For the past 18 months, following the cancelation of Titan , Blizzard has been building and iterating on Overwatch , something the team expects to continue in earnest throughout 2015. Built in a new, proprietary engine, the 6v6 competitive shooter enters beta next year — but, in typical Blizzard fashion, Overwatch will release “when it’s ready.”

“ You should never have to learn from the kill cam.

But it’s reassuring that Overwatch is as far along as it is. The debut demo features 12 heroes, each with a distinct set of skills, fighting in a diverse group of iconic real-world settings. Egyptian temples, a garden near Mt. Fuji, Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro, and the Eiffel Tower in Paris are a few we’ve seen in gameplay and trailers. The challenge is making those pieces fit in a fun, near-future Earth setting, where robot armies rip Russian soldiers to shreds, a moon ape needs glasses to see better, and a monk features cybernetic upgrades.Abilities for every hero had to “broaden the diversity of the characters” to avoid crossover. Blizzard essentially tried for every Overwatch member to feel like a character in a completely different game, and so far it’s succeeded pretty well. Tracer’s teleportation feels and operates in a unique way — Widowmaker’s grappling hook and Pharah’s straight-up-propulsion serve separate purposes, and factor into their skills. Each hero’s gun has a particular effectiveness that drives where you’ll end up, and how you’ll engage in combat. In the case of Torbjörn, Blizzard opted against giving a character a proper weapon altogether.Torbjörn presented a problem, “and not just because of the umlaut…although there was a bug because of the umlaut,” explained Principle Designer Scott Mercer. “We wanted to make a character that didn’t rely on you precisely aiming a reticle on top of someone’s head. We wanted one about building.”Early in development, Torbjörn didn’t have a resource like he does now, which is one of many small improvements Blizzard made to the character. Later on, once the team gave him sentry turrets as the primary means of dealing damage, it became about “how hard do they hit, and making sure people know they’re being hit by a turret,” Mercer continued. “One of the things with all of our characters is that readability if super important. You’re looking at the kill cam and wondering what happened. You should never have to learn from the kill cam.”For more on Overwatch, check out our first hands-on impressions five important things you need to know , and learn about the beta

Mitch Dyer is an Editor at IGN. He hosts IGN Arena , a podcast about MOBAs, and is trying to read more. Here's his reading list . Talk to Mitch about books, Dota 2, and other stuff on Twitter at @MitchyD and subscribe to MitchyD on Twitch