Present at the Blizzcon, we were able to ask some questions to some members of the Hearthstone team who had just revealed the new game mode, Battlegrounds. Alec Dawson and Hadidjah Chamberlin accepted to answer our interrogations.
- Hearthstone: Battlegrounds' open beta starts on November 12th, it's time to check out all our guides on the subject!
Did you develop Battlegrounds because one of Hearthstone's team member was a huge fan of auto-battlers?
We've been wanting to do some sort of new game mode for a while now. That's something that players have been really wanting as well — and while we were trying to figure out what the best thing to do with that new mode was, one designer happened to be working on a Tavern Brawl, trying to figure out how to take the best elements of an auto-battler and combine that with all the really fun things about Hearthstone. There was something there, so we put more resources behind, we develop it into this full-blend new game mode and it's so so fun. If you played Hearthstone before, there is a lot of things about it that are very familiar. It's a mix of existing cards and a couple of new cards to really help support some of the archetypes there.
The mechanics play out very similarily that how they're doing in a normal Hearthstone game. We've got all these different heroes with their own unique hero powers, but because you have the different phases, because you've got seven other people that you're playing against, it feels really fresh and really different. It's a blast!
Is there a team dedicated to Battlegrounds?
Yes, there was a smaller team dedicated to Battlegrounds. There were some artists, engineers, designers... We put on a neat team.
How is going communication between the Hearthstone team and this new team?
All of game development is very collaborative. With that smaller team, it was a lot of ... the initial prototype, and just figuring out how do we're making all the stuff that is very different and unique — how do we support that best on the UI side, what are the cool unique things that we can bring into this space to really make it feel like something new and special. I think that was something that was really true for all part of it. We're just making sure that everything clicked, that everything worked together. It was really fun with this smaller team to just getting back and forth, and back and forth again. It was a really cool development process, it was a lot of fun.
Could you tell us more about the link between 'classic' Hearthstone and Battlegrounds? Do you plan on adding the same Hearthstone cards into Battlegrounds? Should we expect set rotations? Perhaps some exclusive cards?
There's a bunch of details about rotations and exclusive cards that we are still figuring out, but none that's finals.
Editor's note: Mike Donais has since answered a few tweets about possible future balance/evolutions on the game.
- Balance patch (implemented this Monday)
- 4 new champions to come soon
- New units and balance changes to come early December
To conclude, what are your respective favorite hero?
Alec Dawson: I kinda like the Lich King, it gives your right-most minion Reborn, and I find it pretty fun. A.F.Kay is pretty cool too, or Dancin' Daryl.
Hadidjah Chamberlin: I know that Dancin' Deryl is kind of the crowd favorite right now, and he's actually super fun. Mine is Jarraxus, I just really like all-in on Demons. I only sometimes accidentally killed myself... Yeah, that's also a thing I find really cool about Battlegrounds: that all the different heroes shape a lot about how you're going to play the game — and it's just super fun.
Patch 15.6.2 was implemented yesterday and its main update is the opening of the Hearthstone Battlegrounds beta to all players! Go to the new Modes section to give it a try!
