Overwatch team spent 18 months working on Genji, and his double jump is still a "headache" for the design team
Overwatch secrets include true stories of a time when Genji was even more OP.
Overwatch principle game designer Geoof Goodman appears alongside director Jeff Kaplan in this video on secrets of Blizzard's shooter.
Among the many interesting topics the pair cover is a discussion of the lengthy process of designing a new Overwatch hero, and in a related question, whether the pair have any regrets.
In the course of this chat, Goodman said he regrets giving Genji a double jump, as that one single move has made him one of the toughest Overwatch heroes to balance.
"I feel like Genji's double jump is my biggest regret in a way. It's super awesome, I love it, but man - that one thing makes him so difficult to balance because he's so everywhere, all the time," Goodman said.
"You kinda never not want to be in the air double jumping. So he's just this character who's practically flying in front of you all the time. That's part of what makes him feel so nimble and great so there's definitely an awesome side to it that I love, but at the same time - what a headache, this one thing that seemed innocuous at the time."
Goodman said Genji was one of the earliest characters to be prototyped, but he wasn't announced until close to Overwatch's release because he took so long to get right.
"We kept making Genji, and then we'd just put him on hold. It probably took year and a half," Kaplan said. Goodman agreed, saying Genji probably took the longest of all the current Overwatch heroes to perfect.
"We had some early prototypes of intense frustration," he added. "That ran around stealth killing people."
"Stealth killing Genji with katana-only melee that was deadly," Kaplan recalled. "Everyone who played Genji thought it was the funnest thing ever."
"People'd be perched above your spawn room and just drop right on you," Goodman said. "You could stick to walls."
Oh boy yeah, Genji mains would love that. Every other Overwatch player? Not. So. Much.
Speaking of new heroes, it looks like Doomfist is coming in an imminent Overwatch patch - although as you'll see at the end of the video, Blizzard does like to tease us about him.
The video contains a number of other Overwatch secrets like the meaning of the number 54, what Torbjörn listens to on his headphones, and more. Give it a watch.