Your Questions for Hearthstone Game Designer Dean Ayala!
Blizzard has generously invited Hearthpwn to fly to the Bahamas this weekend for the upcoming Hearthstone Winter Championship! While at the event, we'll have a chance to sit down with Hearthstone Game Designer Dean "Iksar" Ayala to ask him some questions about Hearthstone's upcoming expansion, Journey to Un'Goro!
Do you have a great question on your mind? Write it down in the comments below and we might include it when we compile the best ones later this week!
Dean is a Game Designer on the final design team, focusing on testing and balancing new cards, making sure they're fun, trying to predict what decks they will go in and what the meta will look like. He also plays a lot of Arena! He's also very active on Twitter and Reddit, often responding to questions from the community.
I think that it would just be too imbalanced to wait for someone to complete the quest and then copy his card. We will have to wait and see.
PS: Look at the way the mine from Iron Juggernaut works. You can't copy it. Same with beneath the grounds. I think it will be the same even though Mind Vision copies from your hand, not from your deck.
Wait, we CAN copy the mine, the Ambush! and the Ancient Curse, and they do nothing if I play them. I've tried them by myself. There's also video evidence.
Well my bad then but still I think it would be extremely unfair to be able to copy the quest token.
Uh, you still don't get my point. Is "Mind Vision cannot copy Quest rewards" an official statement or just your own opinion? If you see this statement in an official article, please tell me the link.
There was some mention of this in the comments of this thread:
http://www.hearthpwn.com/news/2282-mike-donais-explains-the-quest-mechanic-talks
I think it was a comment linking to twitter or something like that. Hope it helps. I am not 100% sure.
If quest rewards can be stolen with mind vision, it won't be broken. Mind vision is still random so you only have a small chance of getting the correct thing. Also, the tokens only cost 5 mana so it's entirely possible that the player who has the quest will play the reward on the same turn he/she completes the quest, meaning that you won't be able to mind vision it.
Hi Dean! When it comes to balance, why can't you act sooner? I understand that players can resolve most problems by themselves, but there are times when nerfs need to occur. When pirate warrior was at its peak of its popularity. Turn 5 lethals made games short and uninteractive. Many players can agree that the game just felt bland and boring for both sides. No though processs was required, just going for face damage and hoping to kill them by turn 5. It took 2 months to attempt to fix this, but the problem was not fully resolved. Why can you not decide within a month or think ahead about what to nerf when the expansion drops out? In terms of balance, pirate warrior is still maintaining its infamous turn five lethals quite consistently still. I felt that before, you can still beat meta decks with fun decks, but now the meta decks all oppress the ability to play any sort of fun decks.
In Hearthstone, proactive cards can nearly always be played and grant you immediate tempo, while reactive cards often sit uselessly in your hand waiting for an opportunity to get used, that might never come (since their effects are often too specific). Defensive / reactive cards can't really be played for tempo without losing a lot of value, while aggressive / proactive cards can. As a result, you have classes like priest struggling unless Blizzard gives them a bunch of over-budgeted cards. And aggressive decks always seem to dominate the meta. Any thoughts about that?
Not to detract from your question, but my own personal suspicion is that Blizzard wants the game to be fast-paced and proactive in nature. They want counters to exist, but ultimately would prefer that the game is defined by decks which actively pursue victory rather than those which simply seek to counter the opponent.
Also keeps the game simple enough for young, new to tcg's or just new players to pick up easily and makes progression in the game based more on your collection than your skill (key to blizz's mone making model). Personally I'd blame activision for this. Fits their corporate philosophy of "maximize profits despite its detriment to the health of the game"
What I think they are missing is that as the influx of new players steadily slows (as it inevitably will) the focus should shift more towards reactive metas, where a greater intricacy of play is possible. Even aggro could be kept about, just widen the situational vs. OP gap on the more powerful cards (1 mana 3/2 "has one less attack for each of your opponents minions" for example). Deepening the level of interaction between the players will ultimately give an incentive to the established player base to not jump ship
Having said that, it's very likely that their stats show their main revenue coming from 10 year olds who like flashy effects, so this may never actually change.. :/
Why shaman "identity" includes access to aoe, heals, taunts, weapons and overall strong cards, while rogue "identity" is so blur (ferrymans and shadowragers) that we may assume they have none?
When are they finally going to use so called "design space" opened by blade flurry nerf? Or "design space" is just another bullshit excuse (see also "confuse new players", "this is on our radar", "we're care about new players experience" etc).
"What are your thoughts on the meme perspectives of cards? When designing 4 mana 7/7, did you think it would be as much of a meme as it is? Are there some cards you didn't expect to become memes? Do memes affect the design process?" I think these are important questions we need answers to.
As Hearthstone and the development team have "matured," it seems that we are seeing a greater number of cards which feel "pre-designed", with the synergies already planned out and understood. While this limits the possibility of unanticipated abuses, it also seems to put classes at greater risk because when their pre-planned designs fail, the class as a whole fails.
For example, when the Goons mechanic was unsuccessful in MSoG the Hunter and Paladin classes languished because they had received so many cards dedicated to it. By comparison if the class happened to have an effective theme (Kazakus, Pirates, etc.) then it worked out. Next expansion, I fear that the singular success of the legendary quests will dictate which classes will be played.
I was wondering if this concern has ever been discussed among the team. And if it has, how is it addressed? Or is it not considered a concern?
Hi Dean ! Will we see heroic tavern brawls with custom rules, such as the miniature warfare, for the sake of the example. ?
When creating a new set for Hearthstone, how do you decide which classes will get the more powerful and/or most powerful cards? Do you simply look at the least performing classes in the current meta, and then make/adjust cards for those classes accordingly? Or do you have some sort of cycle you use that you stick to when shifting class dominance?
while you have told us your methods on nerfing/buffing newly released cards, do you guys track currently problematic cards before a new release to decide if changes are needed?
I ask this because while im exited for things like the new priest quest and how the set seems to be heavily focused around it, i can see these decks losing horribly to jade decks...im just scared we are going to have a year of jade stone
Is there a possibility for wild cards to rotate back into standard in the future?
Besides casual, rank mode, heroic tavern brawl and tavern brawl are there any plan for future game modes to be added later along the track?
In regards to cards rotating to wild mode, will there be a decrease in dust cost to craft them or will there be other methods to obtain them ie wild packs?
Do you have in mind what you expect to be the most competitive decks or best decks out of this new expansion? Just like with MSG, you expected to push Pirates, Dragons, and Reno further, and now they are all accomplished.
Due to the rotation, Jade and Pirates deck seem to be the only remaining competitive decks left, and so do you expect the new decks out of this new expansion to be competitive enough at the same level, weaker or stronger than Jade and Pirates deck?
With adventure releases now out of the picture will we be getting any new music tracks for future game boards/expansions? I have always looked forward to new adventures for the great additional music tracks the new game boards offer and it would be a bummer if this stopped.
What are the chances we will see more policing on aggro come this next set since pirate warrior will have been untouched. You can't expect a few taunts to just close them out unless 70% of their matchups will be running hard pirate warrior counter cards.