AARON KELLER

CV

Aaron Keller joined Blizzard Entertainment in 2001, after ending the ’90s working on environments for the Legacy Of Kain: Soul Reaver games at Crystal Dynamics. He began as lead designer on World Of Warcraft before serving as lead level designer on its defining expansion, The Wrath Of The Lich King. Right before Lich King shipped, he moved over to Project Titan in 2008: the huge MMO shooter was very much a halfway house between his work on WoW and Overwatch. It was, however, shuttered in 2013 – until it was refocused and reformed into Overwatch, for which Keller would help maintain the core vision of its characters and its world as assistant director. He’s a keen explorer of terrain out in the real world, too – Keller enjoys mountain biking in his free time.

As assistant game director at Blizzard Entertainment, Aaron Keller is one of the key developers behind Overwatch, the company’s wildly successful team-based hero shooter. After 18 years spent working at the studio in Orange County, California, it’s clear that his considerable experience helping create MMOs World Of Warcraft and (the now cancelled) Project Titan had a hand in making the Overwatch universe the sensation it is today. Now, with the announcement of Overwatch 2, he’s at the forefront of fleshing out a world that has up until now merely served as a shiny backdrop to gun-based battles.

Indeed, it seems everything Blizzard touches turns to gold. Here, with Keller, we try to pin down the specifics of the design ethos strong enough to span multiple projects and genres, and will continue the maker’s legacy.