its catalog with titles such as Legends of Runeterra, TFT and Valorant, it is less and less usual for a week to go by without news of the arrival of a certain patch or novelty.
In this case, we are here to tell you everything we know about the new luxury skin that will land in Valorant on September 30. We were able to speak with Preeti Khanolkar, producer, and Sean Marino, lead artist at Riot, to exclusively explain all the details surrounding the so-called “Gravitational Uranium Neuroblaster”.
A skin with a complex name and a sci-fi look
To begin with, what most catches our attention is the extensive name chosen to name this new skin. We asked those responsible about this question, to which they replied that despite the fact that the team always called it ‘Ray Gun’, it was too generic a name, so they wanted to find something really distinctive:
“When it comes time to name an item, we want to make sure it respects the genre and fantasy it comes from. In this case it is inspired by the sci-fi (science fiction) of the 50-60s, so we take an approach in which things sound more complex than they really are. In addition, we play with the acronym, at least in English, that remains when selecting the initials of Gravitational Uranium Neuroblaster results in G.U.N. ”.
Just by looking at the images that accompany this piece we can already realize the appearance that they wanted to give the pack, very different from what there was until now in Valorant. For this reason, we wonder if it could be related to a new map or even a futuristic aesthetic character or if it is a standalone content. In this case it is the latter, contrary to what happened with Glitchpop. “We always try to make sense of these skins and add-ons within the Valorant universe and not feel strange,” Sean clarifies.
In what weapons will this skin be available?
An important question every time a new pack of skins comes out is to check in which weapons we can apply it, since all of them are not compatible with the essence and science fiction characteristics that the G.U.N provides. In this case, Sean specifies that we can use it in the Classic, the Specter submachine gun, the Operator rifle and the Bucky shotgun mainly.
The curiosity in this matter comes at the moment in which it “escapes them” that it was going to be available also for Phantom, but they finally eliminated the option. Sean explains why: “These weapons have a unique look and we always try to keep the shape of the original when we make skins, but in some cases it is difficult when the themes dictate that you deviate a bit from the design. We got to have the Classic, Specter, and Phantom skins with this skin, but when testing them players had no idea which was which when they picked them up. Therefore, we had to cut it ”.
They claim that they usually go through a long process in which various high-elo players test the changes and additions that apply before adding them to the final version of Valorant. Because of how precise every detail needs to be in the shooter, they can’t risk players doubting which weapon they have in hand when picking it up just because it looks too different from the original.
Beyond its aesthetics, they assure that it includes a series of special sound and visual effects to complement the experience, although they prefer to leave them in the air and not reveal too much for the moment so that players are surprised when trying them for themselves. Of course, Sean explains how at first they thought about discarding these special effects due to not having much development time but the team members refused, claiming that they could not create a science fiction weapon without effects.
Therefore, they delayed its launch from the end of July (when it was initially planned) until this September 30 in order to have enough time to work well on it and obtain the product they wanted, in addition to making sure that the team did not enter in a crunch phase for having to spend additional time creating the skin.
Future skins and lots of ideas in the bedroom
The Gravitational Uranium Neuroblaster was not the first skin on the list they were planning to develop. Even so, they wanted to give it some priority due to how distinctive it is since initially it was going to also have a version for Phantom (a weapon that does not have too many special aspects), despite the fact that this action was finally canceled.
Although from the outside it may seem that it does not take them too long to develop a skin of these characteristics, Preeti explains how from the moment the idea arises in the team until they can publish it, about five months can pass perfectly. Therefore, they always have an additional idea in the bedroom waiting to be developed, in addition to having more than one project underway and always listening to the gaming community to discover what they might like the most.
For now, we do not have specific details about other skins beyond the G.U.N., which will become part of the deluxe aspects that can be purchased for real money in the game. It will have different variants that will be very “different and attractive” as long as each player interested in them can get the version that most attracts their attention. Starting next Wednesday, September 30, we will be able to test it in Valorant and clear up doubts, in addition to facing the challenge of pronouncing Gravitational Uranium Neuroblaster perfectly or looking for an adaptation into Spanish that convinces us.
