Designing and developing a game is daunting enough, but for many studios the process doesn’t end with its release. These days, games are supported as services, with new content offered to ensure that players stay engaged for months, and sometimes years, on end. Overwatch is one such game. The competitive multiplayer shooter initially launched in May 2016, but in the time since has transformed into a much bigger experience.
One way developer Blizzard Entertainment has kept interest in Overwatch healthy is through the introduction of new heroes. These characters come with unique abilities to learn and nuances to understand. They often feel and play like no other hero on the roster, which means finding their place within the broader experience, without upending it, is a delicate process.
That job falls on Geoff Goodman, among others. As lead hero designer on the Overwatch team, he’s at the forefront of coming up with new hero designs, refining them, and implementing them, as well as ensuring that they’re balanced properly. The process is complicated and, in Episode 4 of Audio Logs, Goodman walks us through the process using the latest hero, Baptiste, as a case study.
In the video, you’ll get to see Goodman talk about the origins of Baptise as a prototype hero called Gadget, then go on breakdown each of his abilities, how they were conceptualized, the considerations put into how they’d work, and the process of iteration that transformed them into what we see in the game now.
If you’re a fan of Overwatch or have an interest in competitive multiplayer games, whether that’s fighting games, shooters, or strategy games, it’s a must-watch.
Audio Logs is a weekly show where the people behind the games we love tell us the stories of how they’re made. You can watch more episodes of Audio Logs on YouTube. We’ve got God of War director Cory Barlog breaking down one of the game’s most impactful scenes; Cuphead’s lead game designer, Jared Moldenhauer, talking about the inspirations for King Dice’s Dice Palace; and Dead Cells’ game designer Sebastian Benard revealing the amazing design tricks they used to make the game super satisfying to play.
Be sure to subscribe to GameSpot on YouTube to see more episodes as they’re released. You won’t want to miss it!