Bluetracker

Tracks Blizzard employees across various accounts.

When we were first developing @MARVELSNAP - we wondered if we could do away with a card game staple: The Mulligan. Obviously we did, but early testers hated it. We changed their perception with a single change to 1 card. 🧵

When we were first developing @MARVELSNAP - we wondered if we could do away with a card game staple: The Mulligan. Obviously we did, but early testers hated it. We changed their perception with a single change to 1 card. 🧵

  • bbrode
    Posted 4 years ago (Source)
    When we were first developing @MARVELSNAP - we wondered if we could do away with a card game staple: The Mulligan. Obviously we did, but early testers hated it. We changed their perception with a single change to 1 card. 🧵

    • bbrode
      Posted 4 years ago (Source)
      When I first worked on Hearthstone - physical card game mulligans offered just a single choice - do you want to get a new hand with 1 less card? We felt like with our smaller hand size in Hearthstone, a better choice would be to choose X cards to replace.

      • bbrode
        Posted 4 years ago (Source)
        I think it's a more fun mulligan, but it's more dangerous in that it reduces variance and makes it more likely that you're going to draw into a combo, if you're playing a combo deck.

        • bbrode
          Posted 4 years ago (Source)
          Card games are fun in large part due to their variance. Each game playing out differently is what separates it from games like Chess, which play out so similarly that often players memorize long series of opening plays and counter-plays.

          • bbrode
            Posted 4 years ago (Source)
            The more variance in a game, the more problem-solving skill is required, since you are constantly put into new situations that you couldn't possibly have prepared for by memorizing the best answer.

            • bbrode
              Posted 4 years ago (Source)
              In Marvel Snap, we wanted decks to be really small. Deckbuilding is one of the hardest things for players to do in card games. Generally, the smaller the deck, the less variance you have.

              • bbrode
                Posted 4 years ago (Source)
                (important to remember that other card games allow multiples of each card in a deck, which also reduces variance)

                • bbrode
                  Posted 4 years ago (Source)
                  Given the desire to increase variance (to counteract the small decks), and to also play up the variance of starting hand strengths to allow the bluffing of the SNAP mechanic to be more interesting, we decided to not have a mulligan.

                  • bbrode
                    Posted 4 years ago (Source)
                    However, every time we invited a new player to our early tests, the first piece of feedback we got was: "I wish there was a mulligan. I hate not having anything to do on turn 1."

                    • bbrode
                      Posted 4 years ago (Source)
                      Despite Heathstone's mulligan, we got similar feedback in Hearthstone's early days - which is why all of the Hero Powers were eventually designed to be used on turn 2 - to blunt the impact of not having an early play. (Sorry, Priest!)

                      • bbrode
                        Posted 4 years ago (Source)
                        In Snap, we knew that once players understood how the Cube worked and how you could bail out at any time for only a small loss of Cubes, the impact of bad luck would be lessened. And also, missing a 1 or 2 drop in SNAP is really different than in other card games.

                        • bbrode
                          Posted 4 years ago (Source)
                          There's no "tempo" in Snap. You don't "lose board control" by not playing a card early. It might not be the best, but you're certainly not doomed. But this feedback about having nothing to play on turn 1 was so frequent, we knew it would be an issue.

                          • bbrode
                            Posted 4 years ago (Source)
                            So we made a single change. We moved Quicksilver into the starting deck. https://t.co/NqVzTBEa5o

                            • bbrode
                              Posted 4 years ago (Source)
                              Immediately, the mulligan feedback dried up. Who needs to mulligan when you always draw your 1-drop? Eventually many players decide to swap Quicksilver for a different card, but at that point you're making the *choice* to risk a bad opening hand.

                              • bbrode
                                Posted 4 years ago (Source)
                                In game design, an important question to ask when facing a problem is: Is this a system-design problem, or a content design problem? In this case, what initially seemed like a system problem (players want a mulligan) was actually solved with a content design change!

                                • bbrode
                                  Posted 4 years ago (Source)
                                  I've been getting a lot of tweets about @MARVELSNAP over the past week, and a lot of feedback (yes we're working on friendly battles!) - but you know what I haven't heard ONCE? "I wish there was a mulligan" 😂

                                  • Matt London
                                    Posted 4 years ago (Source)
                                    @bbrode @MARVELSNAP I imagine learning that Quicksilver isn't good is an important milestone in most people's development as players.

                                  • Chadd Nervigg
                                    Posted 4 years ago (Source)
                                    @bbrode @MARVELSNAP Love this thread.
Tweet