the game design of taskmaster: fun to watch vs. fun to play
Let’s start with this statement: Taskmaster is not a game. It is a comedy panel television show, with a format that lends itself to incorporating game elements in the form of tasks. This means that the audience for Taskmaster is…
hearthstone mercenaries mode is only good for the grind
The most recent new mode to arrive in Hearthstone was Mercenaries, in October 2021. Another distinct departure from traditional Hearthstone, this also differed from Battlegrounds and Duels in interesting ways. One notable trait was the procedural generation of maps of…
league of legends challenges: a flawed achievement system
In May 2022, Riot Games released a new achievement system for League of Legends. “Challenges” launched with over 300 goals. Each of these challenges has multiple tiers that level up from Iron to Master. Frankly, League of Legends has needed an…
hearthstone duels is its best designed game mode, with the least support
Duels was the Hearthstone mode we all knew was coming. Its format was the most logical next step for a collectible card game whose number of cards and mechanics were growing at an unsustainable rate. Personally, I think Duels is…
hearthstone battlegrounds: a card-based auto battler experiment in game design
2019. The year before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the world. In games, this was the year of the auto battler. Dota’s Auto Chess mod debuted in January, becoming a resounding success. By June, Riot had jumped on the trend,…
comparing hearthstone’s game modes: battlegrounds, duels and mercenaries
Hearthstone has evolved significantly over the past two years. In 2020, the introduction of its first new class, Demon Hunter, and the initially contested new rewards track have been two of the largest changes the game has seen so far.…
the best improvements to hearthstone’s rewards track
I’ll admit, I give Hearthstone a hard time on this blog. But that’s only because I have such a high standard for the awesome card game that captured my imagination way back in 2014. It’s been a mainstay on my gaming list…
what went wrong with hearthstone’s new reward system
In November 2020, Blizzard revamped Hearthstone‘s reward system in a major way for the first time since the popular card game’s release in 20141. But after the new reward system’s release on 11th November, there was an outcry amongst unhappy…
on slay the spire, progression, and making games more loser-friendly
When we think of what makes games fun, we often think about winning. Conquering a tough level, solving a difficult puzzle, getting to 100% completion or defeating a fearsome boss forms much of our narrative when we talk about why…
