Learn how Blizzard designed Overwatch's Oasis map

Ever wondered what goes into the creation of an Overwatch map?

Well, now you can find out thanks to the folks over at Game Informer, who joined forces with Blizzard's lead writer Michael Chu and assistant game director Aaron Keller for a deep-dive look at the design and art direction behind the Oasis map. 

The 30 minute long video breakdown (shown above) features a smorgasbord of interesting design tidbits and trivia, such how the team went about creating an idealistic version of Iraq and the practicalities of designing a map for Control -- which seems players fight to dominate three randomly chosen objectives. 

Because players would always pack into the control points on other maps, Keller explains that this time around the team "focused on trying to spread it out."

"The philosophy that we used on all three of the points in Oasis is that we'd have an arena inside an arena," he continues." And so the map's middle area is its own little arena, and you can do a lot of fighting here, but then it's surrounded by a whole ring that's connected to this space in various ways.

"That encourages people to take the fighting off of the point and either push into enemy territory if they've taken the point or use it as a flanking area to get the point back."

You can sink your teeth into the full breakdown by watching the video right here, or by heading on over to Game Informer's YouTube channel.