Recently Michael Chu, Overwatch’s lead writer, wrote on PlayStation Blog about the latest animated short that features D.Va as the main character, and answered questions about her backstory, her character design, and overall popularity.
Check out the highlights below:
Why do you think D.Va is on top of a lot of fan popularity polls?
Michael Chu, lead writer: “Lots of reasons! D.Va’s a gamer like all of us. She has a great visual design (including her mech) and fun gameplay. Her strength, attitude, and personality make her an appealing character who also occupies an interesting part of the Overwatch universe that we’re excited to continue to explore.”
How did she go from playing professional esports to piloting a mech on the battlefield?
Chu: “Since the end of the Omnic Crisis, the Mobile Exo-Force of the Korean Army (MEKA) has defended Korea against attacks by a massive omnic colossus (known as the “gwishin”) that rises from the sea from time to time. Originally, they utilized drone mechs, but MEKA were forced to turn to human pilots once the gwishin evolved to disrupt their networked control systems.
MEKA turned to one of Korea’s greatest resources: the pro gamers (in addition to standouts from other fields with similar talents) who had the necessary reflexes and skills to operate the mechs. And that’s where Hana Song came into the picture.”
How did you come up with D.Va’s character design?
Chu: “We knew we wanted to make a hero that piloted a mech. We went through a lot of iteration on how exactly the gameplay between the pilot and the mech played out, but it was always a constant we wanted to have both. Eventually we settled on a pilot that would fight inside the mech, and then eject and fight on the battlefield as an unprotected pilot. Our Assistant Art Director, Arnold Tsang, took inspiration from mech anime and manga for her visual look.
One thing I’m often asked is where the bunny motif came from. Originally, D.Va had more of a cat theme, but after we gave her the Boosters ability (which enables her to fly around) we thought about theming the whole package as a bunny hop.”
Here’s a burning question from fans around the world: Where do all the extra mechs come from?!
The MEKA base in Busan. Dae-hyun (D.Va’s mechanic) and Myung (her commanding officer) would really like everyone to take it easy on those Self-Destructs though. The budgets get scary quickly!
You can check out the full Q&A here.
Overwatch is available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.
