#gdc 2017

http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1024266/Thinking-Globally-Building-the-Optimistic @kerrigore pointed me in the direction of this and said that I should watch this presentation.  I must say, it was well-worth my time: it’s a little bit over an hour long, but Michael Chu goes into an interesting discussion on three main things:

Creating the world and background setting of Overwatch

Developing the characters and their personalities from their gameplay mechanics

Translating 1 and 2 into the game, comics, animations, and videos (”how we tied it all together in one crazy team-up story”)

I think I’m gonna end up making separate posts on the different parts that stick out the most to me but for some interesting sound bites:

Chu outlined the major “guiding principles” of the entire development team’s process: 1) make it “a future worth fighting for,” 2) “focus on heroes...lots of heroes,” 3) “context in game, story outside.”  Number 1 is focusing on an idealized sort of future that is both realistic (grounded in the real world) and sci-fi based (based on sci-fi technologies).  He said that the team wanted a vision of the Earth that was not “unobtainable” as many sci-fi stories are (aka set “two-thousan years in the future”), but they didn’t want the “gritty, dark” versions of present day Earth that many other video games present.  So they settled on something more halfway (”60 years in the future”).

“Trust your audience” - this one was interesting because Chu said this was the rationale behind why the team presents its story as they do.  He argues that “trusting your audience” to solve the mysteries is more rewarding and engaging than just handing out the lore when the game launches.  While I agree with the principle of the idea (trusting your audience to be smart and witty enough to put pieces together), I don’t fully agree with Blizzard’s current methods for releasing lore, especially the pace at which it is released.  There’s “trusting your audience” and then “leaving them hanging.”

Simplicity - split a complex (mechanics-wise) hero into multiple, simpler (mechanics) heroes.  This is pretty obvious given the fact that the original Reaper had Junkrat’s frag launcher in the Museum Heist short.

“Firm” Science Fiction - the world of Overwatch sits inbetween “soft sci-fi” and “hard sci-fi” with a psuedo-“firm sci-fi.”  This means giving things cool, but easy-to-understand names and mechanics, but not working out the technological details (aka, you’re never gonna get an explanation for how Hard Light works).

Diversity - Chu says that the team is committed to making a diverse cast of characters.  The team understands that “nationality alone is not the same thing as diversity” and that “each character is a combination of traits people identify with.”  

What Makes a Hero - Abilities, Personality, Backstory, Challenges/Goals, Nationality, Relationships, Voice.  IMO, the last one is very, VERY interesting, considering how influential some of the voice actors and actresses have become in the fandom.

Relationships - Chu specifically talks about the relationship between Fareeha and Ana, as well as Fareeha’s inspirations from “her world around her” (other heroes, in particular Reinhardt, her idealism, her sense of justice, etc).  He shows the picture of Fareeha at dinner with an older man from the Reflections comic, while saying that “I don’t just mean romantic relationships - you take a character like Pharah.  She’s defined by her relationships with her family (cuts to pictures of the Strike team + young Fareeha + young Angela + young Jesse, and picture from Reflections), particularly from her mother, Ana.”

7, continued: “She also has an awesome relationship with Reinhardt... She’s much better at ice-fishing than he is.”

HERE’S THE ONE MY FOLLOWERS WANT: (34 minutes) Cuts to a picture of the Old Soldiers - Gabriel, Jack, and Ana - the one that is dropped at the end of the Old Soldier comic and which Jack looks at in the Uprising comic.  “And then I’d like to talk about one of my favorite relationships in the Overwatch universe, which is the one between Gabriel Reyes - now Reaper - Jack Morrison - now Soldier: 76 - and Ana Amari.  Cause it’s a story about power, friendship, and how a changing world can bring people together and split them apart.  It’s a relationship that defines the story of Overwatch, and how Overwatch grew as an organization, and even now today, what they’re all now up to is important to driving forward the current story of the game.  And what I really like about it is that it’s a deep, complex relationship that’s not necessarily only driven by romance, and it highlights how different people can see and experience different events, which brings me to... (changes slide to Sombra with the caption of “Perspective”) Perspective.”

9, continued: alright.  So it’s not “a lot.”  But seriously.  Please watch the segment.  I might be nitpicking words and intentions here, but considering that: 1) Chu emphasizes Fareeha’s relationship with Ana and Reinhardt literally seconds before he switches to the Old Soldiers trio, 2) Chu has retweeted lowkey Anahardt content on his twitter, and 3) “it’s a deep, complex relationship that’s not necessarily only driven by romance” all seem to indicate, however subtly, that Ana is NOT the romantic interest of either Gabriel or Jack.  In any other “similar situation” (two male friends/rivals, one “strong, single female character”) the outcome would be a given - the female character would eventually “choose” a romantic partner and the rejected male character would...ostensibly “go bad.”  In fact, Old Soldiers almost seems to imply that’s what happens - Ana “takes Jack’s side” in the fight between Reaper and Soldier: 76, but the interesting thing is that Reaper is not mad about him losing her, but rather remains mad that “he did this to me.  They left me to become this thing.” (emphasis from comic itself).

9, continued: also important is the idea that “different people can see and experience different events” and how that shapes their perspectives of the world.  Which like: http://segadores-y-soldados.tumblr.com/post/159512959195/alright-so-the-subject-of-ana-being-the-source-of   This particular post talks about.  More specifically, it talks about how these exact three characters can potentially have three extremely different interpretations of the exact same event (Ana’s “death”) and how this might have contributed to the fall out between Gabriel and Jack.

Immediately following the Old Soldiers discussion: “One of the things that we really like doing with Overwatch is playing with perspective.  We utilize perspective when we tell stories about what characters are thinking, what their goals are - and we have a lot of unreliable narrators.”  This is...a very big deal.  I think many of us in the fandom knew each character had a unique perspective on shared events, but this confirms that Blizzard is 100% aware of how they are conveying characters, the character’s motivations, their goals, their flaws, etc.  “We want people to pay careful attention to what characters think about in particular situations.”  Please, see Point 11 again.  “When [Sombra] is telling you something, she’s serving her own ends too.”  Soldier: 76 - “You can take a character like Soldier: 76 - like obviously, he has this mission that he’s on, that he believes is good (Chu’s emphasis), he seems to be willing to sometimes do things which are...maybe not super heroic, and so it makes him complicated.”

Junkrat and Roadhog: Chu has a great section on their two characters, and how they have been affected by their lives and perspectives.

Villains: “What’s important to us is that their motivations are not purely rooted in being evil, despite how they might seem on the surface.  As we reveal more about these characters, we want people to be able to empathize and understand their beliefs.  Because sometimes what makes a villain a villain is the extent to which they’re willing to go to reach their goals.  And one thing that we find most important (Chu’s emphasis) when we’re talking about our villain characters is that there is nothing (Chu’s emphasis) to say that a villain cannot be as charismatic or more (Chu’s emphasis) charismatic or as likeable as a hero character - because, like the old saying goes, ‘every villain is the hero of their own story.’” (Gee I wonder who this section was about)

Character dialogue spectrum: Chu shows a spectrum of characters while discussing their dialogue style.  Ranges from "exaggerate/silly” to “military/serious.”  From Exaggerated/silly over it goes: Junkrat, D.Va, Mei, Zenyatta (middle), Ana, Reaper, Pharah, Soldier: 76.

Timeline: Chu gives a (not detailed) rough timeline of the lore, including where the comics are placed.  

Tracer: the very last thing Chu talks about is Lena Oxton/Tracer.  And for my followers who are feeling concerned about the fact that Blizzard revealed Lena is lesbian/wlw but hasn’t done anything since, I would like to encourage you to watch the end of the presentation.  Chu talks about the team’s commitment to gender and sexuality diversity in the game’s cast, and how Lena represents their starting point for this - that she is a hero we can all aspire to be, and that she has a girlfriend at the same time.  On twitter, Chu has been very public about his support of Korra/Asami, and how excited he is for the next Avatar comic to come out.

Tracer, continued: “From early on, Overwatch has been committed to diversity of all sorts - not just nationality and gender and body type, but also sexuality.”  This, along with their repeated statements that more LGBT+ characters will be confirmed in due time, does give me some small hope that we will see 1) more of Emily (much like with Brigitte, I suspect Emily will show up, but it will take time to see her), and 2) more LGBT+ characters will be revealed or confirmed. 

“What we have always striven to do with the Overwatch universe is to make diversity seem like the fabric of the world, as it is in our world.”  Chu’s commitment to this statement can be found in the Uprising dialogue, both in the game and in the comic, in with Lena plays a major role.  In the comic, she helps convince Commander Morrison to “do the right thing” and send in the Strike Team to rescue the hostages, and in the game mode, she is the fun, cheerful, focused voice of optimism compared to the other more cautionary members.  

A lot of people ask me where in the world I get my massive sounds library from and if there’s a site I download them all from. There isn’t really a single site. I just grab everything I can from wherever I can. And here’s a big ol’ release.

http://www.sonniss.com/gameaudiogdc2017/

The third in the yearly iteration of sounddumps from Sonniss, this is 20GB+ of completely free sound effects for anyone to use for their games/mods/whatever. If you haven’t been starting a sound effect collection, now’s probably a great time to begin.