Screenshot of the tiger courier in-game

Dota 2 is a popular esport game, both at the professional and collegiate levels. The RIT Dota 2 esport team is very successful, they have twice won the Collegiate Starleague Grand Championship. Cosmetic items are sometimes created for a specific esport team or player. I proposed to MAGIC Spell Studios that we create a custom RIT themed courier for our RIT esports team.

My project proposal was peer reviewed by the MAGIC Spell Studios leadership team. MAGIC accepted my proposal, and awarded me a $3,600 grant to hire a team of students. Before we began production, I met with the RIT Dota 2 esports team and the esports program director to gain their input and support. I maintained contact with them throughout the project, integrating their feedback as development progressed.

Concept art exploration created by Maliheh Rahrovan

This was a multidisciplinary team effort, involving myself—first as faculty in the School of Interactive Games and Media (IGM), then later in the School of Film and Animation (SOFA)—alongside students from SOFA and New Media Design. I served as project director: I wrote job postings, interviewed candidates, and hired three students as paid MAGIC Spell Studios employees. I managed the team, provided feedback and technical guidance, and personally handled the rigging and skinning of the courier character to prepare it for animation.

Once the courier was completed, we submitted it to the Dota 2 Workshop and launched a campus-wide marketing campaign to promote it. The campaign was framed as a point of RIT pride—“Vote to see this cool RIT creation in one of the most popular games in the world!”—and it successfully boosted awareness of MAGIC Spell Studios across the university.

Our courier project was viewed and voted on by 1,023 unique visitors logged into the Steam platform, and many more visitors not logged in. You can view the courier on the Dota 2 Workshop page here - https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2877656500

Final concept art created by Maliheh Rahrovan

This project served as an excellent portfolio piece for MAGIC and a valuable professional experience for our students. One student later told me that the work she did on the courier project directly resulted in her being hired for her first game development job after graduating from RIT. We are still awaiting a decision from Valve on whether our courier will be accepted into the game.

My work on this project has been peer-reviewed and publicly disseminated; details are listed on the Presentations/Publications page of this site.

You can read an article about the project published by RIT News here - https://www.rit.edu/news/vote-now-rits-tiger-courier-dota-2-game

ZBrush sculpt created by Sophia Zapata

Game mesh wireframe created by Sophia Zapata

Base color in Substance Painter created by Sophia Zapata

Rigging and skinning done by Jesse O'Brien

Animation created by Jessica Ellison

Animation created by Jessica Ellison

Animation created by Jessica Ellison

Watch the courier in action here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIEhOtLQ_Rw