“When it’s done”: Overwatch’s director on the game’s finished-yet-fluid launch

Even the largest heroes don't feel constrained on Overwatch's maps.

Overwatch goes into full launch this week after one of the most successful beta tests in gaming history, attracting nearly 10 million players in the open beta (and more during a smaller closed beta). Yet deciding to release the game, which was ready for release after more than two years of development, was still tough, Assistant Game Director Aaron Keller told Ars.

"It's really hard to say you're finished with something, especially something you're so invested in and passionate about like the team is," he said in a recent interview. And after announcing the final release date in March, the pressure of the development cycle really came to a head. "After that, it was like 'Oh my gosh, we're not going to get to work on it anymore, there's this huge list of features we want to add.' We had to really focus to get everything in that we wanted to."

Despite the expected last-second rush, though, Keller said that the core of Overwatch has changed remarkably little overall over the course of development. "Early on the first hero that we made was Tracer, and the first map we made was Temple of Anubis," he said. "Those were being worked on concurrently. One day we got both of them in, and just with Tracer running around an unfinished map it was fun."

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