Overwatch 2
Overwatch 2 is a free-to-play First Person Shooter
In Season 6 Invasion was released, which introduced the first Act of Story Missions, Event Modes, the first set of Hero Mastery levels and an updated Practice Range.
This was the first season to showcase work I had done as an Associate Mission / Game Designer on the team, all within the Overwatch (Team 4) proprietary engine ToolsTray
While working on Team 4, I had a hand in designing and implementing multiple aspects that shipped
-
Practice Range update
-
Act 1 & Act 2 Story mission support
-
Hero Mastery mode Systems design framework and Challenge scripting
-
Battle of the Beasts Event game mode
-
Enemy design, implementaion, and balance
Updated Practice Range
Released in Season 6, an updated version of the Practice Range was introduced
This included a brand new firing range, up-to-date practice bots (that doubled as training bots in our Hero Mastery game mode), and new combinations of AI bots for players to test their aiming and hero abilities with.
I replaced the exisiting bots with new AI Bundled training bots. Each new bot had bespoke script running for different criteria.
-
Swapping via button press spawn logic
-
Continuously shoot
-
Continuously take damage
-
AI Pathing requirements
I also owned and implemented helpful UI tips created for the console in which players can swap out bots to test hero damage and healing numbers. A sniper bot testing space was added, ult charge canisters were placed throughout the map, and an updated wave for the bots was implemented. When you wave at the training bots they'll always wave back now
Hero Mastery Challenge framework
The debut of the Hero Mastery mode included unique challenge setup infrastructure to be created, documented, and maintained
At launch Hero Mastery consisted of 3 tailored levels for each of the 5 heroes, with the intent to have potentially all playable heroes included in the Hero Mastery mode.
I worked alongside our internal Hero Mastery team, as well as the Systems Design team to design challenges and allocate out XP and rewards per challenge. I also implemented script-side, the logic for checking challenge completeness.
Challenges for Lifetime, Event (which runs only when a Hero Mastery celebration is Live), and Hero specific challenges were created and maintained in a spreadsheet and subsequently implemented into the game.
Battle of the Beasts
A limited-time game mode in Overwatch 2 Season 8, featuring a 4v4 PvPvE experience where teams of four must battle and conquer a gigantic Orisa
From conception to shipping, I was responsible for all variants on Orisa and her Hero abilities within this mode. I also worked with the modes primary owner to pitch the design to leads, run playtests early and often, and implement pathing for Orisa.
-
AI Priority Targeting
-
Overhealth from Game Mode power-up
-
Behaviour during Game Mode interval
-
Energy Javelin enhancement and targeter
-
Javelin Spin deflect and pull
-
Terra Surge slow and push
Battle of the Beasts ran for 4 weeks during Season 8 in which time we were able to pull player feedback and play tendencies from the mode where I documented success and failures for future game mode incubation's use.
Enemy Design
Within the Overwatch Story Mission and Event Modes are AI ecologies
I was given ownership of 6 seperate units to oversee in all aspects. This included the Null Sector enemy family, as well as a new enemy family intended for release in Q4 2024. Unit specialty ranged from Base to Boss level.
Working on initial design needs and spaces to fill in the combat level space was a large portion of this work. I also prototyped the abilites to function in-game for feedback from Leads - and then would quickly iterate arisn suggestions. All parts of the enemy were documented and playtested, from the enemy AI priority selections, to animation and VFX implementation and tuning, to damage and CC effects. I was responsible for these enemies direction and their placement within the broader ecology family in both missions and modes.
Unreleased Work
A large portion of work remains unreleased, and the fate of this work remains undetermined
My last months at Overwatch 2, I was placed with of taking a large elite unit and sculpting it into a 3 phase boss battle as the finale for one of the Act 2 Story Missions intended for release in Q4 2024.
I had completed my initial design document and passed approval from both my Design Leads as well as supporting disciplines; Gameplay, Level Design, Animation, SFX, VFX, and Narrative.
Prototyping phase being passed, the unit was placed in-mission to greater understand the size and scope of abilities in the arena space we had created. My next-steps were to implement the enviornmental hazards and adjust regular enemy wave spawns to compliment the phased boss battle structure. Hooking up the ending of the fight to link seamlessly with the outro cinematic was in-progress.
A Hero Mode mission I was owner of had been greenlit into production phase when the Hero Mode itself was shut-down in 2023. As mission set on one of the PvP maps utilizing bespoke PvE environment additions, it supported branching objectives and enemy spawn groups, while adhereing to the structure of an extraction mission. This setup included collaboration from; Tech Art, Level Design and Narrative. Further steps were planned to incorporate AI scripting on an objective unit, and challenge reward system imlementaion.
