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Ben Brode Stream Notes - 2016/04/23

Ben Brode streamed on 2016/04/23, talking about Hearthstone game design. Here is a summary of what was said. These notes are in no particular order. If text is italic, it's my own notes trying to lend context to some of the points.

• Whispers of the Old Gods was designed alongside the nerfs so they could predict slightly how the meta would turn out.
• When asked "Do you guys playtest before the sets come out?", he chucked and answered yes.
• Ben Brode "freaking loves Hearthstone". He doesn't get burnt out from it and he'll never get tired from it. Besides Hearthstone, he plays Heroes of the Storm and World of Warcraft.
• "The size of the team doesn't matter, but our quality assurance team is of high quality". Ben Brode himself worked in Quality Assurance 13 years ago, so he has "like, mad respect for the folks over there".
• The craziest idea for a Shaman card they've ever had came from a fan designed card that was originally for Priest. The card was a 10-mana 7/7 with taunt, saying "Whenever you take lethal damage, summon this minion from your hand instead". (This meant lethal damage was prevented from that source only, not immunity like Ice Block). They found it too infuriating to play against. This minion ended up being the Mistcaller.
• "[Nozdormu] is the type of card- it does something unique for Hearthstone. It blows your mind and makes you realize that anything could happen in Hearthstone. Card games are, in some ways, exciting because there's all these different ways you can do things... Nozdormu makes you think on an axis that makes things feel even deeper than you could have possibly have imagined they could have been... that is the kind of thing that inspires you and makes you think what else this game can do."
• Nozdormu's bugs are related to the turn timer and not Nozdormu. For example, if Curse of Rafaam is played, players still have time taken off of their turn when they are cursed. Ben Brode thinks Nozdormu is helpful to catching these bugs. They are actively working on fixing the turn timer.
• Shifter Zerus is an example of something that can only be accomplished in a digital card game. Ben Brode thinks this is a great example.
• The new board was in the board rotation that was available on stream, but it didn't show up, so they had to tweet a picture out instead.
• Ben Brode has shifted more from card design to team leadership, but he still designs some cards.
• Knife Juggler was nerfed as it was supposed to be used for swarm decks, where many token creatures are played, but was being used as a card in many decks. Now it's more of a niche card.
• Blade Flurry was nerfed as it was a card that defined Rogue in a way that meant that it had to be played as it was so strong. The nerf has allowed for more deck types to open up for Rogue.
• Burgle and Undercity Huckster are cards that were added to give Rogue more of a defining flavor.
• It is possible that some cards may return, but there are no plans for now. They'd rather make new cards. They will never re-print a set.
• Jeeves was supposed to be for card draw in aggro decks.
• Divine Favor exists as a way to make sure Paladins can play aggro decks. "The better Secret Paladin decks do not play Divine Favor."
• "The Demons and the Old Gods hate each other, so it felt weird to put a bunch of demons in the Old Gods set! We kind of had the anti-Old Gods thing happening in Paladin, so we didn't want to do that again".
• Ben Brode likes having things show up sometimes then see them not show up later. Demonlock was powerful, and now it's time for some other Warlock decks to shine.
• Yogg-Saron may have been the card that took the longest to program, but Ben Brode isn't too sure.
• Chris Metzen has never made a card, but "he did jest-send a card design to us the other day that he was excited about, so maybe we'll print Metzen's first card in an upcoming set".
• There may not be anymore cards like Firey Bat anymore, as it was named after the winner of the Hearthstone World Championships, Firebat. This is because Firebat was the first and "you always remember your first".
• Ben Brode wrote 2 articles on "How to become a game designer" and "How to get a job in the games industry". You can find them here.
• "I can't wait for next week, it's gonna be crazy!"

The following are some less informative, but more fun notes.

• Ben Brode's wife can't sleep without watching TV, so he's been watching The New Adventures of Old Christine, King of Queens, Friends and Sex in the City (at least 4 times). Also Making a Murderer, Jessica Jones, Breaking Bad and he loves Samurai Jack. He hasn't seen Better Call Saul, and he is excited for the return of Samurai Jack.
• Disguised Toast's laugh montage "has to be at least the fifth montage of me laughing on the internet".
• Ben Brode likes eating toast "about an above average amount".
• In Ben Brode's average work day, first he checks his emails and clears his inbox, then he chats with other people "about the weekend", and is in meetings for most of the rest of the day.
• So far, it seems Felguard isn't too bad of a pick in Arena, at least from the games on stream.
• Ben Brode did not voice Winston in Overwatch.
• When asked about 3 artists/bands he liked right now, he responded with Mike Doughty.
• Ben Brode can see Reelz from his desk, but he doesn't know why he doesn't stream anymore.
• "I'm really bad at this game." -Ben Brode

Ben Brode's Warlock Arena deck ended with a score of 7-3. His rewards were 25 dust, 150 gold and a TGT pack. The pack contained Power Word: Glory, 2x Fearsome Doomguard, Shady Dealer and Dalaran Aspirant.

Ben Brode also streamed Job Simulator, played with VR. If you want to watch any of the VoDs for yourself, you can find them here!

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