Blizzard’s Hearthstone has been doing well to sell the idea of an online card game, but that is because it has yet to release a proper expansion set. The recent single player campaign in Curse of Naxxramas added roughly 30 or so cards to the environment, but it overall didn’t have as much as the rebalancing of some of the cards like Starving Buzzard. This will change as the developer is preparing to release its first 100+ card expansion set.
Speaking to Polygon, Hearthstone production director Jason Chayes outlined the challenges that go into creating new cards and releasing them to the public. Chayes suggests that there is a certain pacing to release new cards, and that he believes that the rate at which new content rolls out is important for retaining old players while still remaining interesting for newbies.
Another concern for the future expansion of Hearthstone is the matter of the sheer number of cards that the developer may end up releasing. Most card games retain interest by constantly introducing new cards, and this creates an environment where there are simply too many cards to keep up with. Most create a constantly changing list of cards that can be played at the time to control this environment, and it is still unknown if Blizzard will introduce the same policy to Hearthstone.
Details about the new expansion are extremely light, but it is expected that an announcement will be made during Blizzcon in November.
[Source: Polygon]
