What One Night in Karazhan Could Have Been + Early Karazhan Art

What One Night in Karazhan Could Have Been

ShackNews' Steve Watts sat down with Peter Whalen and Ben Thompson to talk about the design process of Karazhan and all the ideas that didn't make the cut for the One Night in Karazhan adventure. We've recapped the interview below.

Quote from Peter Whalen and Ben Thompson

The Great Race

  • The mages of Azeroth would compete to get to the top of the tower.
  • Players would also be racing alongside, with some kind of ranking system.

Medivh the Thief

  • Medivh steals all the player's belongings and makes fun of you.
  • It didn't make sense in the grand scheme of things.

A Goblin Raider

  • Set in the Burning Crusade era of World of Warcraft, so no Medivh.
  • A goblin wanted to steal loot from the tower.
  • Ultimately, they wanted Medivh there since it was his tower.

Medivh the Chicken

  • Medivh polymorphs himself into a chicken. That would have been weird.
  • They considered turning Moroes into a chicken.
  • They were worried the chicken gag would get tired over the release period.

The Real Adventure

  • Ultimately, they wanted Medivh to be powerful while keeping things silly and crazy.
  • They asked themselves what kind of mage Medivh was in his early years. He wants to party!
  • They considered Barnes and Curator following you around later wings instead of Moroes, but it was shut down early on.

Art - Card Backs

  • The seasonal card back became an invitation because that's exactly what the month was - the start of the party.
  • The blue portal card back was the heroic card back because the portal gets closed at the top of the tower / end of adventure.
  • The disco / pre-purchase card back was done because the whole thing is a party.

Art - Misc

  • They always start doing art for stuff that won't change - card backs, adventure-specific pieces, game board, key art.
  • Cards don't have much of the party thematically because cards need to live beyond the adventure.
  • Knights on Horses from The Grand Tournament work well in the fantasy world.. not very true with 70s disco.
  • The card design of Barnes was perfect for the art team as he is essentially summoning 1/1 actors. This lead to the spotlight.

And More!

  • The Storming Stormwind brawl mechanic evolved out of the Karazhan Mage Race idea.
  • The Medivas were going to be a bigger part of the adventure but it was too distracting so they ended up getting the Party Portals brawl.

Early Card Back Art

Early Board Art

Comments

  • To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Posts Quoted:
Reply
Clear All Quotes