One Thai computer art student gave the Overwatch community something we didn’t even know we wanted, and now, a lot of us want it very badly.
Yesterday, student who goes by RM-Parfait posted a concept design (a project for her Master’s) for a Thai support hero on the Overwatch forums and, in response, fans begged the Overwatch team to take note. And they did—game director Jeff Kaplan jumped in to say, “Wow, this is amazing. You are so talented!”. Eeee!
Tara’s design was inspired by Siamese fighting fish, known as the Betta fish. Her abilities include “Bubble,” which is a blast of energy from her gun that “will block an enemy in[side] a bubble for 2 seconds,” and “Healing Drone,” which heals allies inside a 1.5 meter radius. She (and her gun) look absolutely stunning:
RM-Parfait even came up with some concept art for Tara’s map, Arun Town:
Over Facebook chat, RM-Parfait told me that she decided to make Tara because “there’s no Thai character in Overwatch yet. Also, I think there’re only few characters that come from Asia compare[d] to [other] region[s] so it might be interesting if I could create one.” She added that making Tara was “quite a challenge for me because I’ve never draw something in sci-fi theme before.”
Like Overwatch’s Mercy says, “It’s nice to be appreciated.”