Valorant Game Director “Giving Up The Mantle” To Work On New Project At Riot

Riot Games’ Joe Ziegler is saying goodbye to his role as Valorant’s game director to work on something new at the studio.

Ziegler posted the news via a blog post on Riot’s official website. He discusses his eight-year tenure there. He reveals that Valorant, which was officially released last year, is something he’s been working on for eight years as the game director and that now, it’s time for him to move on. 

“It is with a heart full of gratitude and deep excitement that I come to you today with news,” Ziegler writes. “After eight years working on Valorant, building it from the ground up with a team of dedicated and passionate developers who’ve worked tirelessly to serve you all with the respect and admiration that you deserve, I am giving up the mantle of game director of the Valorant tac-shooter to my good friend, Andy Ho [senior director of game direction at Riot].” 

Ziegler stated that Ho has been a dedicated person to Valorant for many years and is a source of great inspiration for game developers. Ziegler also said he’s confident that Ho’s time as the new director will see Valorant grow and evolve year-over-year “to become even better than what I could imagine it to be.” 

As for Ziegler, he’ll be staying at Riot but he’ll be “starting something new (*wink, secrets…) in the hopes that we can even scratch the surface of the amazing impact Valorant has already had so far.” This could mean any number of things – perhaps he’s working on a game for Riot in a genre that’s popular that the studio hasn’t yet touched, much like Valorant was a success in the tac-shooter genre dominated by the likes of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Perhaps it means he’s working on a new game set in the same universe as Valorant. It will be interesting to see what the future holds. 

Check out the thoughts of our team on Valorant for more information. Game Informer’sValorant review. Then read more about the map, battle pass, cosmetics, and other features that were added this year. This story explains how Valorant Mobile works. 

Do you want to know what Ziegler has been up to? Please comment below to let us know!