Now it’s not long before we can play Overwatch 2, which will happen on October 4th with the release of the PvP mode! In between a lot of newsas the new free-to-play format, we were also introduced to Junker Queen, the game’s newest heroine.
Taking that cue, Blizzard kindly invited us to a press conference with Kacey Helms, the game’s Art Supervisor, Geoff Goodman, Lead Hero Designer, Gavin Jurgens-Fyhrie, Lead Narrative Designer, and there we had the chance to do several direct questions to the trio. Prior to that, we also spoke with director Aaron Keller:
What were your main inspirations to create Junker Queen? How did she end up in the game, and can you share some fun facts and behind-the-scenes stories?
Kacey Helms: The team worked really hard to try to nail down Junker Queen’s Australian punk aesthetic, which goes through their playstyle, art, and even the music you hear in the cinematics! Overall, the most important thing was that she looked authentic. But as far as art goes, it felt like a natural progression to what we’ve already done with Junkrat and Roadhog in the wastelands.
We’d already teased her on posters and everything, and when we finally decided it was time for her to debut, once she’d decided what her playstyle would be, we started doing various 2D versions and movement concepts to see. how would your style be in action, whether in passive and active or even at the time of Ult.
Then after that we had to think about how she would fit in with the other heroes, her silhouette needed to be very distinct so that when she appeared right away you already knew who she was. Aesthetically, she is 2.13 meters, she is very big and powerful, which is amazing! She’s cool, likes to “arrive” and solve everything right away. Even her clothes are torn because she doesn’t care much about her appearance.
Even as far as his weapons are concerned, you can see that they were assembled from scrap metal. I love everything about it, from the animations to the lines! The animation alone already denotes how she has a strong attitude! One of the coolest things is that the symbol on your shirt is a reference to Queensland, Australia, so I hope people think that’s cool.
She also named her knife, which is called Gracie! There aren’t many people willing to name her weapons, so that shows her personality as well. And about inspiration, she drank from the well of many powerful women. A big inspiration for sure was the Furiosa from the last movie of the Mad Max, who is an amazing character. From an artistic point of view, I think she is so cool and she was very happy with the result!
Geoff Goodman: About the gameplay, it’s a little interesting because we worked on the heroes under different circumstances and purposes, and Queen was really cool because she didn’t come out as a playable hero, but as part of the story of Junkertown. But all of us here are fans of the game too, so when the opportunity arose to take it further and put it in the game. A lot of people were rooting for it, and so were we (laughs).
So the question has always been much more about When we would put it in Overwatchand less about se we would put it in the game. This happens sometimes with some heroes, it had already happened with Ashe, for example, and then it became just a matter of finding the right moment for her arrival. And Queen fits so well with Overwatch 2 and with our design philosophy changes that allow tanks to be a little more aggressive… or a lot more aggressive, in her case (laughs).
As she was the first heroine we designed with that in mind, she ended up serving as a paradigm. Who knows, maybe she would have been very different in the first game? But there are some elements that help us to think, like in the case of Doomfist you look at him and immediately think that he must be able to throw a huge punch, and in the case of Queen we had illustrations and designs of her with an imposing axe, so it was obvious that it would have to be used significantly in gameplay.
What we want most when we release a hero is for you to feel like you’re playing a character, not a class. Someone who fights according to who they are, not the expectations of their role, who has personality. So Queen’s skill kit needed to spin around to help you get closer to enemies and go up, even creating an aura of fear around enemies.
And a development curiosity is that we came to feel insecure about the ax being his only accessory, so at one point we gave him magnetic gloves. Then she could throw the ax and then pull it back from a distance, which was fun but kind of weird sometimes because she was left with nothing to hit others in the meantime. That’s where we made her Gracie knife, and that’s what she can throw, which ended up making sense because it’s typical for this character to have an arsenal, weapons, and backup plans.
Is it still too early to talk a little about the new map in Rio de Janeiro? How is it working on the new scenarios?
Kacey Helms: We can’t reveal much yet because we want to make a lot of noise around this map at the right time, but what I can say is that we have people on our team who are from Brazil, and these RJ people help us spot small details that a layman might not realize, but if you’re from the region you’ll go fishing, so you’ll have lots of little easter eggs thanks to that!
Another thing we did was the sound, because we sent people to each region to make recordings, which helped to bring more authenticity. So you can be sure that both the locals and the other developers absolutely love this map and are excited to show it off!
Gavin Jurgens-Fyhrie: I love the way our team manages to put together the maps and the amount of care that goes into every little detail, from the audio to the art, the stories you can find, the easter eggs… I can’t say much so soon, but I’m very happy with how everything turned out!
Geoff Goodman: There are some references that are so good and so hidden that I only find out by reading on the internet about them much later! (laughs)
Is Junker Queen a good character for beginners or is it more recommended for veterans? Can you share some gameplay tips?
Geoff Goodman: I don’t think Queen is that complicated to play! It certainly has a lot of nuances in its gameplay, but even without having a high level of skill, I believe you can have fun and feel very powerful right away using it. One of the deeper points is choosing the right moment to shoot and pulling your knife back, for example.
It also has a good learning curve in knowing when to be more aggressive or not, and looking for alternatives at times when you are a little too committed to a fight. Overall, I think she was in a great spot in terms of a skill floor, but with a big and rewarding ceiling as well.
I think a good composition to play with her would be to have the team play together on the ground, maybe with a speed boost from Lucio, and then make a snowball with so much pressure. You can even be countered by Mei’s barriers, for example, but Queen is certainly a much more horizontal tank than vertical, and applying pressure is a good way to win.
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