Riot has released a few screenshots of Valorant's brand-new map called Lotus. From what we can see, it is hands down one of the prettiest maps in Valorant so far and will probably be one of the prettiest maps for a while.
Riot has released a few screenshots of Valorant 's brand-new map called Lotus, or as the community knows it, the Lost City of Flowers .
The map will be going live along with the Episode 6 battlepass on January 6, and it will feature 3 sites and it will be highly flexible for both attackers and defenders.
The level designer, Joe Lansford stated that the inspiration behind Lotus is the traditional Indian architectural elements and locations such as the Badami Cave Temples, Ellora Caves and Rani Ki Vav. The Stepwells, Rock-Cut architecture and the Dravidian style can be noticed throughout the map.
When it comes to the artistic aspect of the map, Brian Yam, the Art Lead stated that the team explored the conceptual aspect of the map, as they did want to push the boundaries of fantastical and mystical elements, which were not shown in any of the earlier maps.
Riot
Riot
Riot
It was revealed that Indiana Jones was one of the thematic inspirations that the team drew from and visually, they found the rock-cut architecture fascinating because of the mystical and ancient vibe it spreads.
The map is set in the Western Ghats in India, and the visual direction and the architecture they wanted to explore fitted nicely with the rock-cut architecture inspired by the Ellora Caves and Dravidian-inspired structures.
The visual hook for this map are the Radianite relics that are present within the structures. The giant mutated Lotus at the centre of the map represents one of these relics.
Originally, when designing Lotus, the team envisioned a space station that had an airlock mechanic that shut down large areas of the map. The idea was scrapped as the final product did not end up being as fun as the team hoped it would be.
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