Overwatch 2 (2022)
Overwatch 2
Overwatch 2 is a free-to-play, ever-evolving live competitive and cooperative first person shooter. I joined the Overwatch 2 team in 2021 as a Senior Mission Designer.
On Overwatch 2 I worked on the Underworld event mission, Act1 and Act2 story missions, automated testing, and script refactoring. I also created numerous prototype missions and mechanics, encounter design support for our enemy ecology team, and wrote many how-to guides for our PvE mechanics and systems.
Watch Overwatch 2 Invasion here - Overwatch 2: Invasion Youtube Link
Underworld Event Mission Support
Underworld was Overwatch 2’s first seasonal event mission. Players fight to stop a Null Sector invasion, while they repair and escort a deadly robot ally across King’s Row.
I provided support with scripting, combat encounters, UX flows in and out of the mission, challenge and modifier design, and server side weekly rotation setup.
We learned a lot from this event, and it allowed us to build a foundation for future PvE seasonal events.
Underworld - Modifiers
Each week of the Underworld event unlocked a new unique mission modifier to add increased depth and replayability to the core experience -
Death From Above - Missile strikes periodically target random locations. Players can lure enemies into these strikes, providing skill based counter play.
Ultimate Zones - Player Ultimate abilities do not charge unless they stand in randomly spawning buff zones. This challenge intends to promote mobility and give highly-skilled players a chance at near 100% Ultimate uptime.
Invasion Mystery Swap - Players periodically swap to random hero from the Act 1 roster. This challenge provides variety, and exposes players to Heroes they don’t normally play.
Underworld - Challenges
I designed and implemented event challenges for Underworld to extend replayability and provide a degree of multi-session progression. For example -
Lore Hunter - Find interactive objects hidden around the mission. The objects tie into the lore of Overwatch, and when found play unique story related voice lines.
You're Welcome, Human! - Wave at the TS-1 robot. This challenge is intended to support social play and keep the group mood light and fun.
Nulltimate - Prevent the final 2 boss units from using their Ultimate ability. This challenge is designed as a skill check for mastery level players.
Automated Testing
Blizzard uses a unique automated testing methodology to supplement traditional hands on QA testing. Internal servers run hundreds of instances of each mission, with AI heroes defeating enemies, behaving semi-randomly, and completing objectives. Reports are generated on each run, giving us data on where mechanic break, players get stuck, or other bugs in the mission flow.
I oversaw automated testing across all of our PvE events content, and training the other designers on how it works, and how to maintain it within their mission content. I also prototyped and implemented improvements to automation, including visual debugging, and support for testing and tracking alternate win/loss conditions.
