In 2016, Blizzard—the company behind World of Warcraft, Diablo, and StarCraft—announced Overwatch, a hero shooter where every character has a completely unique set of abilities, allowing players to find the style that best fits their needs. This project is a tribute to one of our favorite games and one of its most iconic characters: Soldier 76.
Overview
When Jeff Kaplan announced Overwatch 2 just a few weeks ago, we were in front of the screen watching Blizzcon live. And we started thinking how awesome it would be to work on a mechanical keyboard based on one of their iconic characters. “Say no more!” The day after, we started discussing some of our sketches, and we ended up prioritizing a Soldier 76 inspired design because . . . we missed him too much from the O2 reveal trailer.
Concept
First thing we had to decide was the size of the keyboard. We opted for a mechanical tenkeyless layout as it strikes a good balance between functionality and portability. After that, it was all about infusing Soldier’s style into chassis and color scheme, with the inclusion of a LED add-on that is reminiscent of his visor and it would have a practical function of acting as notification bar for Discord, Twitch, etc. The result of our brainstorm was a vector art mockup.
In the following weeks we’ve been working at the 3D render, which has allowed us to focus on the details. Colors, materials and the structure of the chassis have been refined. The notification bar has passed through a major overhaul compared to what we had in mind during the vector art phase.
The component is now getting even closer to Soldier’s visor design and since it’s supposed to act as an add-on for the keyboard we’ve included a pogo pin connector for an easy swap with other modules for different Heroes.
Other details that it is worth mentioning: portable sleek and compact design (you can decide whether to carry the Hero add-on with you or keep it home), USB Type-C plug, detachable braided cable, two-step angle adjustment and rubber feet for adequate stability.
This is it for now. We will probably get back on this project with some updates related to the add-ons, which we think could resemble some other Heroes from the Overwatch roster.
We’d love to hear your thoughts on this project. Please rate this project and leave us a message down below. Let us know if you have any recommendation or if there’s a specific Hero you would like us to explore for the next add-on to the keyboard.
Details
- Brand: Blizzard Overwatch
- Source of inspiration: Soldier 76 playable character
- Designer: Wendi (Indonesia), Danny (Costa Rica)
Your Opinion
We’d love to hear from you. Let us know in the comments section below, and don’t forget to rate this project.
How well do you feel this design represents Soldier 76’s identity?
How good is this design at proposing something new in terms of style compared to what you usually see in shops?