Blizzard's Hearthstone: Building a truly digital card game

Hearthstone's solo adventure is now available. Blizzard Blizzard, makers of wildly successful video games World of Warcraft, Starcraft, and Diablo, shifted speeds earlier this year when it released its own free-to-play digital card game, Hearthstone. Based on the lore of its Warcraft universe, the game is available on Windows, Mac, and iPad.

Last week saw Blizzard wrap up the launch of Curse of Naxxramas, an elaborate solo adventure expansion for Hearthstone giving players a chance to step away from the standard multiplayer focus and into a themed series of battles to test their skills and reward the successful with powerful new cards.

As the launch event drew to a close, CNET had the chance to speak to Hearthstone Senior Game Designer Ben Brode and Lead Artist Ben Thompson, about both the experiences found in the expansion and the wider effort to build a card game that takes full advantage of what you can do when you've created a truly digital deck of cards.

All of Naxxramas is now open, so how does it feel to have it fully released? What's been the reaction so far?

Brode: It feels awesome. I've been really happy with the reaction. I've just had some feedback today about the way people enjoyed the Kel'Thuzad fight