When creating a game (especially a card game), keywords can be an extremely useful design tool. When used effectively, keywords can help convey a lot of complex information to the player in a quick and accessible way. But when used incorrectly, you can accidentally leave players overwhelmed and frustrated. So when should you use keywords in your game, and how can you use them effectively? Let’s learn the key to using keywords.
Read moreChoose Your Allegiance: The Power of Factions in Card Games
As I’ve talked about in the past, balancing games is really hard. And while that’s true for all games, card games in particular are very tricky to balance. Often cards games will feature dozens if not hundreds of unique cards, all of which could have unintended game-breaking interactions with one another. As a designer, you need a way to keep specific cards separated while still providing players with the freedom to make whatever decks they want to play. Thankfully, there’s a simple design trick that does just that: factions!
Read moreDelving Deeper – The Evolution of Hearthstone’s Single Player Mode
Making something as fun and robust as The Dalaran Heist just wouldn’t have been possible right when Hearthstone was launched. Blizzard needed to first test out their boss battles in the early adventures, take a big chance with Dungeon Run, and then finally experiment and refine the formula with Monster Hunt and Rumble Run. Not every step in this progression was perfect, but that’s kind of the point. It’s okay to make the occasional misstep as long as you keep running forward.
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