by JR Cook - 9 years ago     show comments

At gamescom 2015, Soe and Frodan kicked back at the press desk with Game Director Jeff Kaplan, as well as Senior Game Designer Michael Chu and Senior Game Producer Matthew Hawley to discuss Lúcio and the new maps.

Lúcio

• He’s emblematic of the optimistic and energetic world of Overwatch. He’s the response to Tracer’s call of “the world could always use more heroes.”

Heroes

• Some heroes start from the design side (Tracer started from wanting a hero who could blink across the map), some start with a piece of compelling concept art (Zenyatta came from a really neat piece of omnic concept art).
• New players probably start to understand how to play a single character after a single match.
• Players don’t seem to be gravitating towards particular characters when they start out, but instead they seem to be gravitating towards something inspiring about the character.
• Chu: We want the characters to be popping off the screen. We want them to feel like they occupy their own corners of the world where they’re just overpowered.
• “How do you manage introducing all of these overpowered characters?” “Them being overpowered is kinda the point.”
• Bastion’s Remote Mine felt like it wasn’t really part of Bastion as a character. Configuration: Tank came about as a way to give him mobility and make the ultimate more a part of the character.
• Tracer’s effective damage range has been brought in a bit to match up with her fantasy a bit more.

New Maps

• Volskaya
  • Attack/Defend map like Temple of Anubis and Hanamura.
  • Lúcio’s wall-grind lets him get past the first choke point, Pharah’s flight lets her maneuver around substantively.
  • Adding moving platforms is a benefit to stationary characters like Torbjorn and Bastion.
• Numbani
  • Hybrid Attack/Defend & Control Point
  • Lost of inspiration came from the original cinematic and Doomfist’s Gauntlet, and they wanted to seed that in the game a bit.
  • This is the place where humans and omnics live in peace together, creating a First World future Africa.

Best Line of Soe’s Gameplay Test

• Soe: Is… is that a tumbleweed?
• Kaplan: Yeah. we roll a tumbleweed across the screen when McCree does Deadeye.

Beta Date Announced

• HOLY CRAP
• HOLY CRAP
• HOLY CRAP
• Kaplan says: FALL 10TH
• … you troll kaplan

Q&A

Q: What is a good way to play Torbjorn?

A: The important thing to remember is to take care of your turret. Level it up, defend it, get Reinhardt to defend. Plant it behind Bastion. For Molten Core, remember to use your E and drop the armor packs as much as possible, since you’ve got unlimited scrap during Molten Core.

Q: How can I play Tracer to be REALLY GOOD?

A: She’s a skirmisher. Get in behind enemy lines, don’t go through choke points. Tracer’s job is to take down objectives, like teleporters or turrets, or distracting Reinhardt. She’s an important team character, and you should always be behind enemy lines with her.

Q: Will you try to make this game more action-oriented or more strategy-oriented?

A: Both of those sound pretty good, right? There’s a lot of strategic characters, like Symmetra, so that element is definitely at play in the game?

More information on Overwatch is likely coming in the future, even if we don’t know an actual beta date. As soon as we know, you’ll know.