Every playable character in Team Fortress 2 is a dude. But the recent release of an artist’s old work shows that Valve at least toyed with the idea of introducing women into the game’s roster.
Drew Wolf, who spent nine years working at Valve as an artist, overhauled his website recently and amongst some other cool stuff — like ideas for a DOTA 2 cartoon — there’s a range of illustrations showing Team Fortress 2 classes, part of “an internal pitch project aimed to bring female characters to the cast of Team Fortress 2.”
“With the exception of their class function, It was important that each design presented an entirely new character”, Wolf writes on his site. “I wanted these characters to live on their own and add dimension to the current roster of in-game characters. The goal of the project was to dive deep into possibilities and facilitate creative discussion.”
Obviously nothing ever came of this, or the DOTA 2 cartoon, or some of the other Valve-related stuff Wolf has in his portfolio. You can see some highlights of what I’ve been talking about below, and check out more of his incredible art at his personal site.
Thanks @MaxOfS2D!
Fine Art is a celebration of the work of video game artists, showcasing the best of both their professional and personal portfolios. If you’re in the business and have some concept, environment, promotional or character art you’d like to share, get in touch!
TEAM FORTRESS 2
DOTA 2 CARTOON
Comments
8 responses to “Valve Thought About Putting Women In Team Fortress 2 (And Making A DOTA 2 Cartoon)”
Spy is pretty awesome, but the rest are kind of meh (not that I think the character designs already in game are worth noting).
I am glad we are passed that point (in theory) where thinking about putting a ‘girl’ in something has to be thought over. In movies, tv and games, finally it feels like the myth of females being unbankable has been widely disproven. (Sure there is a long way to go)
Pretty easy to see why those character designs didn’t make it into the game, barely any of them have hats.. Not even a signle tower of hats to be seen. Just absurd, no one should be expected to play like that.
wait i though valve already put a woman in TF2… the Pyro
Valve have teased and joked but haven’t confirmed nor denied it.
http://media.steampowered.com/apps/tf2/tf03_cold_day_in_hell/images/comic/2048×1536/022.jpg?v=3
http://media.steampowered.com/apps/tf2/tf03_cold_day_in_hell/images/comic/2048×1536/023.jpg?v=3
Looks like the ‘old lady’ demo got reused as the Pyro from Team Fortress Classic.
http://media.steampowered.com/apps/tf2/tf05_old_wounds/images/comic/2048×1536/007.jpg?v=3
Someone made a mod years and years ago that changes the characters to female complete with female voices and they are pretty well done. I would definitely love to play as the grey-haired demo-lady from those pictures. But otherwise, eh. TF2 seems to be the one game where I don’t care that no-one looks female.
The problem I see with most of these designs is it goes against the core design of TF2: Identifying each class by silhouette. So whilst I love the design of that female spy decked out in black, it completely goes against the core of TF2. Some of them would work great, as they just look like Rule 63 versions of the male characters. But then all you’re doing to keep true to the core design is to make a bunch of Ms. Males?