“Some of them are very literal in the sense of matching kind of the hero aesthetic, and some of them are more abstract.”
Overwatch 2's latest livestream featured the game's audio team, and one of the interesting highlights was from principal sound designer Chris De La Pena. He teased an Overwatch 2 hero that's in development.
Overwatch 2 teases new hero
During the segment, De La Pena used a wind wand to create some sound effects for an Overwatch 2 hero that’s in development. "I have one more thing to show you," he said. "This is called a 'wind wand' that I recorded recently for a hero that is in development, but I wanted to show you guys how it's used."
He then spun the wind wand in a circular motion to create clacking and buzzing sounds. Spinning it in the other direction produced a deeper variation as well.
"So listen for that coming up soon," De La Pena added.
The part about the wind wand and Overwatch 2 hero begins at the 45:38 mark in the video below.
Is Overwatch 2 getting a wind hero?
At the time of writing this article, it's unknown whether or not the upcoming Overwatch 2 hero will have any connection to wind. After all, not every Overwatch 2 weapon or sound effect necessarily has a real-world equivalent.
"Some of them are very literal in the sense of matching kind of the hero aesthetic," De La Pena said, referring to Overwatch 2's cabinet of audio relics. "And some of them are more abstract."
He continued, "One of our main goals with hero audio is to make our heroes as immersive as possible and to give our players as much gameplay information in the form of audio cues. There's a lot to cover in hero audio design -- from the many perspectives when you're playing in first person as a hero or what you hear coming from other players in the third person. A big part of making our heroes as immersive as possible is the unique sounds that we find to layer into their abilities and to their movement."
De La Pena then showed examples of how the team had created sounds for Sojourn, Venture, Zenyatta, and Roadhog.
That's all for now. Stick around on esports.gg for more Overwatch 2 news and updates!
