Weaving Sound In Witchwood: A Chat With Hearthsone Composer Peter McConnell

Most of us have either played or watched a game of Hearthstone: Heroes of WarCraft, Blizzard’s take on the collectible card game. The back and forth action, the incredible strategies, the familiar characters, and constant expansions and events like Hearthstone Witchwood can pull in just about anyone, but one of the key aspects of the game that’s sometimes taken for granted is the music. The bouncy tunes that accompany these duels are all composed by one man, Peter McConnell, and we got to speak with him about his approach on writing the music of Hearthstone.

McConnell has quite a background in composition, originally featuring heavily in LucasArts games like The Secret of Monkey Island and many classic Star Wars games. Did that experience help ease the butterflies of working with a company like Blizzard? According to McConnell, any pressure he might have felt was quickly dispelled. “As I got into the process with Blizzard it was clear to me that they were into what I had to offer,” McConnell said. “World of Warcraft is a huge universe, and part of its staying power comes from the diversity of its worlds and the voices who contribute to those worlds.” He believes the same is true of his musical voice, saying it “continues to be a treat to be one part of a musical landscape that has so many luminary contributors.”

While McConnell does have experience, the competitive nature of a game like Hearthstone presents its own set of challenges when sitting down to write music. When we asked McConnell if he foresaw any differences in composition between the single player games of his past and Hearthstone, he admits he did not. “To be honest, at first I didn’t fully comprehend what the difference would be,” he told us. “My initial reference material was pictures of the original cards, which offered a light-hearted take on the WoW characters. The team’s thought was to focus on this aspect of things and do a sort of gentle, small orchestral take on the characters, as opposed to emphasizing the competitive aspect of the game.”

As development of the music progressed however, McConnell and the team quickly realized that this direction wasn’t going to fit. When he took that light-hearted to Blizzard’s studios directly, one match demo made it clear that he’d have to go back to the drawing board. “I visited Blizzard for the first time having done a light-hearted orchestral study of on World of Warcraft themes which everyone seemed to like,” he explains. ”But when we played against the screens, something was off.” He recalls watching two players in a match with his music playing against it, and it didn’t take long to see the problem. “When I watched two experts on the team duke it out, it became clear that the musical approach was all wrong. Hearthstone isn’t a quiet strategy game, it’s a brawl. So the idea of a tavern band came up and I went back home to a fresh approach.”

So now McConnell was faced with writing music for a game with two dueling concepts: a highly competitive game set in a light-hearted fantasy tavern. How would he choose which of these ideas to emphasize in his music? Surprisingly, after visiting Blizzard he realized it might not be a choice at all. “Really [those ideas] are both the same thing, and that was the big discovery of that visit. I started to think ‘well, what would a bar bottle rock and roll band like ZZ Top or Golden Earring do if they suddenly found themselves transported back in time and had to learn to play the instruments of the day?’” That question is what gave birth to the music we hear today: “it’s guitar-centric, but with an acoustic guitar. Then we add percussion and wind and brass instruments that all descend from older instruments of the time.”

Despite capturing the tavern feel, McConnell admits the theory behind the music isn’t always rooted in those olden times. “A lot of the guitar stuff is blues based,” he explains, ”which doesn’t particularly sound like medieval or traditional Celtic music on its own, but it gets across the idea of tough guys playing cards in a situation where at any moment a fight could break out.”

Having that loose bluesy framework to play with, as McConnell recounts, means “there is a lot of room to explore new musical territory, and even step out a bit from the tavern band metaphor into more of a thematic underscore – particularly with the expansions. The Witchwood expansion is a good example: I draw on themes and vibes associated with The Witchwood and present them in a way that tries to evoke the emotion of the world just as much as it sounds like a band playing in the room.”

McConnell’s approach to writing music has clearly succeeded, as the music of Hearthstone has delighted players since the game’s launch in 2014. It sounds like the latest expansion Witchwood will be no different, and that means we’ll have plenty more of McConnell’s musical machinations to enjoy once it drops.

Want to check out more Hearthstone? Have a look at our predictions and analysis of the Hearthstone Witchwood expansion!