Splatoon Rabbits? Times Where Games Made A Massive Design Change Mid-Development

Game development is a massive undertaking that a lot of people take for granted, which is to be expected. After all, the most you see during the development process is maybe a few interviews with the developers, some concept art, early trailers, or gameplay, and that’s pretty much it.

However, in a lot of cases, games undergo some massive changes during the early stages of development, starting off as entirely different projects or in different genres. Below, we’ll take a look at some games that changed the most during development.

Halo: Combat Evolved

Halo: Combat Evolved

Released

November 15, 2001

Halo is one of the biggest video game franchises in the world, and certainly one of the most popular first-person shooters of all time. But did you know that the original idea for the game was not a first-person shooter at all, but a real-time strategy game?

Originally, Halo: Combat Evolved was developed as an RTS similar to one of Bungie’s other games, Myth. However, the team soon developed a vehicle (which you may know as the Warthog), and they thought it would be a lot more fun if you could actually get inside it and drive it yourself. With that, development shifted to a third-person shooter, and eventually to a first-person one.

Fortnite

Fortnite

Released

September 26, 2017

ESRB

T for Teen – Violence

Developer(s)

Epic Games

Publisher(s)

Epic Games

Engine

Unreal Engine 5

Multiplayer

Online Multiplayer

Cross-Platform Play

Mobile, PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One & Xbox Series X|S

Cross Save

yes

Number of Players

1-4 (online)

Split Screen Orientation

Horizontal Only

Steam Deck Compatibility

N/A

PC Release Date

September 26, 2017

Xbox Series X|S Release Date

November 10, 2020

PS5 Release Date

November 12, 2020

Nintendo Switch Release Date

June 12, 2018

Nintendo Switch 2 Release Date

June 5, 2025

Platform(s)

PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch 2, Nintendo Switch, PC, Mobile

OpenCritic Rating

Mighty

Local Co-Op Support

1-4 Players

X|S Optimized

YES

PS Plus Availability

N/A

Metascore

78

Platforms That Support Crossplay

Mobile, PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One & Xbox Series X|S

Fortnite is an absolutely massive game that has routinely gone outside the confines of what we consider to be a video game. While Fortnite’s most popular game mode is its Battle Royale, there are dozens of other games within Fortnite, both created by users and Epic Games themselves.

This trend goes all the way back to when the game was first revealed, where it was actually a sandbox survival game, where you built up structures to defend against waves of zombies, similar to a combination of Minecraft and Left 4 Dead. While this mode, titled Save the World, is still available to play, the game quickly shifted focus to the Battle Royale genre that was popular at the time, and things just sort of spiraled out of control from there.

Splatoon

Splatoon is a multiplayer shooter where you shoot ink onto the surface of the arena to gain control of it. While Splatoon’s Inklings (and later, Octolings) have become synonymous with the franchise, this wasn’t always the case.

Early in development, the Inklings were actually rabbits, which were chosen due to their abilities to burrow into the ground and being naturally territorial animals, meshing with the territory control nature of the game. However, Nintendo higher-ups questioned why rabbits would be shooting and swimming into ink, and so the rabbits were swapped out for squids.

Team Fortress 2

Team Fortress 2

Released

October 10, 2007

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ESRB

M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence

Developer(s)

Valve

Publisher(s)

Valve

Engine

Source

Multiplayer

Online Co-Op, Online Multiplayer

Platform(s)

PC, PS3, Xbox 360, Linux, macOS

Team Fortress 2, more commonly known as TF2, is a multiplayer FPS where you take control of one of nine character classes and try to beat the other team at a variety of objectives, like pushing a payload or capturing their flag. The game has an instantly recognizable cartoon aesthetic, but it didn’t always look this way.

The original concept for the game was a real-time strategy game with a modern war aesthetic, where one player would take on the role of the Commander, who would view the battlefield from a birds-eye perspective and give orders to other players. However, Valve quickly realized that players would just ignore the Commander’s orders and do what they want, so the Commander was abandoned.

After a series of delays, the game was eventually reintroduced in 2006 with the iconic cartoonish graphics that we know and love today.

Overwatch

ESRB

T for Teen: Blood, Use of Tobacco, Violence (online interactions not rated)

Developer(s)

Blizzard

Publisher(s)

Blizzard

Engine

Proprietary

Multiplayer

Online Multiplayer

Cross-Platform Play

ps5, xbox , pc

Cross Save

yes

Franchise

Overwatch

Steam Deck Compatibility

yes

Platform(s)

Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, PC, PS4

OpenCritic Rating

Mighty

How Long To Beat

100 hours

X|S Optimized

yes

Following this list’s trend of shooters that started off wildly different, we have Overwatch, a hero shooter that has undergone its own share of changes, even during its playable life. The original game was completely replaced with Overwatch 2, which swapped its buy-to-play model for a free-to-play one, and most notably changed team sizes from six to five.

However, the game’s biggest changes happened behind the scenes, early in development. Going all the way back to 2007, Blizzard began working on an MMO called Titan. World of Warcraft was already massively popular at the time, but Blizzard feared another MMO would come out and compete with WoW for subscribers. So, instead of letting that happen, they planned to just make another MMO.

However, Titan was eventually canceled in 2013, and many of its assets were used to craft Overwatch.

Super Smash Bros.

Super Smash Bros. pits iconic Nintendo characters against one another in stages taken straight from each character’s respective game. It’s the ultimate crossover game for Nintendo fans, but this wasn’t always the case.

Originally, the game was titled Dragon King: The Fighting Game, and was going to feature all original characters. However, Sakurai had reservations about a cast of all original characters, worrying that too many main characters would clash for the focus of marketing and promotion. Instead, they let their already successful IPs do the marketing for them.

While the gameplay didn’t change much during development, it’s hard to imagine Smash Bros without Mario, Kirby, or any of the other Nintendo characters that have become synonymous with the title.

Diablo

The Diablo games are known for their action combat and variety of loot, and these concepts go all the way back to the first game. However, the original Diablo was developed at a time when computer RPGs were still finding their footing, and most were being developed as passion projects that lacked the polish found in games with longer development cycles.

Originally, Diablo was designed as a turn-based RPG like all the others at the time, but upon bringing the idea to Blizzard (Silicon & Synapse, at the time), co-founder Allen Adham insisted that the game use real-time combat instead, as it had previously worked for their new game, Warcraft.

The developers initially didn’t want to make the change to real-time combat, fearing it would add unnecessary development time, but the decision was put to a vote, and real-time combat won. It’s fascinating to think where the franchise, and even video games as a whole, would be if those developers had voted differently.