Hearthstone

(Note: This entry is about the online CCG "Hearthstone" from Blizzard, and not the city management game "Stonehearth" from Radiant Entertainment.)

I recently had the chance to check out the online collectible card game "Hearthstone" being produced by Blizzard. It is in open beta right now (though that term is getting more ambiguous in game development). I set up a free account and spent some illicit hours testing the game when I should have been doing other, more productive activities. Here is a quick summary of my thoughts on the game.

The Positive: Hearthstone has the production quality you would expect form a game from Blizzard, especially as it uses intellectual property from Blizzard's flagship World of Warcraft. The artwork and voice acting (what there is of it) are top notch and the overall feel of the game is coherent and charming. In regards to gameplay, the different characters felt pretty unique with each one having distinct strengths and weaknesses.

The Negative: It is early in Hearthstone's development, so I may have to keep and open mind and check back again later, but at the moment the game lacks strategic depth. Some abilities were extremely powerful (e.g. "charge", "taunt") while others seemed underpowered by comparison (e.g. "divine shield", "stealth"). Perhaps this view comes from only using the starter cards and the balance is more evident on cards you get from packs. Packs, however, were not that simple to obtain short of shelling out several dollars. The game felt like I would have to grind a lot and pour hours into it to obtain cards. Also the different character abilities felt unbalanced with direct damage, protection, and healing being extremely versatile while other abilities were rather lackluster. Gameplay overall was repetitive with really only one best strategy. Again this may be because I only was using starter cards, though this lack of strategic diversity in your entry level product is poor game design and poor business.

Hearthstone seems like a well produced little game that requires too much time investment at the moment to get much diverse gameplay. Since it is early in the life of the game, I will have to try back some other time to see if things improve.

Slime Sprite

This is my first attempt at creating a moving sprite.  For anyone who doesn't know what a sprite is (not a drink or magical creature), sprites are often used in video games   Before the age of more advanced graphics processors and the boom of 3D technologies, sprites were all the graphics you saw if you ever played a computer game.

For me, they hold a lot of appeal.  There is the nostalgia factor, as sprites remind me of every great game that entered into my childhood.  There is the fact that they are NOT 3D, which is important as I tend to get motion sick when playing 3D games. (Strange, but true.)  There is the fact that sprites tend to have a smaller processing requirement than newer 3D graphics, so games employing sprites can run on really outdated hardware.

Then there is the fact that sprites represent a real test in minimalist art.  Creating recognizable detail with only a few pixels and a very limited color palette is difficult  while doing it well is even more so.  While working on the little slime guy walking above, I looked at a lot of sprites and there is a lot of lazy sprite art out there.  When you find a well done bit of sprite work, though, it is really amazing to realize the level of detail the artist has packed into just a few square pixels.  (Look up "Secret of Mana" or "Final Fantasy VI" some time to see what I mean.)

If I ever manage to make a video game as I would like to, I am pretty sure I want to use sprites instead of some newer technology.

8-bit Joy

Figures of Pac-Man and Ghost made from salt dough.

What do the ghosts talk about as they wait for the level to begin?

"Run for your life!"

"Hey guys! A little help here!"