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Overwatch Lead Designer Geoff Goodman responded to an appreciation post on the game’s forums to answer some of the community’s burning questions. Goodman spoke briefly about the difficulties in balancing a game like Overwatch and revealed interesting weapon and ability designs the development team had considered over the years.
In Goodman’s initial comment, the lead designer reminisced about some of Overwatch’s early challenges, citing Reinhardt’s animation-less ultimate and Pharah’s high Concussive Blast damage as two overpowered abilities in the game’s early stages. The lead designer then pointed to the future of the game’s updates, mentioning the goals for the Overwatch balance team.
“Although there will always be some changes that will not be popular with some players, know that the the goal is always to keep every hero unique and powerful for everyone,” Goodman said.
When asked about mechanics in the game he would like to see added, Goodman responded with two main designs the developers had worked on since the game’s creation.
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“We have a ton of unused ability and weapon prototypes sitting around,” Goodman wrote. “They’re generally either something we’ve tried on a hero in the past and didn’t like, or something we did like but didn’t feel like it fit right on the hero we were testing.”
The lead designer then described a “Bomblet Gun,” a low-damage gun with a primary fire that shot projectiles that would stick to enemy champions. After a long animation, the secondary fire would then remotely detonate all of the projectiles stuck to enemy targets.
Goodman also mentioned an ability the team had considered for Sombra. According to the lead designer, the ability would’ve been a wall that would prevent opponents from seeing through it. “It was pretty scary to fight against when all these projectiles were just magically coming out of the thing but you couldn’t see who or where they were being fired from,” Goodman said.
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While Overwatch’s newest hero Baptiste doesn’t feature either of the two mechanics described by Goodman, the combat medic will introduce a new playstyle and a few new abilities to the game when he releases on live servers. The 30th hero is currently on the game’s Public Test Region, where fans can test him out for themselves prior to his release.
