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.
you often pointed out your main goal is to create a "fun and exciting game"! Due to this "fun-RNG-effects" its actually only fun for one player most of the time. Games are ending too fast and with a little bit of consecutive bad luck, you will get a losing streak and cant do nothing about it. This non-competitve effects creat also a lot of frustration to people. Do you also consider the competitve-part of the game while designing or maybe in future?
How's life? :D
Any cards that you regret releasing before and after the expansion is released?
Do you think you would lower the limit of the jade golem which is 30/30 currently which is impossible to reach in a constructed format?
Any opinions on the least played classes especially Hunter?
when are u gonna nerf jade idol?
So who is the retard that made Jade Idol? Is the card ever going to get nerfed or is that idiot going to get fired?
What are your answers for the only Jade + only Aggro face Meta? cause nothing else stand a chance, cause useless crabs dont solve the Problem.
What's his favourite funnel cake recepie?
Is blizzard considering any of the following for better player experience:
- adding golden border for alternate heroes if the player allready has 500wins with the class?
- arena only giving golden cards as card rewards?
- arena no longer giving gold rewards that end with 5 (aka: 155, 45, so on)?
- discarded or milled cards shown on log?
- fatigue damage taken shown on log?
- fixing golden malfurion hero portrait?
- making heroic brawl a permanent feature along regular brawl so it dosen't have to be one or the other both can go on at the same time?
- or just add a tournament mode?
- giving a new card back for wild legend and 12 arena wins as well?
- implementing player stats into the game?
- showing stars in ranked play during games below the player rank?
- allowing players to purchase card packs that rotated to wild, or just introducing wild packs?
- addign achievments?
- adding more progression systems to the game?
- adding permanent daily login rewards?
- refining pack opening to make geting duplicates of high rarity cards less common like implemented in faeria or gwent?
- not forcing archetypes anymore just for the sake of it (beast druid, taunt warrior, etc...)?
i vote for stats :)
omg yes the arena gold rewards ending in 5s bothers me so much
After Un'goro, will be there any other Quests? I mean, will you relaese new quests with new expensions?
What's Blizzards opinion on what Wild should be? Should Wild be the main body of hearthstone where old works with new, or is it just a minor format where die-hard fans can still play old cards which have 'expired'?
Do they have any plans to increase the Wild Population?
What about making it easier to access Wild Cards?
What about balancing certain wild cards that are too powercreep, such as Piloted Shredder or Dr. Boom?
I would like to know a simple question:
How does Blizzard feel about the new competition? And what will they try to do to compete with this newer TCG cards games?
The reason I ask that is because when you look at how the meta is right now there many been so many people complaining about. Whether that's from people on forums to professional Hearthstone players. But with that there have been a lot of people who feel they should move away from Hearthstone, whether that because of game itself isn't interesting right now, price changes or they feel these newer games offer more than Hearthstone can.
And I know that some of these may just be people complaining randomly, but even when the new expansion comes out, I still think Hearthstone will need to something special to stand out among the other games.
While some other card games might be better balanced, I feel that something no other developer will ever be able to match is Hearthstone's art style and themes.
Everything from card art to the game boards to the way minions appear on the board are exceptionally well done and give the game a sort of warm and exciting feeling. When you compare this to some other card games, they can feel cluttered, dull or lacking of emotion.
Additionally, Hearthstone is steeped in the exceptionally rich and popular lore of Warcraft, and this gives cards a real identity. Even cards that are unique to Hearthstone feel like they fit into the universe.
There are people out there who don't play Pirate Warrior and actually need to think before playing instead of just pointing at face, you know.
However, I think a speed-hearthstone mode would be a welcome addition, if only something like tavern brawl is. You know, not as an alternative to standard play but as a fun side-activity.
Can that be a game mode though? It seems interesting
moreover, most people play from mobile phones, and it's not easy to make fast turns.
I think he doesn't know that you can left click the expanded cards that are cast to the left of the opponent's avatar, as they're being cast, and left click on them to save half a second.