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Interview & Preview of our Class Creation Competition Winner - The Worgen

Our Fan Creation Forum's third Class Creation Competition recently came to an end, and with your help, The Worgen was named champion! Now that all of Un'Goro has been revealed, we finally got a chance to catch up with nurgling13, the Worgen's creator, to ask a few questions about the winning class and also about fan creations in general. Check out our interview below, check out the complete Worgen class here, and check out the other finalists in the competition's Grand Finale here. Again, massive congratulations to nurgling13, as well as to the other finalists, and thank you to all of the competitors and voters who made this competition such a success!

I know a lot of people initially had this reaction to your class concept, so let's get this out of the way: "Worgen? But that's a race, not a class. What gives?"

The Worgen class is about more than just being a Worgen. When I first came up with the idea of switching between Human and Worgen form as the hero power, I realized I needed to have the class not just reflect my hero’s Worgen side, but his Human side, also. That’s why I came up with the idea of Howe Hark, Prince of the forgotten, recluse kingdom of Winter’s Fall in the Alterac Mountains. His line has long had the Worgen curse, and secluded themselves from the world, but now they have come forth to ally with their brethren in Gilneas. Howe Hawk is known as a military genius who inspired great loyalty in his troops, but he also has a dark, bestial side. If it’s not apparent, he’s a parody of Robb Stark, who actually turns into a wolf and eats the hearts of his enemies.

With these two sides to the hero, there is a lot more depth than just being a Worgen and having Worgen allies. I tried to make Worgen about these dual themes. On one side, Worgen viciously attacks their enemies with sword, tooth, and claw. On the other side, they command and support troops in battle to outmaneuver their enemies. I made a lot of cards that depict Worgens in a number of situations, but there are also a lot of cards that are related to being a brilliant military tactician or to Howe Hark’s Alterac roots, like these:

In light of that, maybe Worgen isn’t the most accurate name for the class, since it’s about more than that. It’s a big part of it, but still. I went with that name because it easily summarizes the class for people to understand.

Tell us a little bit about how you arrived at your class concept. Was it one that you had already conceived, or was it made specifically for this competition?

Before the competition started, Asylum [the competition's primary organizer] told us not to get too attached to a class idea, because his challenges could throw a wrench in our plans. I took his advice and didn’t start at all until the competition began. The first challenge was that our hero power had to create exactly one token, which could be a minion, weapon, spell, or even another hero power. I predicted (correctly) that not many people would choose the last option, so doing so would set me apart. I tried to think of a convincing theme for an hero power that alternates between two versions, and I realized that transforming between a Worgen and Human form would fit perfectly. Before I started designing the class, I also came up with the idea of cards that would benefit from being in one form or the other.

What sets the Worgen apart and makes its mechanics and play-style unique compared to existing classes?

The most significant mechanic for the Worgen is the alternating hero power. Obviously, no other class has that. For everyone else, your hero power is the same every time you use it. With Worgen, you have to carefully manage when you use your hero power to deal damage and when you use it to heal yourself. You need to be careful, because your opponent can do things like wait to play their 1 Health minions until your hero power switches.

This theme is compounded by my Human/Worgen keyword. It works sorta like Combo, where cards with Human give you an extra effect when played in Human form and cards with Worgen have an extra effect in Worgen form. I designed these cards so that they’re less inefficient than normal when used in the wrong form, and extra efficient in the right form. If you play them at the right time, this can give you a big advantage, but it will take skill to get the timing right. I guess the biggest thing about Worgen is that timing matters a lot.

I also designed the Human and Worgen cards so that they do different things. Worgen is supposed to be able making hybrid decks. Control decks that have Aggro potential and things like that. Cards with Worgen generally have offensive bonuses, while cards with Human on them generally heal or prevent damage or buff your minions. To get the most value, you need to include both types in your deck.

What were a few of your favorite Worgen cards are archetypes to design?

My favorite cards are ones that tell a little story. I think my favorite overall is Ancient Sword. Designing cards for LoE, I was thinking about what stuff would make sense thematically, both with my class and the set. I was thinking about what stuff Howe Hark might find exploring a tomb or whatever and take with him. Ancient Sword is supposed to be some old, rusty sword that breaks in half on the first hit, leaving you with a Short Sword with half the attack. I don’t think a lot of people got it, but Leap is another one like that. It’s supposed to represent leaping into the middle of the fray and attacking your enemy. Since you’re now all up in your enemies’ faces, they need to attack your hero before going for your minions. I also found some great art for it.

I also really like making puns, like Fur-st Mate and Loan Wolf. For the latter, I came up with the name for the card and then decided I had to make that for my set, because the name was so good.

 This being our third Class Creation Competition, we added in mystery challenges each round to keep competitors on their toes. Were there any challenges that you particularly enjoyed designing for?

I really liked the Hero Power challenge (all hero powers had to create exactly one unique token). It made it so that we all had to come up with a new, original idea. It seems really constraining, and yet there was such a diverse range of ideas that people had. Challenges are what make these competitions so great to begin with. If things are too open-ended, it isn’t as much of a challenge. Trying to stand out within a set of constraints is what really inspires creativity.

 Were there any of your fellow Class Creation Competition finalists or other competitors whose entry you'd like to give a shout-out to?

My competitors in the final were all great. They’ve all gotten plenty of attention, already, though, and got a reward for being Finalists, so I’d like to give a shout-out to someone who didn’t make it quite that far.
My biggest disappointment was when Turkeybag’s Alchemist didn’t make it to the Finals. His class had great flavor throughout the competition and I really like some of his ideas. Here’s one I really wanted to show off for him:

This was his response to a challenge in Phase V where one of our cards had to create a Secret. He responded by making a whole set of themed Accident cards that tied in amazingly with his class’ theme. It was way better than the one I came up with for the challenge.

 When Un'Goro comes out, we'll have a special edition of our Weekly Card Design Competition where folks can design Un'Goro cards for your class. Do you yourself plan to continue working on the class yourself, either keeping it up to date or going back to earlier expansions we didn't cover for the competition?

One of the challenges of designing cards for my class is that the theme is a little restrictive. The minions represent soldiers in Howe Hark’s army or those of his Gilneas allies, or people somehow associated with him. I kinda backed myself into a corner here, because it’s hard to design cards for some of the adventures and expansions that have really focused themes. League of Explorer’s and One Night in Karazhan were the most difficult. It was fortunate that we only had to make three for each. The Un’Goro theme is even harder. I haven’t been able to think of a single good idea for the set so far, so I probably won’t ever finish it. That’s fine with me. I’d rather try to work on new things anyway.

 You've been a long-time participant in our Weekly Card Design Competitions. What do you think you've learned from it, and what would you recommend to folks looking to get into it? Or just looking to get into creating their own cards or classes in general?

One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned is that people don’t value card balance or how well a card will work in the game the most. What they care about the most in these competitions is what is generally referred to as the flavor of the card. People want to feel like your card could actually be in the game, or like Blizzard actually designed, not just the mechanics, but the name and art to fit into their little world.
This is potentially one of the most difficult things to learn, because you really need to know about the Warcraft universe to do it well. One of the rookie mistakes people make is creating general fantasy-ish cards that don’t conform to how the Warcraft Universe operates, like making a fairy, or making an elf that isn’t a Night Elf or High Elf.

The most important thing to do, if you’re looking to get into card creation, is to ask for advice and feedback. Lots of people come into the Fan Creation forum and just submit a half-baked idea to a contest without talking it over with people first. You need to go into the competition Discussion thread and ask for feedback on your idea. This will not only let you refine your ideas and find out beforehand what people will like, but will also let you learn how other people design cards. And, even for a veteran, it can be difficult to balance a card without some help. There are always combos that you may have missed that could imbalance things one way or another.

New card creators also often make cards too powerful. People want to address problems they see with the meta, and try to hit a nail on the head with a sledgehammer. Blizzard has never made a card that completely shuts down a certain playstyle. They always try to just nudge things in a certain direction. And always imagine playing against a card, not just playing with it. Don’t make cards that discard your opponent’s hand, destroy their mana crystals, or destroy or steal cards in their deck. People hate playing against cards like that. There needs to be a reasonable way to counter what your opponent is doing. In the same vein, don’t make cards with powerful ongoing effects that also have Stealth. Remember that Blood Imp had to be nerfed, even. If your card is better than Blood Imp, you probably overtuned it.

 Anything else you'd like to share with the HearthPwn community?

I don’t think anyone noticed, but two of my cards are drawn from the same art: