Blizzard Entertainment’s team-based shooter game, Overwatch, is getting a big juicy addition to its features.
As revealed by game director Jeff Kaplan on the recent Developers Update, Overwatch will be adding “The Workshop.” This new feature is basically described as a game scripting mode.
This will be a new section which can be accessed through the settings on the custom game browser.
In here, players will be able to create their own game modes and even content by using the custom scripts. They may even take on some of the game’s existing modes and even configure its guidelines and win conditions. And as Kaplan said, players will even have the power to create their own prototype Overwatch hero.
This new feature will open up new possibilities and ways for the community to play Overwatch. But it won’t be that easy to use.
Since this is a scripting tool, users would need to have prior knowledge and experience in programming and scripting engines. Not just anybody can properly utilize this tool. They would need to have an adequate understanding of the logic behind making games and how things are connected together.
Again, this is not a map editor where players can import custom art and create their own map from scratch. What they can do instead is to configure the complex script of the game and therefore the logic behind it.
This is an extremely powerful tool that will let others reassemble the existing works in Overwatch. They will be able to recreate things and make them their own unique style.
They can transform the floor into lava or even have every player switch to a different hero every minute.
The Workshop comes with its own debugging tool which will help inspect their custom mode as they test it out. It will assist in debugging problems and tell players why something is not working the way players want it to.
Kaplan adds that this hopefully gives players a chance to live out their dream in becoming game developers. Some games in the market are born from custom games and mods. And players could see this as a starting point to that journey.
The Workshop feature is exclusively available on PC as of the moment. It’s accessible through the game’s PTR or public test server. Blizzard will set up a special forum for inquiries, questions, and feedback for Workshop.
For more information about this feature, players can check out the complete details at the Overwatch website.
