Slightly more than a week has passed since the release of *Hearthstone: Across The Timeways*. Blizzard introduced some bold new mechanics into the latest expansion for its long-running digital card game, with one of the biggest ideas being Fabled cards. These cards bring three special synergy cards into a player’s deck for every class, differing from the Legendary cards that players typically expect in Hearthstone.
While every Fabled keyword provided three cards per class, there was one notable exception: the Warlock. The Warlock received a special Fabled+ card designed after Hearthstone’s most recognizable villain, Rafaam. The 10-Cost Timethief Rafaam adds 10 extra cards into a player’s deck and stands out as one of the most unique concepts to come to Hearthstone in recent times. Developers like Senior Game Designer Stephen Chang and UI/UX Designer Sola Chang expressed pride in this creation.
“I think Rafaam didn’t change that much from initial conception,” Stephen Chang told Shacknews. “We had the idea of doing Rafaam fairly early on, and we knew we wanted Rafaam to be Fabled+. Most of the changes during final design were about making some of the specific Rafaams more playable and stronger. Because the deck grows to a size of 40, we needed to ensure you had enough strong plays to reach the end game. So we juiced up some of the Rafaams along the way, but holistically, most of the designs stayed the same.”
The ten Rafaams all have different power levels, but intriguingly, their Cost, Attack, and Health values are identical. This design left room for experimentation with their effects, which led to some minor tweaks.
“A few of them we modified slightly to be a bit more generically playable,” Chang added. “I think one of the Discover ones was changed, and then we gave [Mindflayer R’faam], which summons a copy, Taunt to give it more board presence. But overall, it’s a testament to the initial design team. Many of the designs went through the entire process with minimal modification, which is rare. We had a lot of good initial ideas about the types of mechanics we wanted to highlight these characters with, and much of the essence of those designs stayed true throughout the set.”
Playing all of the Rafaams triggers a final Battlecry from the 10-Cost Timethief Rafaam, which destroys the enemy hero and usually ends the game. While Rafaam’s game-ending effect feels special, there was a time when he wasn’t the only character with such power. The Rogue was close to gaining a similar effect with the 4-Cost Garona Halforcen.
“Garona used to also destroy the hero, but we didn’t like that the damage the Rogue dealt throughout the game wouldn’t have as much impact,” Stephen Chang explained. “We wanted it to be more impactful so that as you dealt damage during the game, you could still get that bonus effect on top. So a few outputs did change, but for Rafaam, the effect was always to destroy the enemy hero.”
Currently, the Hearthstone player base is in the process of exploring the new meta introduced by the expansion. Blizzard also offered a sneak peek at the new Rewind mechanic, which allows for second-chance effects on specific cards. This effect complements the heroic Keeper of Time Chromie well, though the visual flair initially led to longer turn times—a concern Blizzard addressed before the expansion’s launch.
“The reason we have the Rewind animation is not only to connect it to the fantasy, but also due to technical implementation that requires covering the screen while we reset the board to undo actions,” said Sola Chang. “We put a lot of work into making it as efficient as possible. We read and heard many community comments and players’ feedback, so the engineering team and many game developers collaborated to create a faster experience. We definitely have some updates coming soon to speed up that animation, and we’re super excited for players to enjoy the improved Rewind effect.”
With these innovations and ongoing improvements, *Hearthstone: Across The Timeways* continues to push the boundaries of gameplay while listening closely to its dedicated community.
https://www.shacknews.com/article/146793/hearthstone-across-the-timeways-developer-interview
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