Before we talk about our release date, we know you would love to read a lengthy recap of Overwatch's development over the past year.. Who are we kidding. This is the news many of you have been anxiously waiting to hear:
August 20th, 2010
..is the date you should all be marking on your calendars as the day each and every one of you will be able to download and play Overwatch!
After three issue-free closed releases and tons of great comments and feedback from our community, Overwatch is ready to be released to the general public. Over the next three weeks, we will be putting the finishing touches on what will be v1.1.0, deploying a few more surprises on our community site and ironing out any issues with our auto-updater tool (which will allow you to keep Overwatch up-to-date no matter how often we release updates).
Have any ideas of what we can do to help you pass the time until R-Day? Post them below!
Interview on Podcast17
A week ago, Podcast17 held the first ever live interview with three of our developers. We discussed Overwatch, its development and its future, answered questions from some of our community members and even talked with two of them live on the air. It was a fantastic experience and we hope Podcast17 will want us back for another episode!
For those of you who missed it, you can download the MP3 directly from Podcast17's website, grab the show off of iTunes or even stream it right here on ModDB:
[+] Interview Notes:
00:01:38 - What is Overwatch?
00:02:00 - The RTS side of Overwatch.
00:02:35 - Emil's role on the team.
00:03:00 - Adam's role on the team.
00:03:40 - What prompted the creation of Overwatch?
00:05:00 - How our development process works.
00:06:15 - Why Valve's Source engine?
00:06:50 - Overwatch is a team effort.
00:08:10 - The Zombie Master influence.
00:10:10 - The potential Zombie Master didn't explore.
00:11:20 - Overwatch is developed by a group of experienced, talented modders.
00:12:55 - Quality Assurance and its important role.
00:13:40 - What keeps the community focused.
00:14:15 - Why working closely with a community matters, and what impact they have on a game.
00:15:30 - How we've handled programming and the benefits of coding features from scratch.
00:17:10 - The importance of promoting community-made content and supporting developers.
00:18:00 - Planned customization capabilities of Overwatch.
00:19:00 - Why Overwatch is developed for a FPS crowd, over an RTS crowd.
00:26:00 - How user-made content will be handled for Overwatch.
00:34:00 - Our Development Reports and other frequent Blog updates.
00:42:00 - Combining RTS and FPS elements to create Overwatch.
00:49:00 - Matt (Korge from SHIFT) calls in.
00:53:00 - Why iterative development can help us find issues fast, and resolves them even faster.
00:57:00 - Twerty calls in.
00:58:20 - Why micromanagement is bad for Overwatch and the importance of powerful AI.
01:05:20 - Interview ends.
Last Week's v1.0.2 and Next Week's v1.0.3
This past Wednesday marked the release of v1.0.2, with the second edition of our Development Report detailing the changes and improvements that were included in that update.
We will have a third edition posted this coming Monday, which will include a list of changes to be released in v1.0.3 (on August 4th), as well as a sneak peek of new features slated for release in mid-August's public build.
Track Us and Take Part
On a final note, we would like to encourage all of you to join our growing community, keep track of Overwatch's progress and even play an active role in its development by posting your ideas and comments on our forums or discussing your thoughts with our developers on IRC.
Track Us
- Watch us right here on ModDB: ModDB.com
- Join our Steam group: SteamCommunity.com
- Follow us on Twitter: Twitter.com
- Like our Facebook page: Facebook.com
- Subscribe to our YouTube channel: YouTube.com
Take Part
- Contribute on our community forums: Community.OverwatchMod.com
- Chat with us on IRC: WebChat.OverwatchMod.com
We will be anxiously counting down the days to our public release. We hope you are as excited as we are and we look forward to seeing you all in-game very, very soon!
Do a barrel roll!
--OWDT
whoooohooooo 1 day into school, this school year is starting with a bang
This mod is going to be.... awesome..
Nice, cant wait!
Gimme teh cake!!
But it's a lie! :<
Now that sure looks nice to see you set a release date.
Hope playing the game will be as nice as I saw in the videos.
Rather than (or as well as) an updater tool, could you make a public SVN repository for the binaries?
An official public release will be awesome. Considering how smooth the beta was, I can only imagine a ton of players filling up servers for this mod.
August 20th?
Hell, yeah, that's the start of school, luckily, there's this mod making my time good!
Aug 20th is my birthday woo hoo!
:D It's my birthday too. :D
Double Bonus.
Heres your present (Paper that says overwatch is relesed inside)
super cool!
WEE
WEE
WEE
WEE
WEE
WEE
I CAN FIX MY COMPUTER 'TILL THERE! AND OMG! I WANT TO PLAY!
Btw, my birthday is August 9th, try to release there ;)
Do a barrel roll!
:D nice!
Only 19 days? AWSOME! More people to play with, finally.