Blizzard is also able to add in new game modes and cosmetics, such as sprays and skins, among other things. Themed limited-time modes and cosmetics have also been made available for events and holidays, such as the 2016 Summer Olympics or Halloween. Some of these additions are derived from player feedback to Blizzard. In the case of the "Overwatch Uprising" event during April 2017, Kaplan said that players wanted to have more story put into the game, inspiring them to create a new story-driven player-vs-environment mode set during Overwatch's past that helped to create some new narrative and provide cosmetic items to reflect that. In May 2019, Blizzard introduced "The Workshop", a script-based environment for players to create their own custom game modes. According to Keith Miron and Dan Reed, software and gameplay engineers for Blizzard, the development team knew they wanted to explore options for players in custom games. As a result of a "hack-a-thon" in 2017, they had developed a simple scripting language that could be used to create custom games for those that were not programmers. The work was put on hold until late 2018, following another hack-a-thon event where they fleshed out more game ideas and scripting to support it, at which point it was determined to make this a feature of Overwatch.
