Early Overwatch development footage shows Doge payloads, laser-eyes Tracer, early hero select screen
Before Overwatch became the game know today, it went through several stages of development at Blizzard.
Although we only get to see Blizzard's work in its final, polished state, during a BlizzCon 2017 panel, Overwatch game director Jeff Kaplan shared footage of a build from September 2013 showing the first objects to be rendered in the game's proprietary engine.
The video starts off with a very, very early build. Tracer was the first character to be implemented, but by that point she was shooting lasers out of her eyes because Blizzard hadn't figured out how to have her hold guns. Then we move to first character implementation, and onto physics.
Most of the footage is captured from an early version of the Temple of Anubis map, and you get to see the map evolve through the different stages of development. We also get early looks at King's Row. Another great thing here is that we see very early versions of some of the heroes in the game, their ultimates and main abilities.
Watch it below, via BMP STUDIOS.
We get a glimpse at an early version of Hanzo's ultimate, Reinhardt’s shield and swing animations, Mercy's rez and a few others. The early payload equivalent is particularity funny, too, with Blizzard using a truck with a Doge icon to act as a payload.
It's a fascinating look at the game, well worth your time.