by Magistrate - 10 years ago     show comments

The first day of PAX Prime has kicked off on a high note. djWheat (Marcus Graham) had the opportunity to interview Heroes of the Storm game developer Dustin Browder, as well as sit in on gameplay by senior 3D artist Phill Gonzales. We’ve included some notes if you just want the shorthand, but we encourage you to check out the full Heroes interview on Twitch (16:30 – 43:00). We’ve bolded the particularly interesting points.

• Heroes started off as a mod to prove what the Starcraft 2 authoring tools could do.
• Heroes was poised to challenge the conventions of the MOBA genre.
  • Talents were chosen in lieu of a “one-sized-fits-all” gear shop.
  • Maps are being developed as team-oriented challenges where you fight and level cooperatively.
  • Heavy stress is being placed on developing unique maps–not just in terms of aesthetics, but especially in terms of map goals.
• Dustin mentioned some systems that aren’t part of the game yet (and might not even be on the drawing board):
  • “Draft” Mode
    • Map you’re playing determines what kind of gear and talents you want to choose.
  • Tournament Mode
    • Players fight over multiple maps sequentially.
    • Maps played may be chosen by the losing team, as part of the Hero selection process, or may alternate between players for choosing.
• The number of maps in Heroes depends on how the developers and community feel.
  • Dustin imagines anywhere from 6 to 8 maps at launch.
  • Six maps feels “fat”/bloated, but he says as many as “8 or more” maps will be done if it feels better, with more maps going forward after launch.
  • Old maps will leave the matchmaker rotation as new maps are added.
    • Old maps will still be playable for custom games, for use with friends, or if people want to use them for eSports situations.
• Heroes had a shop built-in for several years.
  • It was removed since changing gear for iconic Heroes seemed weird (such as Arthas replacing Frostmourne).
• Heroes development is uniquely participatory with alpha testers.
  • The development speed means more feedback is helpful and sometimes validating, such as when Artifacts were introduced and then quickly removed.
  • Murky is another area where community feedback was important.
    • Community influenced his design–he was re-developed to be more team-oriented while maintaining his gameplay roots.
    • Dustin says a new build/version/update of Murky may be ready soon.
• A goal for Heroes is to make the game feel new and different depending on which Hero you play.
• Dustin and Phill elaborated on a few Heroes they’d like to add but which are not currently in planning or development:
  • Kel’thuzad (Warcraft, World of Warcraft)
  • Snake Sanders (Rock ‘N’ Roll Racing) and other out there, crazy characters
• Heroes will “absolutely” see a Starcraft base.
  • The team has heard a lot of community and developer feedback on the possibility.
  • They want to do more mash-ups of their game universes.
  • They can use lore characters that wouldn’t make good playable Heroes as bosses and figures in maps, such as Ragnaros.
• Heroes are being introduced every 4 to 6 weeks “at this point.”
• Development is more focused on fixing bad behavioral patterns in the game right now than finely tuning and restricting gameplay.
• Heroes developers will always be looking to update old content, through things like different “heroics” down the road, changing up talents, or other means.
• They’re admitting beta players as quickly as their technology will permit; they encourage everyone to sign up for beta on the website.