The bulk of Brode’s letter is spent speaking warmly about Hearthstone, and thanking his coworkers and the community. He encourages the community to look at Hearthstone’s future excitedly, even downplaying his own role on the team to build up his fellows:
Regarding his future, Brode was surprisingly candid. He says that he’ll be taking a “crazy risk,” which he acknowledges he’s only able to do due to being so fortunate while working at Blizzard. Brode will be helping to start a new company, but he leaves further details to be revealed in the future. In his new role he’ll be “designing, programming, and actually creating things again,” but also says he’ll miss Blizzard’s on-campus Starbucks.
For those unfamiliar with Ben Brode, he is one of the Hearthstone team’s first two developers along with initial game director Eric Dodds. Brode would focus on content design, including card design, up until he took on game directorial responsibilities in 2015 and formalized it in 2016. Outside of Brode’s responsibilities within the studio, he was also known as the face of Hearthstone’s development team and was quite popular within the community.
Brode’s departure from the Hearthstone team will likely create the perception of a new era for Hearthstone, though development within Blizzard may or may not change in actuality. Without Brode being the public face of Hearthstone, different members of the team can step forward work with the community to make the game even better. Whether or not it results in future paradigm shifts with regards to Hearthstone’s design, time will tell.
Hearthstone is available now on PC and mobile devices.
