game analysis Hearthstone

Genre

Hearthstone is a card game, and it achieves this through a simpler and more accessible style than in other card games, as instead of complicated attacking rules and cards, there are only spells and minions. It shows the stylistic conventions of the genre by having a system where you could either buy packs of new cards with in game currency, or real life currency. Also there are different "rarities" with cards being worth more the rarer it is. It sits well within this genre as Hearthstone is one of the most popular card games, even being played by a large amount of mobile device users.

Narrative

The story that is being told through the game is that you are a traveller in the World of Warcraft universe and you happen to wander in to a tavern with an Innkeeper. They are playing a game called Hearthstone and you happen to join in. From there it plays out without much of a coherent story, mostly the game is based around gameplay and characters borrowed from WoW's universe. The story informs the gameplay by each card having a different affect based on the character which the card is based off of as well as having different classes that are from the WoW universe. Also each class has heroes that are prominent characters from WoW. This makes it so people who know the characters from WoW will have a better understanding of the game while also being more enjoyable. Also the story of the game naturally caters to fans of WoW, and will attract fans of it better than other people as its an offshoot of the story of WoW.

Produced

The game was produced by Blizzard Entertainment, the game was made with features such as things like a ranking system to enhance the game by making it more playable, as well as an arena mode, where you choose from 3 cards 30 times to make a deck and then go against opponents who did the same. You can win up to 12 times with increasingly larger rewards, but if you lose 3 times the arena ends and you gain a reward based on how many wins you have. Things such as animations and sounds are added to the game when certain cards are played to enhance the gameplay and make players want those cards more. This also means players might want to spend real money on the game to get the card quicker rather than waiting.

Characterisation

Characters are only relevant to the audience if they have played WoW, as all the characters are borrowed from it. If they did play WoW, they might have an attachment to a specific card or hero. Otherwise players won't have much of an idea who each character is. The game is not based around characters, more about the gameplay of playing cards and killing your opponent who is usually a player.

Gameplay

The goal of the game is to kill your opponent before he kills you, to do this you both have 30 cards that you have chosen to put into a given deck before starting a match. You start with 4 cards and draw a card randomly from your deck each turn. A card costs mana, and the more powerful the card, the more mana it costs. You start off with 1 mana, and with each turn you gain 1 more up to a total of 10. Each player starts at 30 health, and when drops to 0 dies. This creates a challenge as you have to make your deck well and play it well against an opponent who may have a better deck than you or is better at the game than you. Also certain decks fair better against others, as usually each deck is made with a purpose. For example a deck may have a lot of low cost cards that are there to rush down you opponent, or your deck may have a lot of large minions and spells that kill weak minions to beat someone out later in the game, while still staying alive early. The game is easily accessible but can become extremely complex as you continue to play, as you learn what cards counter what and which cards are better in different situations. Also what cards and type of decks are popular at the time is important too, as it could affect what cards you put in your deck and how you play against people. Gameplay consistently evolves by people creating new decks, while Blizzard adds more cards to the game every 6 months, keeping the game fresh. This makes it so the gameplay is never stagnant and new decks will always pop up that you will have to learn to play against.

Target audience

The target audience would be people who enjoy card games, as well as people who play WoW, as Hearthstone takes all its ideas and inspiration from it. The game caters to people who play card games by adding in different cards with different effects, that do different things when played. This keeps it interesting and different for people who have played a lot of card games before.

Platform

Hearthstone is available on PC, Mac and mobile devices. This is because card games generally cant be played that well on consoles due to the controls, and card games tend to be a casual game that suits people who paly on mobile devices.