Development[edit]

From the beginning, the game was designed to be played solely online and to mimic the feel of physical cards; the game starts with the player opening a box, during gameplay the cards waver and move while in their hand, and cards when played slam down on the board. When attacking, card leap across the board to strike the target; when a massive spike of damage is dealt, the board shakes; when a massive creature is summoned, an unseen audience gasps in awe. Hearthstone also offers interactive boards, a new feature among CCGs. The boards on which the cards played can be interacted with in various ways, although the feature is purely for entertainment and has no effect [9] upon gameplay. Hearthstone is a free-to-play game supported by the purchase of booster packs and Arena Mode [2] entries. Furthermore, unlike other card games, Hearthstone does not use a trading card system and instead allows players to 'disenchant' cards into a form of currency called arcane dust, which can then be used to 'craft' cards of the player's choice. Blizzard has experimented with cross-platform play, having successfully played a game on PC [5] against a player on an iPad; however, it has not been decided if this will be a feature at launch. The developers have also revealed that they are working on 'adventures', new single-player game modes featuring "boss" fights. Adventures will offer rewards in the form of new cards, with each adventure introducing 10-20 new cards to the game. Expansion packs are also planned for the future, featuring [10][11][12] 100-200 new cards, as well as serving to introduce new features.

Sound[edit]
Soundtrack is composed by Peter McConnell and trailer music by Jason Hayes.

Release[edit]
Hearthstone was first announced at Penny Arcade Expo in March 2013 for Windows, Mac, and iPad, [13][14] with a release date of the same year. In August 2013, the game went into closed beta, to which [11] over 1 million players had been invited as of November 8, 2013, with plans to enter open beta in [15][16][17] December. Blizzard later announced that it would continue closed beta into 2014 despite their [18] [19] original estimation. Blizzard announced open beta for North America on January 21, 2014. Open [20] beta was announced for Europe on January 22, 2014 and on January 23, 2014 it was made [21] available in all regions. Plans to release on Android and iPhone were announced in November 2013, with a release date [22] sometime in the second half of 2014.

Competition[edit]
Despite the designers' focus on accessibility and fast-paced gameplay, Hearthstone has already been the focus of a number of tournaments. Blizzard themselves hosted an exhibition tournament in [23] November 2013 called "The Innkeeper's Invitational", featuring pro-gamers such as Dan "Artosis" Stemkoski, Octavian "Kripparrian" Morosan, Jeffrey "TrumpSC" Shih and popular streamer and World [24] of Warcraft multiple Arena season winner Byron "Reckful" Bernstein. In December 2013 2P Entertainment hosted a huge tournament with a prize pool of 30,000 RMB (about 4,841 US dollars) featuring the best players of the Chinese server versus the best players of the American [25] [26] [27] server. Major League Gaming and ESL both continue to regularly host minor leagues featuring Hearthstone with small or no prizepools aimed at everyday players.

Hearthstone was the focus of a number of tournaments during its closed beta, including those hosted by Major League Gaming and ESL. Blizzard "were a little surprised, in a good way" with the game's [10] success as an eSport during its closed beta.