Jessica S. February 7, 2019
What’s better than playing a piano in Overwatch? Using a piano to play a piano in Overwatch, of course.
If you introduce a playable piano into your game, chances are people are going to find ways to make interesting content around it.
An Overwatch player known as Zbnone fashioned a real electric piano into a controller and used it to play the Paris map’s in-game piano, with each key on his actual piano corresponding to a piano key in the game. The code used to make this possible is called “PianoAimBot” and was created in Python.
“You can actually play anything you want live on it (no macros). You can also load and play midi files,” Zbnone said on Reddit.
Though it takes some fine-tuning to position one’s character exactly in front of the piano as required in order to play the notes correctly, there is also a calibration feature in the program to help adjust one’s position.
Although Blizzard explicitly forbids third-party programs to automate anything in their game, the use of this program doesn’t actually alter the game itself. Rather, it’s used just like a macro for a mouse.
While Reddit users did debate whether or not the program would be counted as a third-party intrusion and therefore cheating, the video was likely made while the player was in a custom game, lessening the chance for punishments from Blizzard.
This isn’t the first time someone has rigged up a nontraditional controller to the game. Content creator Rudeism has long been using various real world objects to play the game. His most recent video shows his incredible setup of using a teacup, teapot, and teabag as a controller for Ana, but he’s also done others such as playing Brigitte with a baguette and pizza shield and playing Genji with fidget spinners.