Welcome to a very different segment of Fan Community Spotlight. Different because this time, we're not looking at one specific set, nor do we have anyone to interview. The year is almost over, so I thought we would look back at each particular FCS I did over this year. Perhaps one or two years from now, you'll look back at these sets and see how much fan-made card design has evolved over the years as new cards make it into the game, and what ideas people have made that would later make it into the game. If you, the reader, was interviewed for an FCS in this article, you might look back and see how your card design philosophies have changed over time.
Team 5 themselves have stated that they have looked at fan-made cards in the past for inspiration. Earlier this year, they basically asked us to give them inspiration for new heroes for the Battlegrounds mode that released just a month ago. As a result, the fan communities can actually have a very small amount of influence as to what cards actually make it into the game in the future.
Let us hope that 2020 will be an even more exciting year for fan-made card design and Fan Community Spotlight in general. WCDCs on Out of Cards are getting closer and closer each day, and 2020 will be the year that they finally make it to the site. Until then, Fan Community Spotlight is always here to satiate your hunger for fan-made cards.
Without further ado though, it's time to look back at all of the card sets showcased this year.
FCS #0 - Pircival's Archaeologist Class
Prior to the first official segment of Fan Community Spotlight on Out of Cards (as well as me joining the Content Squad), Pircival was interviewed by moderator, Tox (also known as "ThisOtherGuyTox") to discuss the inner workings of his custom class, the Archaeologist. The Archaeologist class was created as an entry for a big competition which started in January, and went all the way into May. Out of over 100 entries, Pircival would go on to take the overall victory in the competition.
FCS #1 - Maxlot's Summoner Class
For the first official segment of Fan Community Spotlight, I interviewed Maxlot (as he was known as where the competition in which this class originated would be held) who is perhaps better known as "The Flawless Walrus", and showcased his Summoner Class. The Summoner Class was created as part a CCC (Class Creation Competition) which lasted from December 26th 2017 to April 2nd 2018 . He would place 4th out of a total of 108 entries. Although the class has not been updated on HearthCards since Rise of Shadows, it is still active as part of a program known as Spellsource, which is a GitHub program that essentially allows you to play as fan-made classes against other fan-made classes.
Unfortunately, his keyword Invoke would be superseded in name by Descent of Dragons, introducing their own mechanic called Invoke.
FCS #2 - CheeseEtc's Chef Class
The FCS following the Summoner Class would be, oddly enough, another top 4 finisher as part of the same CCC as the aforementioned Summoner Class. This time, CheeseEtc's Chef Class, which would take 2nd place overall in the competition. This class is currently updated up to Saviors of Uldum, and we may see a Descent of Dragons update in the early months of the year.
Cheese held the record for most WCDC wins (with a whopping 17!) prior of OoC's formation. Could Cheese take the spot for OoC's WCDCs as well?
FCS #3 - Frostivus' "The Last Tour"
The third official segment of Fan Community Spotlight would be a first for several different aspects. It the first one (including the unofficial number 0) to showcase an expansion-like set instead of a custom class, to showcase a set of cards that was not created for a competition, the first one without a custom keyword, and also the first one to interview someone outside of Out of Cards. For this installment, I interviewed Frostivus, who is a fairly renowned set creator, who's sets have even attracted the attention of Team 5 themselves on Reddit.
FCS #4 - Dezitronix's "The Crystalarium"
For this installment, I interviewed Dezitronix who is an active card creator across several different places. I showcased The Crystalarium, which was the very first full-size expansion to be featured on FCS, and weirdly enough, the first set featured to actually be hosted on Out of Cards itself. The Crystalarium itself is part of the fictional Year of the Viper, and Dezitronix is currently working with a team on the final set for Year of the Viper known as "The Tel'Abim Anomaly" (spoiler alert: I'm part of that project).
FCS #5 - Hordaki's Tactician Class
This particular FCS looked at Hordaki's custom class, the Tactician. Unlike the previous three classes in this article, the Tactician has actually been updated to include every class-centric piece of PvE encounters (such as card buckets for all the Rogue-like modes) and even the new Battlegrounds mode. It's also the first class showcased on FCS (and as of the date of writing this article, the only one) to use an existing WoW character instead of an original one.
FCS #6 - Community Built Grizzly Hills Set
This FCS highlights a competition that happened on the r/customhearthstone Discord server, which would become a 36 card (4 for each class) set designed by the participants. The set was based on the Grizzly Hills zone in WoW, and the competition was won by Vee. As a community set however, the two main runner-ups, True (aka trueasthete) and Pircival (which makes him the first person to receive a second interview) were also interviewed, in what is the first time that more than one person was interviewed.
(note that the "Set" does not display all 36 cards that made it into the set. For that, you'd need to look at the set's Imgur album)
FCS #7 - Shatterstar1998's Astromancer Class
This issue of Fan Community Spotlight looked at the Astromancer class created by Shatterstar1998, whom I've bonded with quite a bit over the course of creating cards. The class was created this year as part of the same class competition where Pircival's Archaeologist class originated, and he would place 3rd overall. Take a gaze at the class, and you'll see why.
FCS #8 - Maysick's "Wynnstock Festival"
The penultimate FCS of the year looked at the Wynnstock Festival, a music-themed expansion created by Maysick, a moderator on r/customhearthstone. Characterized by the return of Elite Tauren Chieftain, with each class represented by a type of music, a new keyword known as Harmonize, and a special card type known as the Composers.
Pircival and AcidNoBravery who featured as card designers for the set also make guest appearances in the interview.
FCS #9 - CivilKobold's "Dawn of Desolation
Dawn of Desolation is CivilKobold's take on an alternate ending to Year of the Dragon, featuring Lazul unleashing C'Thun and his cultists unto the world, with C'Thun and Twin Emperor Vek'lor returning to Standard in this set. Build your C'Thun in new and exciting ways, or unleash new Old God G'huun to wreck havoc on your opponent (or all of Azeroth if you feel like it).
Advice from the Community
Throughout every segment of Fan Community Spotlight, I asked every person I interviewed what they believe the most essential piece of advice is for someone new to custom card design. If you want some quick help with your designs, I've compiled all of the answers here.
Quote From The Flawless Walrus (Maxlot) Integrate yourself into and interact with others who've also tackled custom card design like you are currently but have already come to grips with it. Remember that you don't know everything, even if you eventually come to a point where you think you know quite a lot; even criticism from people you deem inexperienced or otherwise unhelpful can be valid. It doesn't necessarily matter how nicely or aggressively it's presented, it doesn't matter how much they know; what matters is that they've seen your design and, from their perspective, have seen a flaw. They might not necessarily know how to fix the issue, but that doesn't mean they're not being constructive. Treat everyone well, consider everyone's opinions and aim to understand each perspective and you might make some friends while you're doing it as well, which is something that will ensure you enjoy and continue making cards far more than anything else.
Quote From Cheese Never give up. It took me more than two seasons to win my first WCDC and two class competitions to make it past phase 1. Listen to other people's feedback, and ask yourself what makes a good custom card good.
I would say that what characterizes the best cards is, in that order:
- Perfect concordance between flavour and effect and to a lesser extent the originality of the effect. Cards with an interesting effect gameplay-wise will go unnoticed if they have no flavor. Reciprocally, pure meme cards that neglect the effect aren't good.
- Gameplay value of the cards. Is the effect original? Would it bring something to the game if it existed? I noticed that cards that support fun but currently non-viable archetypes (e.g. Discolock) are generally well-received.
- Whether the flavour fits in the Warcraft universe on which Hearthstone is based. If you don't play WoW, you can learn more about it on wowpedia.org.
Finally, never make a Pepe card. NEVER!
Quote From Frostivus The right mindset is key. A statement you'll hear frequently in this community as you share your ideas is 'that's never going to work'. The right question you need to ask is 'how can we make it work?
Quote From Dezitronix Starting out, your cards will suck, and that’s okay. Making bad cards and then getting advice on why those cards are bad and if possible, how they could be made better, is the process that pretty much everyone goes through, including yours truly. Even as time goes on, you’ll find that a lot of your ideas might not work to great. Soooo many cards were designed for TC that will probably never see the light of day, and that’s okay, no one is that good at making cards; it’s a real trial-and-error process to figure out what feels right. At the same time, don’t be afraid to think outside the box with cards! The best way to learn about what works is to get your weird janky ideas out there and let them get dissected, because that’s how some of the coolest cards out there were made!
Quote From Hordaki Don't be afraid of criticism. The only way to improve at card design it to put it out there and get feedback on it. I've gone back and changed plenty of my cards when someone else noticed an inconsistency or error I made. And every time someone pointed out a mistake, I've been able to learn from it and improve my skills. If you're not willing to put yourself out there, you're not going to improve. If you've considered making cards but you don't think you would be any good at it, just do it! You might surprise yourself.
Quote From Vee Just keep making cards. Looking back, my first custom cards were not good but you just keep making them, keep getting feedback, keep learning. Also, don't be afraid to ask for feedback and don't dismiss it if it isn't what you wanted to hear. Hearing people's perspectives on designs iss super useful, esspecially when their perspective is different to yours. If you really want to dig into not just custom hearthstone cards but just general card and game design, there's tons of resources available on the subreddit, in MtG's catalogues and from Blizzard themselves that can give insight and help you get a better understanding of what goes into it.
Quote From trueasthete keep all of your ideas! even the worst ones! my “Set Up Camp” and “Bonfire Apparition” are both ideas i’ve played with way before the competition started–i couldn’t ever quite get them to work before then, but in the competition they just ‘clicked’. i can’t stress this enough–save your work!
Quote From Pircival Most essential? Time management. Don't waste too much time making custom hearthstone cards, or really doing anything that won't advance your day-to-day needs. Also, there's a bunch of places that have really cool arts for hearthstone cards and you should look for those places (they're on the customhearthstone's subreddit resource page).Listen to all feedback. Even if it's not the best, there's a reason why they gave that feedback.
Quote From Shatterstar1998 I'll let you in for big cheat code: Type _ + Fantasy art on Google Image and 70% of the time you'll find the image that you need. As long as you're creative / specific enough with the word or with cropping image, your artwork problem will be significantly reduced.
Quote From Maysick Find inspiration from any medium. I like music and physical board/card games.
Quote From AcidNoBravery Read. Read what others have made before - top cards, card competitions, custom expansions and classes - so that you know what you SHOULD be making in order to attract your audience. Also read design talks from members of team 5; those would help understanding what you SHOULDN'T be making - winmore, homogeneous, highroll, etc. The more you read, the better you are at making cards.
Quote From CivilKobold Your cards are probably gonna start out pretty bad, but if you take the time to really sit down, focus, and dig into a product there is no doubt in my mind you'll improve greatly. I suggest if you really want to get into card design you should try your hand at an expansion. But instead of showing it to the world personally comb through it and review any problems and inconsistencies, learn from everything there that doesn't work. Jot down if the theming doesn't work or the balance is off, if you have too many minions or too many words, then put it away and try your hand at an entirely different theme. It may sound like a brutal approach to the whole thing, but once you've used that first attempt to learn, your time is better spent making something better than fixing something that's ok. If you get into the habit of focusing on a single project you may find yourself stuck and unable to really improve.In any case, you can go back to that first expansion and try again later, when you're even better. (That's what I'll be doing)
2019 has been a stellar year for fan-made cards, and with WCDCs on the rise for OoC, 2020 will be even better. Here's to another year for us card creators. For our first FCS of 2020, we'll be taking on some... trials, if you catch my drift.
I'll see you all next time. Take care, and have a happy new year.
Comments
Thanks to all HS Custom Creators for making amazing stuff like this. Always happy to see what could be. Love you <3
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