[ad_1]
A screenshot of an old prototype of Hearthstone. (Courtesy Blizzard)
The success of the hugely popular "Hearthstone" digital card game was not apparent from its creation. Despite a fervent launch, reinforced by the Warcraft brand attached, the game experienced its share of growing difficulties, magnified by creating a path where there was none. But now, this track has led the game to a new milestone: 100 million users.
Created in a lab by a small team from Blizzard Entertainment, gambling is a relatively uncommon phenomenon, the product of forward-looking prospective thinking and a balance between difficult decisions and a never-ending process of revision and refinement. He is now positioned as the presumed king of digital maps, with a booming sports circuit, and enjoys a large audience at a time when other popular card games are hoping to join the fray.
"[The ‘Hearthstone’ team] Chris Sigaty, executive vice president and executive producer of Hearthstone, said the game's development has sparked internal questions. "It's really about a Blizzard thing?" At first, when they made Hearthstone. And from the moment I touched him, [I knew] it was going to be great and I would certainly love it, and it turned out to be like that.
Development began on & # 39; & # 39; Hearthstone "in 2008 under the codename Project Pegasus, although six years have passed before its release in 2014. The former production director of" Hearthstone ", Jason Chayes, has stated that the team had focused on a few key principles during these early years. : charm and accessibility.
Played on a computer, tablet or smartphone, "Hearthstone" players build decks around one of the nine hero classes and face each other in face-to-face duels, attempting to reduce to zero points. their opponent's life using minions and spells. Matches are short and intense, just keen enough for coffee breaks or waiting for laundry. The aesthetic of the game suggests a casual and competitive atmosphere, set in a tavern by the fire amid mugs of beer and cheering an off-screen audience.
[[[[For JuJu Smith-Schuster, streaming is a passion and perhaps a post-NFL career path]
The decks are filled with cards obtained by playing the many modes of the game or by buying packs, either with the currency accumulated in the game, or with real money. It is this element that has made the game as lucrative for Blizzard, but also vulnerable to criticism from players who feel that their investment in time, money or both is not properly rewarded.
The development team said that Blizzard has worked over the years to ensure that packs are "value for money". Some features, such as preventing players from finding legendary duplicate cards (the greatest rarity) of a pack game, are specifically designed to alleviate frustrations. These features are unique to the digital space and solve a problem faced by anyone who has collected physical maps.
The Hearthstone Development Team poses for a group photo in 2013. (Courtesy of Blizzard)
From the beginning, "Hearthstone" built the game with a digital mindset, breaking with the limits of traditional table games. Body titans like Magic The Gathering and the Pokémon Trading Card Game have been successful, but their digital versions have attempted to give a rough idea of "reality". "Hearthstone" was designed for screens, which allows certain freedoms.
"So when you play a" fireball "card in a physics card game, it's usually when you extend the card to your opponent so that he tells you," I inflict five damage to your go here or to you as a hero, "said Ben Thompson, creative director of the game." And it's not as convincing as playing the card and a gigantic fireball of 5 or 10 damage manifested at the Above the table, changing the lighting and diving for an explosive impact on your hero. It's something you can only do in a digital space. "
The simplicity and accessibility of the game is another key factor in the game's growing popularity. Octavian "Kripparrian", creator and content creator for "Hearthstone", believes that the clear presentation would please the viewers of the game.
"It's very easy to understand what's happening, wherever you are in any game, and it's very easy to develop your own opinion of the direction the active player should take," Morosan said. "It's only an extremely engaging game, very easy to understand and watch, and that has a huge impact on different broadcast venues, YouTube and Twitch."
[[[[& # 39; Red Dead Redemption 2 & # 39; is breathtaking at all levels]
Twitch hosts hundreds of live feeds and "Hearthstone" has been hugely successful on the platform for international tournaments and college competitions. Twitch's test site, Sullygnome, ranks "Hearthstone" seventh among the average game titles viewed on Twitch over the last year, with over 377 million hours viewed. (Note: Twitch is owned by Amazon, whose CEO, Jeffrey P. Bezos, is from the Washington Post.)
Concept drawings for Hearthstone. (Courtesy Blizzard)
Che Chou, franchise manager for "Hearthstone" esports, echoed the open and accessible chorus to the question of how the game's racing circuit helped the title to develop its audience as a whole. As Chou says, "There is no reason an 80-year-old can not play an 18-year-old on the stage."
The path of "Hearthstone" to 100 million users, however, was not without difficulties. Balancing a live game over the years becomes more difficult with each new lot of cards that players can use. Chayes recalled a mechanic dubbed "Charge," which allows minions to attack when they are played instead of waiting for a turn, as a specific point of tension. Most henchmen have to wait one turn to give the other player time to react or prepare, but Charge lets the player go wild immediately, which is frustrating for those who suffer the surprise attack.
One card, "Warsong Commander", seemed strong but harmless at the beginning of "Hearthstone". He is an unpretentious henchman, but it contains a critical text that gives other henchmen of the group Charge. Abandoning powerful commanders with huge numbers alongside the commander allowed the players to bypass what had happened to them to wait and get straight to the point.
The map text has been adjusted to "Whenever you summon a minion with three or fewer attacks, give him a charge," but the "Blackrock Mountain" expansion of 2015 saw the map go up, this time because of the prevalence of Grim Patron, a minion stats that spawned a copy of himself every time he suffered damage and survived. Warrior players could summon a horde of Bosses using self-damage spells, charge them with the Commander, and then inflict tons of damage to the opponent. There was a predictable outcry from the community.
The team went back to the drawing board, producing "30 to 40" iterations before choosing the Commander as it is today: "Your Charge Servants have +1 Attack".
From the beginning, the team had to deal with different design choices that required a lot of thought because the new extensions could reveal more holes. The class of priests, for example, would be able to openly fly cards in the opponent's game, but the team quickly realized that the flight did not feel good for both players and turned it into a copy of cards. .
The secret logo of the then Pegasus Project, tentative title of Hearthstone. (Courtesy Blizzard)
"They always have these cards, they can still use them as they had planned during the construction of this game," Thompson said. "But that does not completely compromise the next 10 minutes of their game because you took a hinge or pivot card from [the opponent’s] bridge, sterilizing it as well. "
Since this is a digital game, problems can be resolved retroactively, although this is an ultimate option, according to the team. Instead, they try to browse new maps and use a standard format for decks to maintain the level of competitive circuitry.
The team behind 'Hearthstone' also experienced a turnover. The director of the game, Ben Brode, was the public face of the "Hearthstone" team and his departure in April marked a significant turning point. But Sigaty said the change was not as abrupt as one might think.
"The reality is that there is not one person who defines a product here," Sigaty said. "It's always the team that does it, and the team has made incredible sets and maps, and made good decisions about things in the absence of people like Ben and [Hamilton Chu]and they will continue to do it because it really is the sum total of the team. "
Now that he has reached this new stage, the position of "Hearthstone" at the top of the card game community will be put to the test. Other digital card games have appeared, and even some industry titans are participating. Wizards of the Coast has launched Magic The Gathering Arena and Valve will be releasing its Dota card game, Artifact, later this month.
But the "Hearthstone" team seems to be taking up the challenge.
"The way Blizzard creates games has never been in the optics of being the first or only game of its kind," Thompson said. "I think our intention has always been to be the best we can create for a genre, and I think" Hearthstone "will continue to prove it as we become part of a growing genre. greater than we have happily created, has played such an important role in the creation, at the level where it is today. "
Eric Van Allen is an independent Texas writer who covers games and sports.
Read more about The Post:
Fallout 76 is the multiplayer game that really feels lonely. And this is a good thing.
"Assassin's Creed Odyssey" is very entertaining, if you have the time to really play it
& # 39; Destiny 2: Forsaken & # 39; creates an addiction and is fun to play. As long as it is not.
& # 39; Shadow of the Tomb Raider & # 39; is good at what he does, but sounds terribly familiar
"Marvel's Spider-Man" is breathtaking, electrifying and a little too predictable
[ad_2]
Source link
