Overwatch Lets you Make your Own Silly Modes Now

Overwatch is no stranger to new modes and ways to play, many of which verge on the wacky, goofy, or generally silly, ranging from everything to a “no cooldowns high HP slugfest” to “let’s all gang up on this gorilla.” And if you’re played these modes and thought “gee, I’d love to make my own terribly balanced stupid mode,” then Blizzard has good news for you: You’re getting your chance, big guy.

Introducing Overwatch Workshop.



It’s a simple idea with less-than-simple execution. If you’ve got a logical brain and have at least a bit of scripting know-how, you can use the Workshop mode to craft your own weird games with their own rules, mechanics, and win conditions. It does require that little bit of coding knowledge to use proficiently, but it comes with a debugger that pretty clearly explains what kind of problems the game encounters in trying to run, and Blizzard hopes this will act as a stepping stone to helping people get interested in the world of programming and game logic.

Which is a noble goal within itself.

One example that Blizzard is showing off is “the floor is lava” mode, where players catch fire and take damage as long as they’re on the ground, and only get relief if they’re in the air. It’s a fun idea for a game mode by itself, made better by the fact that they pretty clearly detail how they made it in the Workshop mode.

Anyway. It’s currently on the Public Test Realm, but someday soon it’ll be moved to the actual game during the final release. And I gotta say, I’m pretty excited to see what kind of stuff wound-be developers and programmers can think up using this mode: if it’s anything like the stuff people have been able to make in Super Mario Maker, it promises to be an exciting time for Overwatch fans.

I just hope Blizzard promotes the really good ideas.