“I‘ll be honest along with you: I’m still looking to get my mojo back,” laughs Aaron Keller, game director for Blizzard‘s competitive shooter Overwatch 2. He’s referring to the terror he feels when Overwatch 2 allocates him the damage-dealing DPS role of his team, but there’s a little parallel to be found with the game itself, which suffered from lengthy delays before launching in October.
Months later, Keller and Blizzard have discovered a great deal about the game they created. Yet before the shooter was playable, the studio faced a difficult decision regarding the game’s campaign: the single-player mode was originally designed to launch along with Overwatch 2‘s multiplayer but was relegated to a post-launch update months prior to the game was launched.
Keller states that even though it was a “really difficult” decision to separate the game up, it had been the “right call” to create. “We found ourselves in a situation where we couldn’t release all of the content that we were building for Overwatch 2 until the campaign was finished,” recalls Keller, who states that development around the campaign was “going slower than we wanted it to.”
“We couldn’t release all of the content that people were building for Overwatch 2 before the campaign was finished […] We found ourselves saying ‘we’re likely to keep withholding content from your players therefore we can release everything together with our original strategy – the campaign – or we’re going to have to change the method in which we think about releasing the sport.'”
As a result, Overwatch 2‘s campaign will be released gradually starting later this year, and Blizzard is “still finalising” how its content will be rolled out. A chance to tell Overwatch‘s “big, overarching narrative” is something that Keller is especially excited about, as he highlights that it’s “not something can definitely do in the center of a multiplayer game.”
“We are able to get into a lot more depth with not only the characters in the universe, but all of the big events which are happening within it – that’s something they can be quite passionate about,” says Keller, who adds that Overwatch‘s “bright, hopeful, inspirational future” is really a setting the developer is keen to explore further.
Until then, Keller has his hands busy with the segment of Overwatch that players will have – competitive multiplayer. “I've got a hard time finding ways to get enough time to play the game, while also attempting to run my game,” bemoans the director, who says learning better personal time management has been one of his biggest takeaways in the previous couple of months.
For Blizzard, Keller says its lessons have been more widescale. The director admits the studio continues to have “lots of work to do” in addressing feedback concerning the game’s reward and progression systems, and recalls Blizzard realising in Overwatch 2‘s first season that it is original plan – to issue one major balance patch per season – would “'t be enough” to remain on top of the shooter’s rapidly shifting meta.
For players associated with a multiplayer title, balance can seem to be as an exhausting bet on whack-a-mole, because the same patch that dials back one overpowered monstrosity can simply as quickly raise up two more instead. At this time, Overwatch 2‘s monstrosity is Roadhog: a beefed-up tank that can dish out one-shot kills while boasting wild amounts of health. Keller has not so good news for Roadhog mains – his damage is on Blizzard’s chopping block – however the beefy boy is a good example of how balancing Overwatch could be tricky. As Keller points out, Roadhog was never changed to become this strong: he’s overperforming because other heroes were changed, enabling him to ” move into the area that he’s at at this time.”
“It would be very easy for us to alter him a lot that he becomes unplayable, or nerfed so hard that individuals would think he was a throw pick,” he explains, talking about heroes who the city dub weak enough to ensure a loss if they’re picked. “We’d prefer to avoid that, so we’re trying to be cautious here but simultaneously we want to make our change meaningful enough to actually have a real effect on him and also the game.”
Keller adds that since the community will invariably try to find the best heroes to improve their chances of winning matches, Blizzard has to juggle a “hands-on approach” to balance with letting the city shape its very own meta.
“There’s lots of nuance which goes into balance,” Keller explains. “It can feel like there are certain heroes that are meant to be strong or popular, yet others that, when they do become really strong, the community includes a pretty adverse reaction to it. I think it’s all very natural. One thing we’ve been referring to internally is…what goes on when heroes which have mechanics that can be frustrating, or stifling to experience against, become really powerful?”
The director highlights the same topic can be applied to current discussions around Roadhog, who opponents will find stifling due to his capability to one-shot more fragile heroes yet still be difficult to kill. “When heroes like this become really powerful, the community may have a pretty big reaction to it – while there are others like Orisa, who's fairly powerful as well [but] her kit feels fairer, or more steady,” Keller highlights. “I think the community will look at a hero like that and if it becomes the brand new dominant tank, it’s more accepted.”
It’s a discussion that Blizzard is “wrestling with” right now. “We don’t want all of the heroes to feel samey, we don’t want the tempo of every fight in the game to have the same every month,” says Keller, who adds that although the team enjoys the range of abilities and mechanics in Overwatch 2,
