Some heroes from Overwatch have gone through some pretty strange development phases. Jeff Kaplan reveals various secrets of the defensive heroes.
Jeff Kaplan, the Game Director of Overwatch, has recorded several videos with IGN in recent days. In doing so, he unveils numerous secrets about the development of the hero shooter. He has now also published 6 secrets about the various defensive characters in the game.
No character in the game had as many different ultimates as Bastion. Before he got his tank mode, there were various things he could do:
- Bouncing grenades
- Shooting through walls
- Firing a mine that dealt area damage (and was indestructible)
All these ultimates felt “terrible,” which is why they were quickly removed.
Hanzo’s ultimate is known within the Overwatch team as “The Caterpillar.” This is because Hanzo did not have an animation for the dragons during his development phase. The developers simply took 4 large balls that pressed together and made their way through the level – and it looked like a giant caterpillar.
Junkrat’s character design initially envisioned him wearing a large protective suit – one like bomb disposal experts wear to increase their chances of survival in emergencies. So he would have become a rather “chubby” character model. Ultimately, however, Junkrat became the crazy pyromaniac who is also affected by his own explosions – the whole team just liked that better.
Mei was originally supposed to be a character named “Frostbyte” and was then conceived as a bounty hunter. Only in a later revision did she become “cuter” and receive all these “cool” ice abilities.
The name of Torbjörn is the name of an actual employee at Blizzard from the Overwatch team. When he joined Blizzard and they learned his name, Chris Metzen and Jeff Kaplan looked at each other and said, “Wow, that’s the coolest name I’ve ever heard” – and just like that, our Swede had a name. By the way, Torbjörn’s name translates to “Thor’s Bear.”
Widowmaker is part of a concept from another game. There, there would have been a “Ranger” class with many different variations (presumably “Titan”). One of those variations would have been a sniper with a grappling hook. The developers liked the concept so much that they simply adopted it into Overwatch.
