Interview: Celebrating Hearthstone at the Warcraft 30 World Tour with Brendan Sewell

The Warcraft 30 World Tour event in Toronto was a celebration of milestones featuring 30 years of Warcraft, 20 years of World of Warcraft, and over a decade of Hearthstone. Players from around the world gathered at a downtown tavern while sipping Horde and Alliance-themed drinks, admiring cosplays of the Dragon Aspects and iconic characters, plus sharing stories as heroes of Azeroth. The event was the perfect backdrop to reflect on Hearthstone's journey, and esports.gg sat down with Hearthstone lead game designer Brendan Sewell to talk about the game's growth, impact, and future!

When Hearthstone was first released, it had the "Heroes of Warcraft" tagline, and over the years, it has stayed true to that theme with familiar favorites such as Thrall, Jaina, Illidan, and so on. However, the game has also brought in heroes from retail World of Warcraft, beloved StarCraft characters, as well as Hearthstone originals like Elise and Guff. In his interview with esports.gg, Sewell revealed that Hearthstone's growth has exceeded all expectations.

"It's been a remarkable journey of growth that's exceeded all of our expectations from when we started off this small, experimental game to share the world of Azeroth with more players, as you were describing," Sewell said. "We've been pretty experimental over the years in terms of expanding that scope over time and trying new things — whether that's new game modes that you see with the explosive growth of Battlegrounds, introducing some of our own unique characters, [or] even our recent expansion into new worlds and bringing in Starcraft in there."

Sewell shared a nostalgic moment with esports.gg as well. He recalled the original release of Hearthstone in 2014, and although he wasn't working at Blizzard at the time, the game left a significant impact on him. In particular, he remembered unpacking Ragnaros, the Firelord, and achieving lethal in a match. After that, he was locked in.

"I remember that that first month when it was released, one of the first legendary cards that I ended up unpacking was Ragnaros, Fire Lord," he said. "And the moment where Hearthstone like really clicked for me as a player was that [moment] of top-decking Ragnaros, slamming it on the board, hoping and praying for that one in eight chance that it's gonna hit the face, and getting that lucky draw of the Fireball to the face. At that moment, [it] clicked for me — not just in terms of it being a fun expression of gameplay, but also, 'Oh, this is doing something different from my tabletop card playing days. This is really embracing the digital format in a way that feels fundamentally new.'"

Sewell then detailed his love for how Hearthstone continues to weave Azeroth's lore and characters into the game through artwork, voiceovers, special effects, engineering, and design. When all these elements come together, they create a wonderful experience. He revealed that Voyage to the Sunken City is one of his favorite expansions because of this. Its undersea theme, combined with the visuals, characters, and mechanics like Dredge and Colossal, have great synergy.

In the interview, Sewell went into what has contributed to Hearthstone's longevity. After all, Hearthstone been a game that delighted players for over 10 years for a reason. He pointed out two key factors. One of them is the game's early design decisions focused on accessibility such as simple card text and a smooth onboarding experience for new players. The other one is the introduction of mechanics like Discovery in the League of Explorers expansion. Discovery was initially an experiment. However, it later became a core part of the game's identity.

Sewel then shared a story from BlizzCon about a player meeting their life partner through a Hearthstone esports event.

"They were sharing the story [about] how they had met their life partner through an esports event in Hearthstone," he said. "That kind of story — where the tavern that we're inviting people into isn't just a static place where you're going and playing games, having engaging gameplay moments, overcoming your opponents, and [outsmarting] them — [it's] this chance to build a really social relationship with the people around you in this shared expression of [our passion for] the same game."

Sewell added that he resonates with that story because Hearthstone itself has played a role in building his own relationships and career. As a longtime Warcraft player turned developer, he now sees Hearthstone as a way to introduce Azeroth to even more folks.

Speaking of introducing Azeroth to others, Sewell noted how every Hearthstone expansion has brought familiar areas and characters — such as Ragnaros mentioned earlier on — to life with whimsy and humor. This approach extends to gameplay as well. For example, Imbue from the upcoming Into the Emerald Dream expansion is reminiscent of the older Inspire keyword.

In terms of what Sewell hopes to see in the future of Hearthstone, he told esports.gg that there are untapped possibilities related to The Great Dark Beyond expansion.

"For me, my kind of genre of choice when I read fiction or engage in games is sci-fi," he said. "And so I was really excited by The Great Dark Beyond. which we recently released, and players have been loving to express it that way. There are some other untapped wells in that space that I think we have an opportunity to lean into in the future, as well as we look at this fusion of fantasy science and technology — even as expressed in Azeroth. So I don't think we're quite done in that space yet. There might be more to come."

As for parting words, Sewell said that he's excited for players to engage in the Into the Emerald Dream expansion. This expansion is set to launch on March 25, but even before that, players can open card packs during the pre-release Tavern Brawl.

"Personally, I'm excited for Imbue Hunter," he said. "[It's] going to be a really fun 'value town' kind of experience that we're excited for players to engage in. I can't wait to join everybody in the tavern."

Are you excited about Hearthstone's Into the Emerald Dream expansion in patch 32.0? Stick around on esports.gg for more interviews, news, and updates!