With a little more luck, Overwatch would have gotten a playable cat as a hero. With a jetpack.
The heroes in Overwatch are quirky and mostly quite colorful. From a lively time traveler to a half-undead in ghost form pulling infinite shotguns from his coat. But where are the limits of what makes Overwatch?
In an interview with colleagues from Gamespot, Jeff Kaplan, the Game Director of Overwatch, spoke about early design ideas.
Especially in the beginning, when Overwatch wasn’t clearly defined and the boundaries were blurred, a lot was experimented with internally. There was even talk of a cat hero – or more precisely: A jetpack operated by a cat.
“It was a new product, we didn’t know how far we could go, that’s why Winston is such an important cornerstone for us. It was kind of like: ‘Hey, there’s a gorilla and he talks, is that okay? Yes, that’s okay.'”
On the other side of the spectrum, there were then “more traditional” heroes, like Soldier: 76, who corresponds to many American soldier stereotypes.
“Then there was this one hero, about whom there was a huge internal debate among us because we loved him so much, but he just didn’t make it into the game. It was a jetpack, and inside there was a cat – just like a cat lays around. Occasionally, the cat would then hit the controls. It was just a cat in a jetpack.”
Obviously, they didn’t want to go that far.
“That was one of those moments that helped us define Overwatch more precisely. We told ourselves ‘Yes, that’s probably going too far.’ But yes, we had a cat hero.”
Apparently, with Winston, a genetically mutated gorilla who possesses enough intelligence to be a scientist, the limit of “animal” heroes has been reached. Too bad, some cat lovers would surely have appreciated more paws. But maybe we’ll still get a cat girl as a Japanese hero – one can still dream…
