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Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
Counting Years... and Cards - Hearthstone Interview with Blizzard Entertainment at Warcraft's 30th Anniversary
We spoke with Production Director, Christian Scharling, and Lead Designer, Cora Georgiou, to talk all about the last 10 years of Blizzard's card-battler and what the future holds for it, all at the Warcraft: 30th Anniversary celebration in London.
Audio transcription
"Hello everyone and welcome back to Gamereactor. Today I'm here with Christian and Cora from the Hearthstone team. We're specifically here talking today because you guys are in London to celebrate 30 years of Warcraft, but obviously the topic of discussion today is going to be Hearthstone because that's what you guys excel in. So first things first guys, it's been just over 10 years of Hearthstone that you've been, you know, cranking out this game and doing such incredible things with it. How do you go about continuously surprising players after 10 years of developing Hearthstone like this? So one of the things that I really enjoy about working on Hearthstone and working with the team is that I never feel like we rest on the laurels. I think that we continue to push ourselves and find new ways to, new sets, new themes, new features in the game rather than doing the same over and over. It feels like a new day every day and that's incredibly fun both to work with and to see the reactions from our players."
"And I suppose that's actually an interesting thing you bring up there because you guys have done so many incredible things with Hearthstone and brought so many different mechanics and expansions and seasons. How do you make sure that new players come into the game and even people that maybe have stepped away for a little bit come back and they don't feel overwhelmed, you know, they don't have that fear of missing out either. How do you balance all of that? Yeah it's absolutely about striking the right balance and especially with a now over 10 year old game it can be difficult at times but you want to make sure that your content feels fresh, that you're constantly creating new and exciting experiences for the players who have been with you for the whole 10 years but also that you still have very approachable welcoming experiences for new players who are going to be coming into the tavern for the first time or who may be returning players who haven't played in many years. So it's about striking that right balance and making sure that you have content that serves all types of players. And speaking about content, very soon the new major expansion is dropping into the Emerald Heart, into the Emerald Dream, sorry. What can we expect from this? What's something that, give me the elevator pitch I guess of into the Emerald Dream."
"Well it's one that I think our players have been waiting for for a very long time. It's one we've been waiting to do. It's going to be the Emerald Dream versus the Emerald Nightmare. So you've got Ysera and the Green Dragon flight against Xavius and we're going to be seeing some new mechanics.
We've got Dark Gifts for the Nightmare classes, we've got Imbue which is allowing you to change and upgrade your hero powers for the Dream classes. We've got the Wild Gods as a cycle of very expensive legendary minions. So lots to look forward to, lots of beautiful artwork, wonderful new mechanics and hopefully experiences that our players will really love."
"Yeah like Cora said, the Emerald Dream is a theme that we've been talking about for literally years on Hearthstone and I'm super excited to finally get into it. I personally love Ysera and the whole green theme and the dreams. I can't wait to bring it to the players.
Now Cora, you just mentioned a minute ago some of the new mechanics you guys are introducing."
"How do you, with all of the different expansions and whatnot that you've introduced over the years, each bringing their own new mechanics, how do you make sure that you continuously balance the game so that it doesn't feel massively overwhelming to players?
We are very fortunate that we have some very intelligent designers on the Hearthstone team."
"We have two separate teams actually, one for creative development and one for, we call them final design. They're our balance and live balance team.
So we have different phases of the project and now that we've been working on Hearthstone for 10 years, we've gotten pretty good at scheduling things out. We've made 32 expansions now plus minisets. So it's all about having those dedicated phases of the project, knowing when you're moving from one to the next and just making sure that you've got the right people in the right places to be able to serve those different parts of the project."
"Now you guys obviously have 30 years of Warcraft to take inspiration from, but when you're creating a new expansion, when you're creating new mechanics and introducing all these new elements to Hearthstone, do you look at anywhere else for inspiration?
Do you look at other things and go, you know, that's something they do really well, maybe we can do something similar?
I think a lot of it is we're very fortunate to have developers on the team who are players first and foremost themselves. So just constantly taking inspiration from the Warcraft universe, of course, from the new things that the Warcraft team are working on, characters and stories. There are so many characters and stories in Warcraft that we have yet to visit. Emerald Dream is a huge one. But then also just personal experiences, media, really genres is a big one. You know, we did a murder mystery a couple of years ago and that was, you know, the first time that we had had a chance to do that. We just went to space."
"So there's always, always a wealth of ideas that the team has and it's just about, you know, what's the right time to do what.
Yeah, I mean, we play all kinds of games and we take inspiration from everything we do and I love all TCGs and I love, you know, Hearthstone. And I think that, you know, most recently in terms of going diverse and going into other places, we went to StarCraft and it's just been a lot of fun to explore. And, you know, I've been playing Priest with the mothership and spamming out a lot of proto stuff and it's just been a joy."
"So I think that it comes from a lot of different places and we're not, you know, hesitant about drawing inspiration from whatever we encounter.
So Into the Emerald Dream is arriving March 25th, I believe, and it's bringing in new cards, new mechanics, all these different things for people that are going to be jumping into it for the first time when that March 25th comes around. What's a tip you'd give them? What's something you'd go from day one, this is something you should be prioritizing to do?
Oh, absolutely. So with the release of Into the Emerald Dream, we also have our yearly rotation where we're going to be moving three sets out of standard and releasing them into the Emerald Dream. So definitely I, first and foremost, I look to our creators. We have such wonderful creators in the Hearthstone world and these are players who are so incredibly experienced and who then share their ideas with others. So if you're looking for deck ideas, if you're looking for information on what to craft, this is definitely where you want to go."
"Yeah, you also mentioned earlier, you know, what do we do to make it easier to come into the game?
And that set rotation is a big part of it that we phase out some of the old content from the core and that makes it much easier to come in because it's less overwhelming with everything you have to take in when you join. So that is a very good time to join and look to our creators for cool deck ideas and where to start. Now, obviously it's 30 years of Warcraft, that's why we're in London celebrating today. So what are you guys and the Hearthstone team doing to celebrate that anniversary? Well, we've got a big year of, I would say, very Warcraft heavy expansions coming to our players. We've actually announced all three of our themes already, which is not something we've done before, but maybe we took a little inspiration from World of Warcraft and they're planning on announcing their three themes at BlizzCon."
"So it's really about just re-establishing that connection, really grounding ourselves in the Warcraft universe. But then it's Hearthstone taking those incredible stories and characters and still making them our own and making them really wonderful experiences for our players.
Now, you mentioned a moment ago some of the weird sets that you guys have done, the murder mystery, going into space, which is a very non-World of Warcraft sort of thing to do."
"Now that we're 10 years into Hearthstone, what's something you'd really like to do?
Maybe something a little bit quirky and unusual, somewhere you'd like to take the game for an unusual sort of expansion or set. Cora's lining something up here, I can already see it.
Oh, there are so many themes that I would love to do. I don't want to give anything away, so I won't say anything that's in development, of course. I am a horror buff myself, so I will just say I think it would be really interesting to maybe make a rather satirical type of horror set and see how we could do that in Hearthstone. I don't know, maybe it's not in the cards, but I do think it could be fun to explore."
"So, you guys, as part of Blizzard, you joined the Xbox Game Studios family around 18 months ago, and I bring that up because Xbox has been doing this thing where they like to bring their games to other platforms, and it's something we've never really seen them do, but it's been happening more frequently. Hearthstone has, for the most part, been very much based on PC and mobile. Do you see a world where you potentially bring it to Nintendo Switch or Switch 2 or something down the line?
Currently, we don't really have plans around that. One of the cool things about Hearthstone is that it's already free to play, so it's very easy to get into on those platforms. So, currently, that's not what we are planning to do."
"But what about then, and I bring this up because I think if you decide to do this, I could see you conquering this world, physical Hearthstone. Is there any chance whatsoever of you guys looking into doing something like that?
So, I don't know if you're familiar, we have the WoW TCG that Hearthstone is doing, that Hearthstone was sort of born out of. You know, as I think two people who sort of come from physical TCG media, I think there's nothing like it. Hearthstone, we do our best to give you that physical feeling, and I think that there are so many wonderful options for players, but the WoW TCG really was, I think, our starting point. We try to keep as much of that physical, tangible card game feeling in Hearthstone."
"So, 10 years of Hearthstone already been. I assume we're looking down the barrel of another 10.
What can we expect? What are some things that you guys are really excited to do?
I mean, coming right up, we've also announced we have some cool arena changes that are coming. Arena was one of our original modes in the game, and we've made, we've revisited a little bit over the last year, and with some changes to it that we introduced, it's been very well received."
"So, we want to double down on that and really make a significant update to it, which is coming, and I'm super excited about that.
And then as a final question, then, we've obviously, we're here celebrating 30 years of Warcraft. You guys have recently celebrated 10 years of Hearthstone. So, looking at Warcraft as a whole, what's one memory that you guys look at that, you know, that long-running brand and go, that's something that really stands out to me?
Cora?
It's just too many to say. I guess specifically for me, this isn't so much Warcraft specific, it's very Hearthstone specific. My first BlizzCon was BlizzCon 2019, and that was where we had the Hearthstone World Championships, and watching Lion win the World Championships live at BlizzCon 2019, I had just joined the Hearthstone team like two months prior. So, just being able to be in an audience of fans and feel that tangible excitement at that major event, there was really nothing like it. So, just, I'm really excited to be able to be with our fans here today, and it's a memory I'll never forget."
"Christian?
Yeah, I'm very much in line with that. There are a lot of very cool memories. I've been with Hearthstone for a long time, and, you know, meeting people at BlizzCon, it's hard to describe how much of an injection of energy that really is."
"We obviously take feedback all the time from our fans through various media, but meeting them in person and talking through, you know, hey, what are they thinking, and, you know, mutual things both ways, you know, it feels great. And when we go back, it's really with a lot of energy to do our best for the game, and I'm looking forward to tonight where we have, you know, a mini thing in that version as well, and meeting everybody."
"Well, there we have it. 30 years of Warcraft, we're celebrating it today in London.
10 years of Hearthstone happened, I believe it was last year, so stay tuned for another nine years, and then maybe we'll do something to celebrate the 20th anniversary. But yeah, until then, thank you for listening, and we'll see you all in the next Game Raptor interview."
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