The hosts of the Hearthcasual podcast, Brian Black (@RhoWoW) and Kevin Ellis (@Multizord), interviewed Hearthstone Game Designer Pat Nagle on Thursday. Questions were focused on Tavern Brawl design philosophy, wrapping up with some discussion on this week’s Henchmania Tavern Brawl.
The following is a summary of most of the key answers given in the interview:
- Pat has been on the Hearthstone team since Tavern Brawls started.
- One of the biggest goals for Tavern Brawls is that they want people to anticipate when the new one comes out. That includes keeping it a surprise and appealing to different playstyles with each Brawl. They still have lots of ideas for future Brawls.
- Joe Magdalena (@joemag_games) tends to be more of a showman when designing Brawls. Pat tends to be a bit crazy and nutty with Tavern Brawl ideas while Joe is the more disciplined one.
- Although there have been more build-your-own-deck Brawls in recent history, that’s mostly a result of providing a balance after the series of premade deck Brawls that came with the Season of Rastakhan. The team has been designing more Brawls which aim to expand the narrative of the expansion.
- Some Brawls take much longer to design than others. Top Two took no more than a day to put together, while the Season of Rastakhan Brawls took a lot more time. The team has to make sure they balance the number of brawls that take a short time to develop versus ones that are more time intensive.
- Standout Tavern Brawls that have seen more participation than expected include Randomonium and Top Two, likely because the games can end very quickly.
- Pat’s two favorite Brawls he designed were Clockwork Card Dealer and The Dark Wanderer.
- Brawls have not often inspired the creation of new cards in Hearthstone, but there have been a couple, such as the Summoning Stone. Often when designing Brawls, the team will look at the cards from the new expansion and thinks about Brawls that can be built off of those new cards.
- It’s possible we may see Brawls similar to the No Cards Barred Fireside Gathering Brawl in normal Tavern Brawl mode in the future, though it would likely keep the two of a kind limit so that players don’t feel the need to not dust extras.
- No info on upcoming Brawls. Keeping the surprise factor is important!
- Henchmania
- Pat has enjoyed playing Vex with Dr. Boom as a boss.
- Very recently the team became able to create Brawls where you aren’t limited to standard hero classes. It just so happened that there were four Rogues in this Brawl because their flavor was appealing.
- His advice is to play as many different combinations of henchmen and bosses as you can. Don’t feel like you’re just stuck with Candlebeard and Togwaggle.
- Mr. Chu and George’s hero powers in Henchmania won’t necessarily match the hero powers available to them in The Great Dalaran Heist.
You can find the Hearthcasual podcast on most major podcast apps, as well as at hearthcasual.frozenfoxmedia.com.
