Developer Insights: Creating A Most Monstrous Hallow’s End!
A new developer insights blog went up today to talk about this year's Hallow's End. Here's our recap followed by the post.
- Pat Nagle, who works on Hearthstone's Live Content team, was responsible for Warcraft's Headless Horseman.
- If the team gets positive reception with this week's brawl, they'll consider doing another one but with Dungeon Run bosses.
- Playtesting of the brawl showed varying levels of power so they made adjustments where they felt it was needed.
- They hope to keep giving us new experiences for seasonal events. It helps that they have new tools each time to make them better.
Quote from BlizzardHallow’s End returns for a second year in Hearthstone, but it’s not quite the same celebration it was before. What’s new? Our Live Content team has a special peek behind the scenes just for you!
The Headless Horseman Rides… Again!
Hallow’s End returns for an encore in Hearthstone this year, and we’re pleased to report that the Horseman has got a few more tricks (treats, really!) up his sleeve! Making a return are a few crowd favorites, like The Headless Horseman Ridesbrawl, themed costumes and emotes, and Dual-Class Arena—all of which we’re really excited for. In addition, there’s a brand-new brawl and an exciting reward coming with this holiday event!
But first, let’s get into the spirit of the season. Why is the team so excited about Hallow’s End anyway?
One Dark, Spooky Night. . . .
One of our team members, Pat Nagle, used to run haunted houses with a friend back in high school. He did it every year, consistently, for over a decade, and each year it got bigger and scarier. Toward the end of his haunted house’s reign, there would be a line around the block for entry—they even had to stretch it across two days so everyone could get their share of scares.
That was probably what set the seed for his future inspiration, the Headless Horseman and the Hallow’s End event in Warcraft. Together with Warcraft’s Dave Maldonado, Pat conceptualized the encounter with the Horseman, the attack on the village, and more. “Dave’s decision to make the Headless Horseman speak only in rhymes made him very memorable,” Pat told us. “I still remember those rhymes a decade later. And it was super fun making an event for new and veteran players.”
We’re excited to have welcomed that spirit into Hearthstone! Hallow’s End isn’t just about the scares—the team loves the idea of dressing up and becoming someone else, just for one night. That desire to become a storied character is what inspired the new brawl, Monster Smash.
Monstrously Smashtacular
Earlier this year, we released The Witchwood, an expansion that shared a lot of the same spirit as Hallow’s End. It was rife with characters that really fit those classic Halloween tropes, and we really liked the idea of being able to dress up as them.
That’s what you get to do in Monster Smash. This brawl will let you take control of one of the Monster Hunt bosses from The Witchwood. But which of the bosses is the most powerful? At the end of the week, we’ll be able to see which boss from Monster Hunt won the most matches! If this Brawl is well received, we may look at doing one like this for Kobolds & Catacombs’ Dungeon Run in the future!
Costume Fitting
We took most of the Monster Smash bosses directly from Monster Hunt, but a few of them needed little tweaks to make sure they could show up to Hallow’s End in style. We had a lot of fun during playtesting as we experienced the varying power levels of bosses. Azalina Soulthief was very strong, and a personal favorite of ours. The legendary Chupacabran, on the other hand, needed a little buff, so we gave him some extra juice.
Make sure to try the Monster Smash Brawl to see all of the Monster Hunt bosses in action!
Happy Hallow’s End!
Just like Pat’s long-running haunted house, we hope to keep giving you a new experience every time a seasonal event like Hallow’s End comes around. The tools at our disposal improve each year, allowing us to continue doing exciting stuff—like giving everyone a Golden Witch’s Cauldron upon login when this year’s spook-tacular celebration begins!
We hope you enjoy Hallow’s End—the eeriest of holidays in Azeroth! Let us know what you think of the event over social media or in the comments below.
insights
You don't remember the nightmare that was Savage roar druid
The Monster Smash Brawl was really good and educative.
Nah, I'd rather just have a sixth Spider Brawl tbh
I can't be the only one that realized this...
Nat Pagle
I hear what you are saying, but compare this to combo to Flark's Boom-Zooka . It costs an extra card, but you get full control and know the exact outcome upfront. Oh, and you can ramp into it. And it can go face.
Interacting means interacting. Only 2 classes can stop spells, as it is. One has Counterspell. The other is a convoluted combo with a demon and discard.
That you can put up taunts is not a valid argument; that assumes the Druid is just AFK during those turns, which we all know isn't true.
Again interacting doesn't only mean "Did I completely stop my opponent's play or did I not?". Interacting isn't an all or nothing in that regard. Interacting means that you are able to change something. Putting up taunts in this aspect is a valid argument because for a new dead deck (FoN Combo Druid) that essentially delays or even denies their win condition if they can't push through. In a sense the deck's final push operates somewhat similarly to how modern Token Druid operates (both need an open position to capitalize on sudden Savage Roar burst damage). If they can't get through your taunts they aren't going to win. I'd say that is a pretty strong argument. I mean we do get aggro players complaining about pushing through countless walls of spreading plague and those are 'just putting up taunts'. I've seen plenty of non-token vs token druid match-ups where the non-token druid interacted with the token druid by changing whether or not the token druid could push through any time soon after the token druid got their own Soul of the Forest plague wall countered by the other druid's plague wall.
The druid may not be afk every turn, but in a world with a pre-nerfed FoN the druid is having to take out at least two additional card slots to make the combo/deck work (two obviously being FoN) and probably Mossy as well. The question to ask then is what the druid is doing for most of the rest of their turns. Are they still ramping up? What are they ramping up for if they're trying to kill you with the combo? The deck would probably look quite different than current druid decks right now since they probably wouldn't also be running a standard Maly combo alongside the FoN combo.
@Lyra you trip over your own argument when you say " Interacting means that you are able to change something". Putting up taunts is not "changing" what your opponent can DO, it just means they have to play around an obstacle.
If you don't like fun and interactive, Force of Nature combo is the thing for you, yes.
I'm not sad to see any Charge minion go.
In a HS that is now full of taunts (Taunt Druid, early Voidlords, chaingangs, & plague) I actually think the deck would be much more interactive now. Remember, "interacting" doesn't mean winning or not losing right away, but in the most simple situations it just means plays that affect the direction that the game is heading.
We asked for a different kind of transparency...
They wanted to design something real scary? Put the secret trap room up as a playable boss.
This is the most exciting line and idea to me. It is the heart of what I think will maintain hearthstone from dying. This is the path forward.
The Brawls was cool. Going with premade heroes and decks is always much better than RNG fiestas or obviously broken decks that cancerise the brawl.
I think one of the few missing things from these events is playable cards related to the theme (that one can keep and play also after the event).
Like The Headless Horseman, Brooms, etc.
For example, the release of the very Witch's Cauldron could have been saved for the event.
Squashling too.
All things that players would have tried and fit in the meta, and shake it up, at least for a while. Marin the Fox fashion.
So they finally play-tested Azalina now, realized she is super strong, but don't think she deserves a nerf - neither in the brawl nor in the monster hunt?
Read again! They did nerf her for monster Hunt! And to be honest she does not need a nerf for monster hunt. A little challenge is always good!
I don't read that, can you point it out to me?
I read that they tweaked for the brawl various monsters, but not that there had been nerfs in the monster hunt mode itself.
(also, the hero power did not receive a nerf in the brawl nor seem her cards to be any different).
azalina in the monster hunt is more than a little challenge :(
if you encounter her, there's a 75% chance your run is over. She's harder than any of the end bosses. Token druid in insane mode...
They should make: Developer Insights: Creating A Most Monstrous Nerfs To Date!
Ahem, Force of Nature, Arcane Golem , Warsong Commander
edit, Keeper of the Grove