Overwatch Leads 2016 s Game Awards Winners

What goes into making maps that feel appropriate for all of these heroes at the same time. In terms of creating maps and creating heroes, what is the chicken and what is the egg? Which comes first, and how do you design Overwatch's maps to maintain the balance that's so critical to every moment of its gameplay?


Yesterday evening (December 1st, at the time of writing this) was the night of the annual Game Awards show, a lavish live-streamed spectacle where the best and brightest of the video games industry gathered in Los Angeles - in order to receive awards voted on by industry peers and journalists, celebrating the year in gaming. It was a good night for big-name hits like Uncharted 4: A Thief's End , the reboot of DOOM and Blizzard's mega-selling team shooter **Overwatch ** , as well as respected independent titles like That Dragon Cancer - and it was a chance for those in attendance to show off all-new trailers for upcoming tit

Each map was designed specifically for the game mode it's paired with, meaning nothing feels wrong about the design. An Escort map is designed with one straight path and a few off-shoot areas to accommodate different playstyles. A control map features one central point and multiple paths players can take to try and flank the enemy team and take the spot. These maps also play into the game’s meta. For example, a close-quarters Escort map will benefit Reinhardt whose shield would block everything straight in front of him, but an open control map would leave him vulnerable from many different directions. Being able to control the map with the right hero, managing choke points and figuring out the path that works best with your character’s range is imperative.

Much has been made of the rivalry between Blizzard and Gearbox Software, with the former seemingly attempting to hinder the success of the latter at every turn. Overwatch's Open Beta's Early Access period launched at the same time as the full release of Battleborn , making this the second time that version of the two titles have gone head to head with playable builds. There are a ton of similarities between the two titles, as both have over twenty playable heroes that each have a distinct personality and set of skills, but Overwatch Lore and Battleborn are less similar than one might initially imagine. Whereas Battleborn is essentially a MOBA with a campaign (despite Gearbox's complete avoidance of that four letter acronym over the years), Overwatch is an arena shooter in the vein of Team Fortress 2.

Symmetra's first ability, her Sentry Turrets, allow her to place up to six turrets around the map. Once an enemy steps within range, these turrets will fire a continuous beam of medium-damage energy until that foe either dies or steps out of range. While these turrets are exceptionally easy for enemies to kill, they can be hidden in creative locations and grouped together to maximize effectiveness. Her second ability, Photon Shield, allows her to grant extra hitpoints to teammates within range. While shields will not heal those who are critically injured, equipping an entire team with them before a big push can certainly give you an edge. Finally, her ultimate, Teleporter, is one of the biggest game-changing abilities in all of Overwatch. By placing the Teleporter somewhere on the map, a second portal is opened up at the spawn point, allowing teammates to bypass that potentially long journey back to the objective. Not only can this assist your team in reaching an capture point quicker, but it makes escorting a payload a relative breeze considering it's possible to always have one person moving it forward.

With any character-based title, there's always a "meta" that forms, be it from the developers or the players. From a development perspective, how do you work with the meta that is inevitably going to arise in Overwatch?

While this tweet has become the lowest-hanging fruit when it comes to criticizing Battleborn, it's completely emblematic of a game that doesn't always feel like it knows what it is. Whereas Overwatch maintains its laser-focus on providing the best multiplayer arena shooter experience possible, Battleborn often feels like it wants to be everything at once. While this provides a great deal of content for players to dive into, it also makes it feel like there's far too much present for any given mode to succeed. The campaign, which is widely considered to be the weakest portion of the entire package, is loaded with fairly mundane combat encounters and a story that feels a bit too bare-boned for its own good. Combine this with a standard point-capture mode, a straight up MOBA playlist and a MOBA-like twist mode, and Battleborn begins to lack the focus that Overwatch is priding itself on. Granted, if Overwatch wasn't so damn replayable, one could argue that it's lacking in content, but the sheer dynamism of its combat more than makes up for this.

Obviously there are a million different team compositions and ways to play Overwatch, but what are the core trends you're seeing with the best players. In other words, if someone is looking to get really good at Overwatch, what do they generally have to do?