Nerd Reactor's Interview with Magic: Puzzle Quest Designer, JC Frenette

Brigby
Brigby ADMINISTRATORS Posts: 7,757 Site Admin
edited May 2017 in MtGPQ General Discussion
Hi Everyone,

To celebrate the release of Amonkhet, and its upcoming appearance in Magic: Puzzle Quest, Hibernum's designer, JC Frenette, took some time to speak with Nerd Reactor about his experience designing the Amonkhet set for MtGPQ!

Check out the interview here: Interview with JC Frenette, designer of Magic: The Gathering Puzzle Quest

Haven't had the chance to take a look at the Amonkhet set in the upcoming 2.1 update? Well then you can check out all the revealed cards here: Amonkhet Card Set Gallery
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Comments

  • sjechua
    sjechua Posts: 173 Tile Toppler
    edited May 2017
    @Brigby Thanks for correcting the links to the Amonkhet Card Set Gallery.
  • Laeuftbeidir
    Laeuftbeidir Posts: 1,841 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited May 2017
    I find it quite funny that the process of the design and pricing of cards is decripted in detail, but "playtesting" (or customer feedback) isn't mentioned at all. I guess that's what brought us Baral and RishkarsEx.. But to not be too salty: the progress as a whole was interesting to read!

    E: If he has enough time for interviews, why not answer community questions from time to time.. Like in threads he already promised to monitor and answer to :)?
  • Brigby
    Brigby ADMINISTRATORS Posts: 7,757 Site Admin
    @sjechua

    Fixed! Sorry about that. Not sure what happened there.
  • GrizzoMtGPQ
    GrizzoMtGPQ Posts: 776 Critical Contributor
    Ooh, he might spend 5 minutes on a card! What a deliberative process.
  • nexus13
    nexus13 Posts: 191 Tile Toppler
    That article just scares me.  A card he would like to bring into MTGPQ? Shaharazad!  Does he never learn?  Looping and recursion have been some of the biggest problems in this game.  REALLY, REALLY NO.  This should never happen.  

    It's also clear that his 'hardcore paper' players that are advising him need to be replaced.  Every set there are huge misses in intent on cards between paper and PQ, these advisers are not doing a very good job. 
  • EDHdad
    EDHdad Posts: 609 Critical Contributor
    In the early days, I once played Shahrazad, and my opponent cast Fork (making an extra copy of Shahrazad) and someone cast Ali From Cairo in one of the sub-games, and someone else cloned it, and the game lasted like 9 hours.
  • Ohboy
    Ohboy Posts: 1,766 Chairperson of the Boards
    nexus13 said:
    That article just scares me.  A card he would like to bring into MTGPQ? Shaharazad!  Does he never learn?  Looping and recursion have been some of the biggest problems in this game.  REALLY, REALLY NO.  This should never happen.  

    It's also clear that his 'hardcore paper' players that are advising him need to be replaced.  Every set there are huge misses in intent on cards between paper and PQ, these advisers are not doing a very good job. 

    @shteev

    OMG they stole your idea and didn't credit you. 
  • EDHdad
    EDHdad Posts: 609 Critical Contributor
    Or possibly Shteev and the interviewee are the same person. 
  • EDHdad
    EDHdad Posts: 609 Critical Contributor
    @madwren - it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world if we could hide or archive cards, or if we could mark cards as favorites and search just for faves.

    There are quite a few good, playable commons and uncommons, but there are hundreds of others which are pure jank.  Even with rares and mythics, only a relative handful are worth playing, except for some oddball secondary objective or to get Spell Mastery.
  • Ohboy
    Ohboy Posts: 1,766 Chairperson of the Boards
    EDHdad said:
    Or possibly Shteev and the interviewee are the same person. 

    Shteev being JC makes a lot of sense suddenly.
  • GrizzoMtGPQ
    GrizzoMtGPQ Posts: 776 Critical Contributor
    @Lagartha still got that contact at WoTC? What would they make of this insanity? Spending so little time on cards? Neglecting playtesting? Insane common taxes? Someone there would flip out at this nonsense, right? I hope? ????
  • GrizzoMtGPQ
    GrizzoMtGPQ Posts: 776 Critical Contributor
    edited May 2017
    Regression testing via a spreadsheet? That's not something to brag about. This is an extremely ineffective method if you're doing this. How can you ensure anything balances against the previous cards if you design in isolation, neglecting existing cards?

    //Removed Insult -Brigby
  • toastie
    toastie Posts: 119 Tile Toppler
    So the big takeaway here is that this sort of designing is 100% done to maximize profits, fun be damned.
  • jetnoctis
    jetnoctis Posts: 128 Tile Toppler
    So, so much is wrong with this "design philosophy" that I don't even know where to begin. I hate that I like a game made by such people. Your rarity tax is utterly disgraceful. 
  • blacklotus
    blacklotus Posts: 589 Critical Contributor
    whatever i wanted to rant and opined has already been said by everyone before my post. I will continue with my popcorn. 
  • Steeme
    Steeme Posts: 784 Critical Contributor

    JC seems to admit his mistakes and attempt to adapt, which are good qualities.

    Perhaps he doesn't move at the pace the community demands but at least we seem to be moving in the right direction.

  • khurram
    khurram Posts: 1,077 Chairperson of the Boards
    @Azerack Sky sovereign and Heart of Kiran aren't OP. It may appear that way because the PvE events using them have tons of Mana which makes it seem like casting them is a piece of cake. Gonti and Baral have been reworked.