Fans of the "Overwatch" character "Mei" will have another reason to like her and her creators as Blizzard Entertainment, the creator of the online first-person shooter (FPS) game, recently released a behind-the-scenes video of the animated short film "Rise and Shine."
The animated short film, released last month by Blizzard Entertainment, was well received and popular, with more than seven million views even though it came out only on Aug. 23. The said short film was released in Gamescom in Cologne, Germany and explored the background story of "Mei," a playable climatologist character in "Overwatch."
Blizzard then released a "the making of" video showing how the background story came to be. According to Jeff Kaplan, the game director for "Overwatch," their move of making the game an online, multiplayer, team-based FPS did not leave much room for the game to have exposition for its playable characters. This posed a narrative difficulty for them since they also wanted to introduce the whole new universe they have created.
As reported by Dot eSports, Blizzard remedied this by released animated short films for every character of the game. Blizzard Entertainment added that these shorts explaining the backstory of the characters are crucial to the game since these help their players get emotionally invested in the characters of "Overwatch."
"It was extremely important to dig into who is Mei, the human being, and how does she become the hero she is," as stated by Kaplan. He then added that, "all of that is as important as how much damage does her left click do."
"Mei" from "Overwatch" is considered by both players and Blizzard Entertainment to be one of the most unique characters in the game since most of the playable heroes in the game are action heroes who exude confidence. "Mei," on the other end of the spectrum, is just a normal person thrust into a difficult situation, making her realize that she needed to be a hero. This, suggested by Jeff Kaplan, proves that anyone of us could be a hero anytime, just as "Mei" from "Overwatch."
More behind-the-scenes videos of other "Overwatch" characters are available for viewing on Blizzards official YouTube channel for the game.
