How Overwatch Tamed the Wild, Jetpacking Cat: A 10-Year Design Odyssey
Overwatch's feline disruptor isn't just a meme - she's a 10 year old design nightmare finally unleashed on unsuspecting players.
Jetpack Cat's concept dates back to Overwatch's predecessor Titan, but her evolution into a playable hero required solving animation, physics, and balance puzzles. Team 4, the Overwatch design subgroup, called her inclusion in Season 1's multi-hero drop an "automatic choice."
"One of the biggest issues faced in artistic design was ensuring that Jetpack Cat was cute enough," said the team. Her jetpack—engineered in lore by Brigitte Lindholm—required custom animations to simulate flight mechanics while maintaining the whimsical tone of Overwatch.
Animation challenges included scaling her in-game model for visibility without making her an unfair advantage. "The team had to work out the ideal size for Jetpack Cat’s in-game model to promote both cohesiveness and fairness," developers explained. Physics adjustments were also necessary for abilities like Lifeline, which had to account for varying hero weights during flight.
Early server tests revealed a chaotic flaw: when both teams used her Ultimate ability simultaneously, it caused server-wide slow motion. Balancing fixes included range limitations and proximity requirements for team-based abilities.
"Both paths of the Jetpack Cat—the flying menace or the beacon of healing—are equally valid," the design team affirmed.
