It’s no secret that we love Overwatch. In one of our earlier blog posts, we wrote that the game has a very dynamic design philosophy revolving around the heroes of the game. However, Blizzard Entertainment has been hard at work trying to enrich the overall gameplay not just through heroes, but through the new game modes as well.
During its first year, Overwatch introduced the Overwatch Arcade which was supposed to work as the place where one could create his/her own personalized experience. However, the overstrict Arcade rules and the general lack of freedom quickly drained the community’s creativity, so the Blizzard decided to loosen these restrictions with the new feature called the Workshop.
According to Jeff Kaplan, The Workshop is a new scripting mode that developers of the game used to create Overwatch. It allows players to control the game’s logic behind some specific game modes and heroes. In other words, the Workshop will enable you to edit the game’s programming in order to create a truly unique set of rules. Jeff Kaplan also stated, that in theory, within the respected borders of the Workshop, players could even create their own heroes.
Of course, in order to unlock the full potential of the Workshop, you’ll need some knowledge about scripting engines and programming. However, the developers of the game are striving to make this feature accessible to everyone willing to experiment. In order to help with that, Blizzard will even add some template game modes to the Workshop, so that the players could investigate and understand the in-depth processes better. Additionally, the new mode will feature the Workshop Inspector who should help creators to find the issues in their code.
It’s worth mentioning that the Workshop is not a map editor. It won’t allow you to create new maps. Well at least according to Blizzard, but we all know what can happen once the community is given a chance to alter the game’s code.
The Overwatch Workshop is already available on the game’s PTR servers, so those who cannot wait any longer can hop right into the mode and start creating their own version of Overwatch. According to Blizzard, new modes created via Workshop on the PTR won’t go anywhere and will be available for everyone as soon as the new feature goes to live servers.
Finally, some true creative freedom!
