You may have noticed that something about Sombra is different from all the other heroes
in Overwatch.
Her play style?
Her cyberpunk theme?
What about her DESIGN?
There are some very interesting reasons why she might be so different.
So let's take a look through the history of her development, uncover some of her influences
and try to figure out the reasons why she might stand out so much.
If you've followed the behind the scenes of Overwatch closely you might have heard that
early in development, Hanzo and Genji used to be one character.
His name was Genji, and he LOOKED like Genji from the waist UP, and HANZO from the waist down.
He had a sword AND a bow, and his abilities were presumably split between the two.
Somewhere along the way the team at Blizzard thought it would make more sense to split
him into two characters so players can get the most out of the two weapons.
These vastly different weapons also made for vastly different play styles.
So why am I talking about Genji and Hanzo so early in a Sombra video?
Well because EVEN BEFORE the concept for this Genji/Hanzo hybrid, there was a female character
called Omniblade.
A fast and agile stealth assassin with japanese influences.
It looks like she takes on a Neo Tokyo aesthetic.
A modern ninja.
Her weapons of choice were projectile shuriken and kunai.
That's these things and those things.
She also had the ability to throw a kunai to reveal enemies behind cover.
That ability might sound a little familiar to you.
They took this concept of Omniblade and iterated on it even more, as they normally do in video
game concept design.
In fact I'm sure there were many more concepts before this that haven't been made public.
They took the general shapes of this character's design, but switched to a Mexican theme with
the darker skin, this triangle pattern we often see in Mexican textile design, and the
green, gold and beige colors.
This is the earliest example of Sombra.
It's unclear who created these, but all of the original Overwatch concept illustrations
that ended up becoming key art for the game were drawn by Arnold Tsang.
Omniblade and version 1 Sombra look very much like his style.
You can tell by the long legs, short torso, the female head shape, the eyes.
Even the linework.
This all points to Arnold Tsang.
But after this concept, they decided to cut the idea, and use parts of it for Genji and
Hanzo.
There were some good ideas here!
This design could totally be salvaged.
So after all of the other heroes made the cut, they decided to take Sombra out of the
trash bin and re-work her.
This task was given to another designer, Benjamin Zhang, under the DIRECTION of Arnold Tsang.
BTW those two last names sound the same, but they're not.
One's like a...
ZANG and one's like a...
TSANG.
Idk it's probably not even like that ANYWAY.
Benjamin Zhang reworked the design to be MUCH CLOSER to what we know today.
He changed her from a stealth assassin, into a STEALTH...
HACKER in case that wasn't obvious enough from the concept art here.
You can tell this concept was conjured up by a completely different artist because of
the leg to torso size, the female head shape, the eyes, but ALSO the THICK shapes that make up the design.
Those eyes are looking very... squid like...
BUT THERE'S STILL MORE ITERATION to be had.
Because of the hood and the long coat, the team decided that this design's silhouette
matched far too closely with Ana's.
Another post-release Overwatch hero.
ONLY ONE GIRL'S ALLOWED TO BE IN A HOOD AT A TIME.
So they iterated once more, and came up with the final design we see now.
But I believe still not created by the man himself.
Only DIRECTED by him.
He called the shots.
And you can tell his influence is still pertinent.
One eagle eye'd redditor pointed out something facinating to me.
You see Arnold Tsang is one of the cofounders of UDON Entertainment.
If you don't know them, they're a studio focused on asian influenced comics and manga.
You've definitely seen they're stuff before, especially if you're a Capcom fan.
Tsang worked very closely with Alvin Lee who you might know from THIS illustration.
Together they worked on some of the Street Fighter Comic Series.
Tsang also worked with Capcom Japan on Capcom Fighting Evolution and Super Street Fighter
2 Turbo: HD Remix.
These names... just never end!
He also worked on APB.
Do you remember APB?
I remember APB.
Working at Gamestop when they closed the servers after only a month of activity.
YOU try explaining to somebody that their $60 game isn't going to work anymore AND it's
out of the return policy.
So, this guy likes Street Fighter.
Well, this would explain Sombra's hair cut.
She has the exact same haircut as BRAZILIAN fighter Laura, and her palet is on the exact
oposite side of the color wheel.
Now I'm not saying this is an intentional rip.
I'm not accusing the guy of anything.
It's more likely just a subtle influence.
The guy likes Streetfighter.
Aint nothing wrong with that!
AND THERE'S MORE influence to be found in Japanese culture.
Another eagle eyed redditor pointed out her cloaking animation.
She moves her hand in front of her face just before she goes invisible.
Similar to a certain other character in popular culture NO NOT JOHN CENA.
GO. AWAY.
Motoko Kusanagi from Ghost in the Shell.
She does the same hand gesture just before her cloaking gets activated.
On the same note, one of Sombra's sprays is called Deaf-Mute.
This is a direct reference to the hacker "The Laughing Man" in Ghost in the Shell, who's
logo reads "I thought what I'd do was, I'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes."
The laughing man has the ability to erase himself from cameras in real time.
He can also hack augmented brains to erase himself from sight.
This could be an influence to Sombras cloaking ability.
The design team probably channeled Ghost in the Shell becuase of the whole cyberpunk,
hacking, augmented body thing.
Her character's theme draws great influence from that world.
In fact there are a TON of Japanese influences sparkled ALL OVER Overwatch.
But you know what?
That's a story for another time...
SO WHAT DO YOU GUYS THINK about Sombra's character design and the iterations shes been through?
How simlar do you think she is to the rest of the Overwatch characters DESPITE her unique
history?
Leave it in the comments below and don't forget to boop that like button...
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Well thanks for watching guys.
I'm BOB and I'll be firing out these art videos once a week!
If you've got any topics you'd like to see covered, why not send me a tweet at BobWulff?
Spelt all weird like that.
I'll catch you guys in the next video.
Have a good week!