Hearthstone: Designing Reno and the Golden Monkey
Hearthstone’s newest adventure - The League of Explorers – introduced 45 new cards to the game, but it has been the legendary cards in that set, that have had the biggest impact on how Hearthstone is played. Reno Jackson, in particular, has created all new archetypes and significantly altered the pace of gameplay. I caught up with Hearthstone's Senior Game Designer Ben Brode and Associate Designer Dean Ayala to chat about the process of designing those cards.
IGN: The League of Explorers’ legendary cards have had a big impact on the way Hearthstone is played – it’s an incredibly strong set. I want to go through them card by card, but first of all, from a broader perspective when you were starting the design process, did you have any particular character archetypes in mind that specifically fit the League of Explorers pulp adventure theme? In other words, did you start with the flavour of the legendaries first or the abilities?
2K Extends WWE License in ‘Multi-Year’ Deal
2K Games and WWE will continue their licensing agreement for years to come, according to both companies. Financial details of the deal have not been disclosed.
Long-time developer Yuke's began working on the series in 2000 — at first under THQ, and then with 2K and its studio Visual Concepts three years ago. Their first, collaborative dip into the series was WWE 2K14.
In addition to the regular console franchise 2K stressed it will continue to invest in WWE SuperCard, the card-battling game developed by Cat Daddy Games studio. WWE SuperCard has been downloaded more than nine million times on mobile devices.
The latest WWE game has received a mixed response, though IGN's own WWE 2K16 review was distinctly positive.
Only 5% of Developers Working On a Wii U Game, Survey Says
The Game Developers Conference has released its State of the Industry Report, laying out development trends ahead of its annual conference. Survey says that PC games are in, and Wii U is out.
PC games continue to lead the industry, with 52 percent of surveyed developers working on PC games. They're followed closely by mobile, with PlayStation 4 and Xbox One rounding out the stats. PlayStation 4 is the only console to have increased its development numbers since last year, though only by a few percent.
Developer interest in Nintendo platforms, the GDC survey says, has been declining. Just 5 percent of developers surveyed are working on Wii U titles, with 3 percent bringing a game to the Nintendo 3DS. The Nintendo NX fairs even worse, with less than 1 percent of respondents working on a game for the unannounced platform.
Star Wars: Episode 9 to Shoot on Film Not Digital
Jurassic World director Colin Trevorrow won't use digital cameras when filming Star Wars - Episode IX.
During a press conference at the Sundance Film Festival (via Variety) Trevorrow announced plans to use film stock when shooting the highly anticipated space epic, jokingly saying, "It’s a period film. It happened a long time ago."
Interstellar director Christopher Nolan was also in attendance, taking the opportunity to defend the use of film and shoot down the notion that digital is the way of the future. "There needs to be a choice," Nolan said. "As a medium it will continue to exist. It has to continue to exist. It’s pointless to pretend it has to go away."
Kim Basinger Joins Fifty Shades of Grey Sequel
Kim Basinger (L.A. Confidential, 8 Mile) has been cast in the upcoming Fifty Shades of Grey sequel, Fifty Shades Darker. Basinger is the first new cast member Universal Pictures has announced for the sequel.
According to Variety, Basinger will play Elena Lincoln, also known as Mrs. Robinson, a key character from the books who played a pivotal role in Christian Grey's (Jamie Dornan) teenage years.
The Fifty Shades of Grey sequel won't be Basinger's first risque film; the actress previously starred in 9 1/2 Weeks, a film about a woman involved in a sadomasochistic affair.
House of Cards Renewed for Season 5 as Showrunner Departs
House of Cards is coming back for a fifth season in 2017, but creator and showrunner Beau Willimon will not.
According to Variety, Netflix has renewed the drama and Kevin Spacey will reprise his role as Frank Underwood for Season Five. However, showrunner Willimon said it was time for him to “move on.”
“After five years and four seasons, it’s time for me to move on to new endeavors, but I’m supremely proud of what we’ve built together, wish the show much continued success, and leave it in the hands of a very capable team,” Willimon said in a statement.
How Grimm Turned Juliette From a Villain To Something New
Spoilers for Grimm: Season 5 continue below.
Bitsie Tulloch is back on Grimm, but she's not playing Juliette. Now she's Eve.
The actress, who portrayed the veterinarian who went from Nick's (David Giuntoli) love interest to the show's Hexenbiest Big Bad, hopped on the phone to discuss her return to the NBC drama. Though Juliette was seemingly killed in the Season 4 finale, she popped up again in the Season 5 midseason finale with a new platinum bob wig and an impressive control of her powers.
The return of Tulloch to Grimm was a tightly-kept secret on the production. The intent was always to make fans think that Juliette was gone for good, but showrunners Jim Kouf and David Greenwalt knew from the get-go how and why they would be bringing Tulloch back.
Beyond Good & Evil 2 Still Happening, Says Ancel
Beyond Good & Evil 2 ain't no Half-Life 3.
This is according to Beyond Good & Evil creator Michel Ancel during Double Fine's latest "Dev's Play" episode. While Ancel doesn't explicitly confirm or deny its existence, he talks about it in the present tense when Double Fine's Greg Rice asks after the sequel.
"That's the problem,
no choice," said Ancel. "
has to be great. When we started
there was not that much pressure. People are - the crazy thing is that
was really not that successful and nobody talked about the game...and now, year after year, more and more people are talking about
13 Million Copies of Star Wars Battlefront Shipped
Star Wars Battlefront has managed to exceed Electronic Arts' expectations, with over 13 million copies shipped since its launch in November.
The publisher shared the news in its Q3 financial report for the 2016 fiscal year. It's important to note this figure specifically refers to the number of copies sold-in to retailers and not through to consumers.
Electronic Arts was initially aiming to ship 10 million units by the end of March 2016 but increased its projection to 13 million back in October, just a few weeks ahead of the game's November 17 release.
How The Division Will Avoid the Let-downs of Destiny 1.0
In the lead-up to Destiny, the rhetoric around the upcoming Bungie title was, well, garbled. Bungie didn’t want to call it an MMO, but nor was it a straight shooter or an online RPG. It was both solo and co-op, but it also had a competitive environment. In retrospect, this lack of clarity was most likely because there wasn’t an easy way to label the game: calling it any one of those things sold Destiny short on the breadth of other genres which were part of the game’s DNA.
Destiny 1.0, or Destiny Year One as it’s otherwise known, ultimately proved to be a victim of its hype. While it certainly fused first-person shooter, RPG, open-world, co-op, competitive and MMO-lite genres into a single package, the sum of its parts wasn’t particularly strong. While that’s been addressed to a certain extent with Destiny 2.0, aka The Taken King expansion, the gripes with launch Destiny have paved the way for other titles looking to enter the new sub-sub-sub-genre Bungie’s ambitious game created to easily differentiate.