How Blizzard is taking Hearthstone forward, starting with Curse of Naxxramas

In part two of our interview with Hearthstone executive producer Hamilton Chu, we asked him about motivations behind picking Naxxramas for the game’s first solo adventure, and what we can expect moving forward with Hearthstone.

At Blizzard Entertainment, Chu’s many duties include being responsible for the strategic planning and business operations of Hearthstone as well as managing the creative development department. In other words, Chu’s the perfect guy to weigh in on what’s in store for the game we’ve come to love.

Have at it, card sharks!

Why Naxxramas?

The Naxxramas raid was chosen to be the first solo adventure for Hearthstone because of two things, the first of which was an “old affection for Naxx.”

A bunch of us played [the raid in] World of Warcraft and had a lot of fun memories. It’s such a cool place, full of flavor; Kel’thuzad is such a great character, [and] the bosses are all so interesting. That matches really well with what we wanted to do with Hearthstone.

Chu shared that the Hearthstone development team also wanted to explore the Deathrattle mechanic, an ability certain cards have that triggers upon their destruction. The morbid pre-requisite for Deathrattle, combined with the ghoulish setting of Naxxramas, turned out to be a great way to do that. I mean, can you imagine the Deathrattle mechanic heavily in use for a Zul’gurub raid? No. Players who’ve already fought their way through the recently-opened Plague quarter will probably be able to attest to just how much that mechanic features in it, and how well it does.

But World of Warcraft players will also know—the world of Azeroth is stuffed full of lore. How Chu and his team managed to whittle down the choices to Naxxramas, when there are just as many raids and locales that could have fit the bill? Icecrown Citadel, or just anything from the snow-battered centre of Northrend, would have sufficed quite nicely.

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Chu said that it was easy to decide, since everyone had played Warcraft for years. “It’s very easy to start a conversation with each other about what locations were our personal favorites,” he added. He also shared his favorite raid with us: Ulduar! Perhaps that will be the next solo adventure?