HELPING TO SHAPE a killer
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Youths in China is sick and tired of politically-correct lawful good Chinese game characters because of global publishers’ fear of political backlash. Chinese game characters are also almost always depicted as natives of major cities like Beijing or Shanghai.
I worked with Character and Narrative team to shape him into something different: A morally-grey skilled killer, who has his own traditional code clashing with Chongqing’s youth culture. Further shaped his personality, mannerism, body language, down to his now iconic shooting pose, and also wrote all his Mandarin voice lines.
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I was inspired by Iso ultimate ability and designed his iconic graphic emblem: the ability to face his foes one-on-one. It is composed of two “ones” in Mandarin. These “ones” are flipped and joined together to emphasize the one-on-one concept; moreover, this makes the design more abstract.
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I chose the traditional Chinese version of “one” to represent Iso’s character: even though he appears to be a stylish Gen Z Chinese on the outside, he still embodies traditional Chinese values on the inside. This further highlights his character conflict of contemporary and tradition.
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VALORANT
EPISODE 7 ACT 3 // ISO
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designing his symbol
VALORANT has been celebrated by players for our agent’s cultural depiction. To create a new character who represents China, the challenge is to do this authentically for both the Chinese diaspora and the players in China, as they have different appreciation of their own culture.
What unites them is their appreciation of Chinese youth culture. What’s more, they share the same pursuit of mastery that is the core value of Chinese youth cutlure. These pursuit of mastery are nothing short of modern day mythology. And myths, is what Iso is made of.
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34.0549° N
118.2426° W
RIOT GAMES
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bringing him to the cinematic universe
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Animation by Lightfarm ◾
Unlike Western characters of constant self-boasting, I created this short story where everyone is talking about him, his myths and exploits, except him. And only feature him at the last few seconds in this short film.
Players responded by making this Top 5 agent launches of all time. This became the building blocks of our year long narrative approach for the entire team, setting 2026 to become the ‘Year of Omen’ and 2027 too.
REGION-INSPIRED visual arts kit
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Illustration by Su Ke, Lemon Art and Envar Studio ◾
Designed by Brandon Meier ◾
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MUSIC: his own character sountrack
Music by 99Gods ◾
Visualizer by Thinking Box ◾
Representing a morally grey hero from China authentically has its own set of challenges. Especially when giving 'bad boy vibes' is shun upon in the region’s media landscape.
But its important to give a voice to the underrepresented underground youth culture in China, to show the world how cool it can be. And we found it in 99 Gods.
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TRANSFORMED INTO IN-GAME WEAPON SKIN (ORA BY ONE TAP)
SHOWING Chong Qing’s FIGHTING SPIRIT TO THE WORLD
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by Wieden + Kennedy◾
Producted by Tencent◾
As a way to celebrate Iso’s city of origin, Chong Qing, we created a stunt for players to embody his 1 v 1 spirit. Inspired by Chong Qing’s spirit of rising above challenges no matter the odds, we look to how the city is built ON the mountains vertically.
So it’s only natural we built a leaderboard vertically on the city itself using their staircases. To rise in this leaderboard, players will need to win 1 v 1 duels. Each win brings you a step higher. Rise to the top? And you’ll be celebrated as the city’s myth.
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34.0549° N
118.2426° W
RIOT GAMES
◾ TEAM
Jonny Altepeter
Eric Tan
Peter Li
Brandon Meier
Su Ke
Michael White
Laura Dambuleff
Jordan Calderon
Jeremiah Alavi
Molly Joseph
Amy Shin
Sam Han
Wensen Zeng
Wang Yi Shan
Joe Wang
Dylan Gafner
Jeff Landa
Jo-Ellen Aragon
Chris Roberts
Brock Marlborough
Thanh Vo
Jessica Engs
Joy Chao
(and many more)
Ryan Clements
Chris Gillett
Shane McDonald
Erik Schuiten
Dylan Bates
Winnie Huang
John Goscicki
Joseph Killeen
Kristian Kane
Nathan Hower
Matt Salkin
Jessica Liou
Tim Lembke
Shannon Denton
Nathaniel Emond
Keyshawn Frazier
Liam Neary
Alyssa Gentile
Glenn Gutierrez
Pep Perez
Sharon Chow
Tony Grinage
Nick Hoskins
Becca Guttentag
