by YouTube channel Stephen Buonocore performed during Gen Con 2022 a live interview with Doug Hopkins, better known later as "WanderingMonster" in Discord. At the time of interview, Doug was the principal game designer of HeroQuest remake's products.
The interview with Doug Hopkins can be found in Stephen Buonocore's YouTube channel "The Podfather of Gaming" here, however, I took the licence of transcripting it on this post for eternity... nevertheless of course I encourage you to watch the full video if you are interested in listening to Doug.
Thanks to Stephen Buonocore for performing this great interview.
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INTERVIEW WITH DOUG HOPKINS by Stephen Buonocore, published the 15th of August 2022 at his YouTube channel, @PodfatherGaming
- Stephen Buonocore "The Podfather of Gaming" (SB): Hey everybody, Stephen Buonocore "The Podfather of Gaming", and I'm here again with members of the Hasbro Avalon Hill team because they're doing some unbelievable stuff in the hobby game space now. Yesterday it was for you guys, it'll probably be three many days later when you see this video, I was speaking to Craig Van Ness, who brought back with the Hasbro team Heroscape and I called that the single most important announcement at Gen Con, the bringing back of heroes game, but now I got Doug Hopkins, who's part of the entire Avalon Hill team, and he's doing so many interesting things. I wanted to bring him into an interview as well, so Doug first of all thank you so much for being part of this, I really appreciate it, I have a small but very influential audience out there who want to know what Hasbro Avalon Hill is doing in the hobby gaming space, so recently you guys brought back Hero Quest, so tell me about how this actually ended up coming back, and the fact that you didn't just bring it back, you're now going to stay with this system pretty heavily because you've got stuff here that nobody's ever seen until this show as well, what's going on how did this thing, how did this come back? what was the brain job behind bringing it all back?
Doug Hopkins "Wandering Monster" (DH): There was a small group of passionate gamers inside of Hasbro that poured their heart and soul into this game and we're able to crowdsource this to have the Pulse platform, and I think we just proved to ourselves and to our friends.
SB: And you gotta prove it to the upper management that, wow hobby gamers have got money and they really wanted this back, so what was your involvement directly, like did you do the extra development on some of these new things, that I'm seeing over here, some of these new expansions?
DH: Yeah, we work of course as a team to bring all of those to the market, of course we have got engineers and writers and designers that make sure that the componentry is modern and it has the quality that Hasbro requires, but also that the industry, and the customers, and the people, and gamers, and us passionate fans want this game to have.
SB: That's awesome, so right over here we see several new items for this game that now have come out, that are coming out post the Pulse, post the delivery of all the stuff from Pulse, so what are the ones that you've got out here, and if you can to the extent that you can, when will the gamers see those in stores and for actual ordering?
DH: Awesome, so Frozen Horror I know is one of our major requests and that's out right now. Frozen Horror, the frozen heart people are really excited about this, we're seeing a lot of great and positive feedback on that launch, that just launched, we've got a pre-order up right now for the Rogue Heir of Elethorn, which is a an all-new Hero that we design, that you can add to your collection, and can go on these Quests, and of course we've announced the pre-order for Mage of the Mirror, which is an old beloved classic, again that people have been clamoring for, it wasn't originally when it came out available worldwide, so now everyone's going to be able to get it.
SB: So each one of these things are actually parts of the game that you actually had out when it first came out, but now you're bringing them back.
DH: Some of the expansions yes, but the Heroes that we've designed are all completely new.
SB: That's pretty cool.
DH: We designed them from scratch based on what we saw that people wanted.
SB: That's great.
DH: Hopefully they love it and let us know always if you love what we're putting out or if you've got criticism let us know what you want and we're listening, and we want to bring it to you.
SB: I think the one of the big takeaways from both, my interview with Craig, and with you Doug, is that Hasbro really is saying "well, we don't have to sell a million copies of every game, we can sell these bigger games at much bigger price points, and address a market that we've really ignored for years", I mean Avalon Hill was a hobby game company, you guys kind of put it to the side, but now you're able to address this board game market which has expanded like crazy, and you're going to be bringing back great and interesting games like this, and keeping them alive going forward. I think that's a fantastic idea.
DH: This whole team is excited to continue to work on these games and bring them to you. We would do that for as long as you want to play them, we want to make them.
SB: Great and then I want to mention that this is also shipped and I own a copy where am I right there Betrayal at House on the Hill, always been one of my favorite games, thematic amazing, immersive experience, but the original rules and haunts and stuff sometimes broke down the classic underground, all the water is on the roof, I mean it was a mistake, but they went with it and they figured out an FAQ to how it worked, but this game, this third edition, and I've got this right out of Pulse, so I received it... I don't know, a month or so ago, I thought it was basically going to be the same game with just a little more, maybe putting all the FAQ in there and making it a little more streamlined, however it's not because I just played the game today, Paula and I and a bunch of people we just played this, it's completely redone, so there are mechanical tweaks, but there are fifty, 5-0, new horns in the game, and the way the haunts are triggered are new, so what was the... I don't know, the impetus to saying like this is one we have to also bring back, and you had some direct work on this game as well, didn't you? tell me a little bit about this history.
DH: So for this game we recruited like an amazing team of designers and writers like a really special group to bring
unique perspectives and terrifying new tales, and to fix some of the problems that you might have seen or in the past, some of those problems, of course a beloved like the pool on the roof, as we say those true fans actually love that, like some of those mistakes, it's become very endearing to them, but this game, of course fifty new haunts, all new stories, all new characters, those mechanical tweaks, and we'll be supporting this with expansions going forward, and we just we can't wait to show you what we've got.
SB: And you're even showing one of the expansions off here, at least in the box you're showing it, it's called Blood on the Moon.
DH: Yeah, here you can see the cover for the convention for the comic that's included in that. Blood on the Moon has a scenario of five new haunts that introduces us to Sarah, and Sarah's a werewolf. She'll start the house as one of you, and then when the heart triggers she becomes a werewolf, you turn her card over, she's got new stats to replace her figure with a werewolf figure, and sometimes Sarah's your friend and she helps you out, and sometimes Sarah's really not your friend anymore.
SB: That's great, and again I'm hoping that you've got a timeline of other things that you can be putting back into this world, I think that would be great if that's the case. Anything you can tell me, without really releasing it, I know lots of secrets and stuff like that, but can you tell me this won't be the last in the line, or will, or can you say anything about that?
DH: I can't say that, we're excited to bring back new things to this game. We've been working with great partners and we hope you love what the stories we're telling, and if you want more of this product, let us know that you want more of this product.
SB: Hasbro is a little closed lift, but I apply them with alcohol once in a while, I might be able to get more stuff out of them [Laughs] but hey Doug, thank you. So anything else you know I should ask you? other stuff that you've worked on? because you've been with Hasbro a long time, isn't that right?
DH: No i'm actually pretty new to the team.
SB: Oh, you're a new guy on the team like Craig, right, okay.
DH: But it's been a couple years, but I would say if I have one parting thought is that you fans keep these brands alive, and we're just excited that you've done that, and I'm excited to bring these stories to you, and salute to the fans.
SB: Great, well, thank you so much Doug for having this little conversation with me, and taking your time showing the fans these great games that are coming out. Stephen Buonocore "The Podfather of Gaming", we'll see you again with more news at a Gen Conference!
End of interview.
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Links to many other relevant interviews about HeroQuest are compiled in this thread.
