During the early days of the game’s development, talking gorilla Winston and grizzled serviceman Soldier 76 were apparently treated as the two “bookends” among its range of of heroes. That being said, the team did test out some concepts that were much more unusual.
“There was this one hero that was a huge internal debate on the team because we just loved it so much but it didn’t make it,” said Kaplan, speaking to Gamespot. “It was this jetpack and it had this cat that laid in it, like a cat does. Then every once in a while it would paw at the controls. It was a cat in a jetpack.”
The decision to not include the character in the game is said to be an important moment in defining what Overwatch was going to be. Ultimately, it seems that the idea of a cat operating a jetpack was just a little too silly for the tone Blizzard was trying to achieve.
“I just can’t imagine it from first-person, seeing those little cat paws,” mused Kaplan. Unfortunately, it seems that the cat hero isn’t set to make its debut in Overwatch any time soon — but the director does know who the next character added to the game’s playable roster will be, according to a report from the IBTimes.
“The next hero is very far along in development, so we’re at the point where we’re doing art for that hero, we’re doing a lot of aggressive play-testing,” said Kaplan. There’s currently no word on the identity of this new character; Doomfist has been discussed plenty by the community and actor Terry Crews, but it’s just as likely Blizzard will drop someone completely unexpected.
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