Jhazrun: On Creating Paragon's Ragnaros 2.0

Original Sneak Peek

Hello, Jhazrun. Briefly introduce yourself and your role in Paragon.

 

Glad to be here. I've so far played my priest healer in the guild for a year and a few months, though I first crossed paths with many almost five years ago. I'm not often vocal by contrast, or routinely found in the public eye, but virtuously contribute in my own ways.

 

You designed the Ragnaros encounter for Paragon's April Fool's on your own. Where did you get the idea?

A week ago I was approached with the plan to conduct our yearly April Fool's in this particular flavor of make-believe. No less for the challenge than out of mischief, I pounced for the creative opportunity.

 

How did you feel about creating an encounter from scratch?

Despite not having so much as touched an actual card for almost a decade, I'm an avid Magic: the Gathering enthusiast for the extensive, logic-driven rules system it employs to operate an overwhelming number of scenarios and interactions, as well as for the unparalleled insight of its lead designer's weekly articles.

To me, the Ragnaros 2.0 project was not at all unlike the countless hours I've spent on leisured study and application of game patterns and principles in a number of similar games, World of Warcraft included.

 

On a scale to 10, how difficult did you find the process? Which part do/did you consider the hardest?

I'll go with 9. My task was facilitated by Ragnaros pre-existing as an exceptionally eminent and evocative character with an established setting and story, streamlining the conceptualization of his mechanical elements, such as Sulfuron Strike, the idea of heat, the layout of the area, or the presence of friendly NPCs.

The more demanding creative efforts include - but do not limit to - visual art (diagrams and icon compositions), encounter pacing/phasing (e.g., escalation of tempo, or accounting for theoretic absence of the Heroic-only final phase), thematic synergy (abilities befitting Ragnaros, his various adds, or the individual Heroes of Hyjal all consistently and coherently interacting with each other, for example), and simply playing out the parts of the encounter over and over in one's mind to recognize and remedy instances of dissonance in hypothetical player behavior.

Still, however, a significant portion of the total workload was/is consumed by the laborious, systematic process of building and formatting the foundations of the project's presentation, such as writing tooltips around similar precedents, estimating numerical values, uploading and placing images, or even merely preserving grammatical consistency. None of the groundwork is of notable inspirational worth, and as such I'm inclined to regard it as the most "difficult" element of all to bring to a convincing closure.
 

 

PS: I'm not quite the graphical artist to personally draw a dozen ability icons in anything resembling an agreeable time-frame. In stead, I composed the images around a suitable framework to create original depictions of my own that I do feel turned out fairly clever.
 

 

 

How do you imagine Blizzard employees would think of your work?

It's quite common for professionals in any field of design to personally uphold seemingly draconian policies regarding the reviewing of fan content or suggestions to retain the capacity to fully disclaim any and all connections between their products and the intellectual pseudo-property of outsiders.

While I would value and greatly appreciate the feedback of their unrelated personnel as I do that of anyone else's, I don't have the slightest of expectations to influence the creative processes of upcoming encounters.

 

Do you have any closing words?

Project Ragnaros 2.0 was my own pseudo-artistic sandbox experiment in design. While it's concepted as an April Fool's, I do believe one would do themselves no favors in outright dismissing it on grounds of "not falling for something so obvious". Without doubt the premise of leaking such high-profile content alone is preposterous to begin with, let alone as an independent party with neither the resources nor the official credibility of, say, Blizzard Entertainment themselves.

I do recommend to those who "saw right through it" to take a moment to glance through at the actual article itself. Between the lines of smoke and mirrors there's a non-insignificant number of surprisingly meticulous details and references, including even adapted thermodynamics.

Thank you for the interview and a great portrayal of Ragnaros 2.0, Jhazrun!

'Twas a pleasure.