How Heroes Of Newerth MOBA Is Making Its Comeback
Kongor Studios' Nick "BreakyCPK" Caras spoke about Heroes of Newerth: Reborn, explaining how they revived the 2010 game, which elements were kept from the original and which ones are new, and shared how the beta phase has been helpful for the development.
For players who remember Heroes of Newerth and for those discovering it for the first time, how would you describe the core vision behind Heroes of Newerth Reborn?
The core vision behind HoN Reborn is reimagining this influential and skill-driven MOBA that had a passionate community who appreciated the speed and competitiveness of the game, one that wasn't afraid to take itself seriously and was certainly ahead of its time in several aspects.
We have rebuilt this experience with improved visuals and audio, enhanced network technology, and smoother overall performance while still preserving the intensity that players have come to expect with Heroes of Newerth.
What were the biggest technical challenges involved in reviving and modernizing a legacy multiplayer game like HoN for today's audience?
The video game industry has continued to evolve greatly over the past 10 years, let alone 5 years, and we absolutely considered it part of the evolution when creating HoN Reborn. A great example of this would be the game design itself, specifically the flow of the game and the economy within. HoN in its past was known for being much more "hardcore" when it comes to several roles, specifically support, in which you would be expected to sacrifice yourself for the good of the team and your core player.
There is certainly still an audience for this, but the general landscape among other MOBAs such as LoL and Dota 2 has ensured such roles aren't delegated to feeling that way and instead given the opportunity to feel powerful and impactful to an appropriate point. We admittedly did overcompensate a bit much earlier on in the project, and after some valuable community feedback, we toned it down a bit; however, it is still much more forgiving than it used to be for such roles.
How did the team decide which parts of the original Heroes of Newerth experience needed to be preserved exactly, and which areas needed to evolve?
When reviving a game such as Heroes of Newerth that had great success and a passionate community, there were many topics discussed internally about what we should improve upon to help modernize the game while still keeping as much of its strong roots as possible. Some easier decisions came to a conclusion much more quickly than others, including improved visuals and how the matchmaking experience would look; however, gameplay-impactful changes certainly brought more debate.
When it came to game design, we had a strong vision of what to change for improvements; however, we understood that the community through our beta would be the ultimate judge of what works and what doesn't. For example, the gold economy in the game and the pace to acquire "farm" and relevant items for the match, we went with a more friendly and easily attainable pace to allow all players in the match, no matter their role, to feel impactful.
However, it became evident pretty quickly in our beta that many who were playing preferred more towards the “hardcore” experience of it being more difficult to attain such gold, so we made adjustments, and through feedback mixed with our own philosophy, we have come to a great middle ground that the majority of players enjoy now.
HoN has always had a reputation as a highly competitive and mechanically demanding MOBA. How are you approaching onboarding and UX improvements without diluting that identity?
We appreciate the fact that Heroes of Newerth has such a reputation and wanted to respect that when it came to creating HoN Reborn. When it comes to the UX, we kept similar "darker" colors and themes and even kept iconic sounds and music, including the banjo that plays when you close the game! But we also wanted to make it clear that HoN Reborn is a new game, not just a remake of HoN from the past, and so we did create new elements that fit the theme of Reborn appropriately.
When it comes to onboarding players, we have really three groups of players that we have had to consider… the first being players who played HoN previously, the second group being new to HoN but avid players in Dota 2 and/or League of Legends, and the third group being completely new to the genre. We created an initial tutorial with this in mind, with information presented depending on which category you selected to provide the most reasonable experience possible, considering the player's past.
With that all in mind, though, our mentality on new players wanting to play HoN is like it has always been, and that is it won't be for everyone, and we can't show and teach you everything up front. There will be an expected learning curve, even for veteran players of the past, and that is ok.
The team includes longtime community veterans as well as original HoN developers. How has that mix of perspectives shaped the revival?
You are correct; we have had a great roster of people working on this project, from those like myself who were a part of the original HoN and S2 Games, to those who came from the community. It was important to have a blend of both for HoN Reborn to generate new ideas and evolve from where we have been in the past.
What have you learned from the open beta period so far, and how has community feedback changed your priorities for Season 1?
The alpha and beta phases have been absolutely crucial in the development of HoN Reborn, and we have improved a lot as a result of them. From constant daily discussions in our Discord with community members to surveys we would send out to the wider community, we have made some crucial changes to our initial design philosophies. Of course, it is important to value our own design and decision-making, but ultimately, if the community disagrees on something, you need to consider that greatly, as creating a fun and engaging game is the most important task at the end of the day.
As for some specifics we have, we have made adjustments to the game economy as mentioned earlier, as well as our rewards system, specifically PLINKO. The community has made a strong point that how we were handling rewards for players wasn't satisfactory, and as a result, we have some bigger changes coming to it, including some more control of rewards and what you can earn.
With ranked seasons and a planned $100K tournament on the horizon, what are your goals for rebuilding HoN’s competitive ecosystem?
Heroes of Newerth as an esports and competitive game is something that we have always embraced and still feel like we were ahead of our time with the implementation of HoN Tour back in the early 2010's. Our vision and embrace of a competitive scene have not changed, and it is one of the main reasons why we wanted to make a point of our plans to host a $100k tournament. We have already been hosting several tournaments throughout the beta, including our latest one at the end of June, to not only begin fostering the scene but also provide further feedback as we prepare for our big tournament to come.
Looking beyond launch, what would success look like for Heroes of Newerth Reborn as both a revival of a cult classic and a modern MOBA built for a new era?
Our studio is made up of passionate gamers who appreciate HoN for what it was and are thrilled to be working on the project for HoN Reborn and bring it into this new era. As for success, an active player base and consistent growth over time will help gauge that, but I will say we are also being realistic that there are even more MOBA games nowadays, as well as Dota 2 and League of Legends being the juggernauts that they are. Creating a game that will interest players in the genre and not only get them to check it out, but prefer to play over the competition would be a great start, but only time will tell!
