In order to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the birth of its famous game "Warcraft", Blizzard held an online display event "Warcraft 30th Anniversary Live Broadcast Conference" on November 14, 2024, in which "Hearthstone" announced that it will enter the world of "StarCraft" , the "Star Heroes" mini series will be launched in 2025.
Blizzard said that the Warcraft series universe will usher in its 30th year of adventure on November 16 (Saturday), from the production team of "World of Warcraft", "World of Warcraft" Classic Edition, "Hearthstone" and "Warcraft Legion" Let’s gather together today (14th) for a live broadcast in the early morning to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Warcraft, in which “Hearthstone” also celebrates its tenth anniversary.
The "Hearthstone" production team first looked back at the past ten years, when players played more than 160 billion games of "Hearthstone", and then shared their plans for 2025. They will start their journey in the new year across different universes, join the "StarCraft" series that many people love, and launch the "Star Heroes" mini-series, allowing Zerg, humans, and gods to join the hotel, and cards from the same camp will be able to Matching each other, the hero Kerrigan will lead the death knight, demon hunter, warlock, and hunter, which has the fast attack characteristics of the Zerg. The protoss will have Artanis leading the druid, mage, priest, and rogue, which will consume high mana. A powerful unit, while the human is Jim Raynor, with Paladins, Warriors, and Shamans, there will be battlecruisers and other units, and they hope to incorporate "StarCraft" units into it as much as possible, and of course there will be humans wearing Baby Aman fishmen in combat uniforms will participate in the battle, and will also have exclusive specific music.
Introducing the Heroes of Starcraft Mini-Set | Warcraft Direct | Hearthstone:
The R&D team also predicted that the arena will usher in major changes. There will be two types of arenas. The ordinary arena will have a shorter format and players can complete a round quickly. The underground arena will be a high-risk card game. The round process is long, and the deck can be reorganized after defeat. Both sides have arena points and are separate. It is scheduled to be launched in the first half of next year.
As for players, they will step into the Emerald Dream in next year's first expansion. Immediately afterwards, players will return to Un'Goro Crater to explore the "Hidden City (tentative translation)" and join Chromie at the end of the year. Embark on a journey to "Heroes of Time" to explore another reality and confront Mdozno.
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"Hearthstone" senior game designer Leo Robles Gonzalez and "Hearthstone" lead initial designer Cora Georgiou also accepted interviews from the media through online video:
Question: I remember when "Hearthstone" was first launched, I asked the production team if they had any ideas about branching out beyond the "Warcraft" series. At first, they said they had no such plans. What was the opportunity now that made you decide to branch out? What about the "StarCraft" series and the "StarCraft" mini-series?
Leo: This decision is made by the sum of many small factors. The current Hearthstone team members are different from the original production team, and the members have also changed. They may have different ideas from the original team. When Hearthstone first came out, there was still a lot of unexplored territory in Warcraft, and there was a lot to explore. Now that the game has been played for ten years, after ten years of exploration, in addition to still having many areas to explore World of Warcraft, some members also mentioned what would happen if they stepped out. Now that we have the Outer Worlds expansion, wouldn't it be exciting to explore it further?
Q: What was the most difficult challenge in designing the "Star Heroes" mini-series?
Leo: The biggest challenge should be how to bring out the important elements of "StarCraft" and the elements that can be seen as interstellar at a glance in "Hearthstone". The game types of "StarCraft" and "World of Warcraft" are completely different. Not only the story aspect, characters and unit world view, but also the details that StarCraft players pay attention to are different from those of players who play "World of Warcraft". StarCraft players will talk about micro-operations, competition, etc. , but in "World of Warcraft" terms such as sea past and economic crushing are rarely used. This is the key to the game experience of "StarCraft" and what makes it different, such as collecting resources and allocating resources.
There are also different races in "StarCraft". The team spent a lot of time immersing themselves in the interstellar world and extracting the decisive features, hoping to present them in "Hearthstone". This should be a relatively big challenge.
Question: Is the card content of the "Star Heroes" mini-series based on the "Interdimensional Portal" released in Hotel Brawl in 2018? Are there any similarities between the cards?
Leo: This is actually very different from the previous Hotel Brawl. Taking "StarCraft" as an example, the focus is to present what exactly are the elements of "StarCraft". Many people in the team like "StarCraft". In order to know what to put into "StarCraft", they went to ask "StarCraft" for advice. 》The developers have collected a lot of information and answers about Zerg, Protoss, the most important units of mankind, the most important things, etc. The biggest challenge is how to put these answers into these cards. I believe players who love StarCraft will definitely see Zerg puppies,
For the Protoss Light Cannon, we try our best to put the players’ love for the interstellar into the card, and try to put as much as we can.
Cora: Hotel Brawl "Interdimensional Portal" has interstellar elements, but it is still based on "Hearthstone". It is still mainly presented with Hearthstone characters and card design, with only a little interstellar theme. However, "Star Heroes" really adds the characters and features of "StarCraft" to Hearthstone, and I believe it will feel more familiar to StarCraft players.
Question: In an earlier live broadcast, it was mentioned that the newly launched underground arena is "exciting and high-risk". Can you give an example of the difference between the underground arena and the ordinary arena? Is it possible for players to encounter players of unequal strength in the underground arena? Will this also affect the number of points and rewards?
Cora: We have renovated the arena and hope to create a novice-friendly environment so that players who have never played Hearthstone can easily get started. Therefore, the normal arena mode can be completed quickly. Just win five games. The main goal is to allow players to understand the rules of the arena game, such as card drawing and card selection, and try to play in an environment that is not too intense. Arena mode, this will be a good environment for novice players to start learning.
For veterans, I would recommend the underground arena, which is a more intense, rewarding, and expensive place. We hope that veterans can show their superb card skills here, and if they lose, they can choose whether to change the design of the deck. This can make the deck better and win twelve games. As for the matching mechanism in the underground arena, it is similar to the current matching mechanism. The arena will also have points, and players can see where the skill levels of similar players are.
Hearthstone Full Segment | Warcraft Direct: