Overwatch 2 Will Work With Twitch Chat To Design New Map

Blizzard is roping in Twitch chat to help it design a new Overwatch 2 map tomorrow during its "Night of Merry Map Design" stream, taking place at 5pm PST, 8pm EST, and 1am GMT. This will be hosted by art director Dion Rogers and Aaron Keller.

"[We will] be using our internal tools to do this," Keller said (thanks, PCGamesN). "I am a little rusty, so go easy on me. Super excited to be doing this with all of you and Dion. We're hoping to use your input to design and build a map, in our editor, and to just have fun. Who knows? Maybe it's something we'll be able to play together in the future!"

You may have heard of Twitch Chat plays, a format in which the chat types commands that affect the game on stream – it's as chaotic as it sounds, as hundreds (sometimes thousands) of people scramble to beat bosses, get from level to level, and complete puzzles. It takes hours. It's been done for Dark Souls, Pokemon, and, only yesterday, Resident Evil 4. But Blizzard is doing things a little differently for its own stream. The chat won't be able to type commands to impact the editor and make the map, but Rogers and Keller will talk to chat to help piece it together.

It's unlikely that a map designed in one stream with help from Twitch chat will be fair to play, or even added to a game as competitive as Overwatch 2, but it's possible that we'll see this crop up in some form down the line given Keller's comment. Perhaps it'll be a sneaky little custom game easter egg that we can play on with our friends.

Building maps on stream isn't anything new, but it's typically mod teams and indie developers that do it, not big triple-A blockbusters. Regardless, this is a good step in pulling back the curtain on game development and showing players just how the sausage is made, even inviting them to help put it all together.

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