The stories in Overwatch are far from over. Blizzard is working on up to 3 cinematics at the same time.
Although Overwatch itself is not particularly good at telling the stories surrounding the characters in the game, the universe of Blizzard is full of life. The stories are told outside of the game in comics, elaborate cinematics, or short animated films.
The colleagues at IGN had the opportunity to talk to Jeff Chamberlain from the Overwatch team to learn more details about the future of storytelling.
The team is typically working on 3 cinematics at the same time, with 6-8 months often passing between the first storyboard and the actual finished version. This is also due to the fact that a lot of new graphics must be created for many cinematics. Although care has been taken to ensure that the films almost always take place on a known map, this also leads to problems. Not all maps are fully designed in all directions.
“The rooftops [in King’s Row] are not designed to be seen up close. We often have to think about how to place the camera and then increase the resolution for some things.”
Occasionally, the work overlaps as well. In the case of Winston’s cinematic “Recall,” the cinematic was created simultaneously with the map Gibraltar. The film team had to constantly coordinate with the map design team to ensure that the lab had the same objects.
Although the release of the game was almost a year ago, there is still no end in sight for the release of new cinematics.
“As long as we have stories we want to tell, we will find ways to tell them.”
So what does all this mean in summary? In the future, there will likely be many more cinematics for Overwatch. At least with the release of a new character, one can expect a 2D film that – like with Sombra and Orisa – explores the character’s mindset. The really “big” cinematics will likely be reserved by Blizzard for major events, such as GamesCom or BlizzCon.
