NBA Hearthstone Cards
As a huge basketball and video games nerd, I wanted to create a mashup of the two things that I know pretty well: the NBA and Hearthstone. In the following imgur album you'll find around 100 cards - around 3 for each team - that either try to be funny, inventive, or have some neat Hearthstone mechanics.
The project took me about 3 days to complete in total. I found that it was actually a bit harder than I originally anticipated - going from ideation to finished product - to complete the project. When I originally had the idea, I quickly jotted down about 20 card ideas for my favorite players. However being the completionist that I am, I decided to do at least 3 for every team. The class boarders for each card are for design purposes (read: color coordination) only, but the "Tribe" for each player - Point Guard, Shooting Guard, Power Forward, Center, etc - have some gameplay implications. There's a few non-player summons that I created as well.
Out of all of them, there's a few that I'm most proud of, which I'll detail below.
Steph Curry was the first one that I had thought of, since one of the enduring memes on /r/nba is about the Warriors losing 3-1 in the finals (Did you know that? It's true). Besides the stat line, the card's ability relates to Curry's ability to knock down 3's in rapid succession. I thought it was neat, so I started a Google Doc with all my ideas and went to work.
My second creation, surprisingly, was for Robin Lopez. It's pretty well known that Robin has a palpable disdain for NBA Mascots and I thought that the flavor was there. Although the card creates a benefit for your opponent, the Mascot's Deathrattle creates an intriguing situation for both players to consider.
I felt bad about designing this one. Honestly, I did. However, the opportunity was too great and my will was too weak. Comedy ensued. Besides the easy joke, I thought this card is pretty reflective of the career that Rose has had. It's essentially a 5/5 for 3 Mana, which starts out very strong, but upon getting destroyed there comes a downside - as evidenced by the Mana Wraith like ability text on the "Hobbled Derrick Rose" summon. When he goes down, he goes down hard.
This whole project was done as an exercise and practice. I currently have an idea for a basketball video game that I'm putting on paper, so this was a nice diversion. Translating an established IP - such as the sport of basketball and player stats/personalities - into a video game context was a challenge, but an enjoyable one.
Things I learned from this project:
- Finishing projects that you're excited about can be difficult - no matter the subject matter.
- Inspiration comes from weird places.
- Translating IP doesn't need to be a 1-to-1 translation. It's better to choose a few mechanics and focus on those.