Bye Bye Blizzard: What was from the legendary developers of that time

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Highlight current changes yes no

1. Dreamhaven: Mike Morhaimes Dream Factory

2. Warchief Gaming: Chris Metzens D & D campaign

3. Frost Giant Studios: Tim Campell and Tom Morten make real-time strategy

4. Bonfire Studios: Online Multiplayer for Core Gamers

5. Skystone Games / Greybard Games: David Brevik s RPG career

6. Second Dinner: Ben Brodes Financial Marvel Project

7. One More Game: Patrick Wyatts Wunschworkplace

8. Cautious optimism

The cat is now finally out of the sack: Blizzard currently has not only massive problems in terms of PR, but also in the field of development. Player numbers in WoW sink, which can be abstracted from the absence of a WOW growth forecast of the last quarterly report. Within 3 months Blizzard lost 2 million players - according to the report, the studio lost a total of 29% of its total players in the last three years, across all games.

Update: We supplemented the article about a video for text.

The answer then followed on 27.08.2021, when Blizzard announced that in Patch 9.1.5 virtually all ever introduces in a forum would hold in Wow. Overwatch lost its Game Director in April this year, the development for StarCraft 2 has been discontinued since last year and the fright of a comprehensive mobile-offensive velvet Diablo Immortal and two titles in the Warcraft Universe is facing the horizon threatening. The only game that can drive virtually unrestricted praise of the player s share is currently Diablo 2: Resurrected. And that is a more than 20 years old game, with new painting.

If, as currently in the case of Diablo 2: RESTURECTED the question arises, what the old games made so well, the answer is almost always very simple: the then developers. As we mentioned in our article and video Blizzard s decline , the company lost a founding member after the other. In this article we tell you what the ex-designers, developers and President BLIZZARDs drive today and hide the Blizzard virgins behind which development studios.

Dreamhaven: Mike Morhaimes Dream Factory

For entry, we are dedicated to one of the great hopes in development area: In September 2020, Ex-Blizzard President and co-founder Mike Morhaime announced that he founded the Studio Dreamhaven. In combination with the in-house developer studios Moonshot Games and Secret Door is a gradingity entitled in itself - in good German means that Dreamhaven is simultaneously acting as a parent developer studio and publisher. The independence of the studio was so important to Morhaime so that he even mentioned them in an interview with the website Venturebeat explicitly. The possibility to determine the fate of the studio itself led the couple Morhaime to the decision to finance Dreamhaven completely with their private assets.

According to Morhime, Dreamhaven wants to offer its developers a secure environment in which they can design games, which and we quote: The quality of the product and players experience over short-term financial pressure. According to its own statements, Morhaime Dreamhaven wants to make a place where work on games in a better way than usual. Each of the two sub-studios is financially involved in the parent company and completely free in the choice of his game development. You can live your passion for game development undisturbed, Morhaime noticed in the interview You have control over your own fate and feel hopefully as if you have the best two worlds: the entrepreneurial spirit, stability and resources that you otherwise only larger companies could provide. Dreamhaven was fully funded with the private assets of the couple Morhaime. The goal is to provide studios a secure and creative development environment. Source: Dreamhaven Morhaime also picked up high-profile ex-blizzard developers in order to provide high quality in the future: the Studio Moonshot Games includes Jason Chayes, who led as an executive producer Blizzards Hearthstone team, Ben Thompson, who as a Creative Director in the Hearthstone team worked and Dustin Browder, a true veteran of the game development: Browder was as a game director at the development of Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2, Command & Conquer: General, the Battle-For-Middle-Earth series, Starcraft 2 and Heroes of the Storm involved. In addition, Browder worked in the years from 2017 to 2019 on a project called Blizzard internally as ARES : a first-person shooter in the Starcraft Universe described by Browder as Battlefield in Starcraft . There existed already functioning builds in the Owatch engine, in which players could fight against each other as Terran Marines and Zerg, when the project was set one time.

The Ex-Blizzard Head of Secret Door Apply Eric Dodds, who was the first Game Director of Hearthstone, Chris Sigaty, who worked as a lead producer for Warcraft 3 (the original) and Executive Producer for Starcraft 2 and Hearthstone as well as nobody other than Alan Dabiri. Alan worked as a Technical and Game Director for Hearthstone, Star Craft II and Heroes of the Storm. And yes, you suspect: Alan is the son of Shane Dabiri, another Blizzard veteran.

Before you spend in joy jumps: If something sounds too good to be true, then is probably exactly that the case. Due to the true enthusiasm Mike Morhaimes, to build the use of his private assets and his self-appointed mission gaming experiences that create a real connection between players we are carefully optimistic in this case. Dreamhaven is the studio in this list that has the greatest chances of capturing the old Blizzard feeling. We stay curious!

Warchief Gaming: Chris Metzens D & D campaign

After treating Morhaimes Vision of the Old Blizzard, we come to something completely different: Chris Metzen took the place of the Vice President of Creative Development at Blizzard and was thus responsible for the story of the Warcraft, Starcraft and Diablo series. His drawings used almost all use instructions formerly Blizzard games and with blood and honor he even released his first book in the Warcraft Universe. In the course of 2005, a small side project Metzens was a Graphic Novel, which he created together with the Brazilian artist Max Velati. Your title: Soldier 76. In 2016, the character was taken as a playable hero in Overwatch. Also as a synchronizer, because he was famous for his voice not only thrall, Ragnaros, Vol jin, Varian and even the Starcraft Marine - he is now also listening to the Neflix series The Prince of the Dragons as Dragon King Avizandum . Chris Metzen can, above all, write great stories and characters as well as worlds created. What was closer than his hobby (another time) to work. Warchief Gaming is a special kind development studio: here are no video games, but tablecloths are developed by the team around Chris Metzen! Source: Warchief Gaming in October of the year 2020 Extended Chris Metzen and the former Blizzard Vice President of Quality Assurance, Mike Gilmartin, their private tabletop club Warchief Gaming for a Tabletop Developer Studio of the same name. After the two fetched a Hearthstone Developer into a team with Ryan Collins, they introduced their new campaign world: Auroboros is a Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition campaign set that focuses on a interlude between eight mighty city states, urban fantasy, cults and criminal syndicates . The world is also overshadowed by the mighty sometimes the snake , which players characters gives power to move mountains and to control thoughts - but to a permanent price. The Kickstarter had a target of $ 50,000 to his start. Meanwhile, the crowdfunding status is more than 1,200,000 US dollars and more than 10,000 supporters, with steadily rising tendency. We already know that Chris Metzen can create great characters and universes. In the meantime, he does not do that anymore digitally, but in our heads.

Frost Giant Studios: Tim Campell and Tom Morten make real-time strategy

Anyone who thinks of Blizzard has not only action role plays and MMORPGs in the head, but above all great real-time strategy titles such as Warcraft or Starcraft. Anyone who waits for a rebirth of the Blizzard s real-time genre will look forward to the founding of Frostgiant Studios in September 2020. At the top of the developer s degree, Tom Morten, who spoke mainly as a Production Director for Starcraft 2 of themselves and Tim Campbell, who, among others, at Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2, Nox, Starcraft 2 and as Lead Campaign Designer for Warcraft 3 : The Frozen Throne worked and most recently served as a Game Director for Wasteland 3.

The interesting thing: The two strategy titans felt like the rest of the Starcraft 2 team in the studio. We must briefly pick air: next to the lead artist, the lead designer, two lead cooop designers and a gameplay engineer are also a lead engineer and a server engineer of the former Starcraft-2-bend on board. Not surprising, it is the goal of the young studis to create the next big real-time strategy game , which is based according to its own statements on the Unreal Engine 5. In the Second Fundraiser Round, the Studio was able to raise $ 9,700,000, as well as the support of well-known investors, including the League-of-Legends Studio Riot Games. In order to set up the crown and to completely exploit the hopes of the real-time community, by the way, a collaboration with Mike Morhaimes Dreamhaven Studio was announced. Let s hope the best. Frostgiant Studios not only brings Blizzard virgins, but also a large amount of Starcraft II developers and cooperation with Dreamhaven.

Source: Frostgiant Studios

Bonfire Studios: Online Multiplayer for Core Gamers

Already a little longer ago is the founding of Bonfire Studios, which was already in 2016. The Blizzard DNA of the Studio consists of Rob Pardo, the former Blizzard Vice President of Game Design and Josh Mosqueira, the former Game Director of Diablo 3. Noteworthy is here, however, that Min Kim, the former CEO sits by Nexon America with in the executive days - The South Korean developer Nexon is one of the world s pioneers of the Free-2 Play model. According to its own statement, Bonfire Studios wants to produce games for PC-Core gamers - the Diablo-Immortal debacle was a teaching for developers. Source: Bonfire Studios The current focus of Bonfire Studios is based on the development of unity-based cooperative MMOs, which connect competitive and cooperative elements . The targeted target group for the MMO is the hard core of the gameschaft. In an interview with Gamen noticed Rob Pardo: It s definitely a game for core gamers; we will not present you out of the blue a mobile game A La Candy Crush. With a small side hob on Diablo Immortal, Pardo gave to: Our time at Blizzard has taught us what gamers really want us. Through small teams, mostly freely work and work in a relaxed environment, Bonfire studios wants to make the fantasy and mutual learning to their company compass, according to their own statement. Incidentally, in this case, Riot Games also attacks a studio of ex-Blizzard developers under the arms in this case. We are curious if a pattern is here for the next few years.

Skystone Games / Greybard Games: David Brevik s RPG career

Lovers of the Diablo series will be able to start a bit named David Brevik, because the then founding member and President of Blizzard North worked as a Lead Programmer and Senior Designer at Diablo and as a Project and Design Lead at Diablo 2nd Brevik also participated in Warcraft 3, but his true love was always the Diablo series. In February of this year, Brevik comprised comprising the second expansion for Diablo 2 scheduled at that time and explained how Blizzard North had implemented the final version of Diablo 3. Hardly surprising, he founded after his departure in 2003 the Developer House Flagship Studios, which should produce action-rpgs. Unfortunately, the studio was dissolved in August 2008 because of financial problems. After a short stopover as a Creative Director at Turbine, he started at Gazillion Entertainment in 2009 and took the post of the CEO in 2013.

Since 2016, David Brevik has been providing its action-rpg competence as a consultant for the Chinese branch of Grinding Gear Games; The studio is behind Path of Exile. Brevik also has its own indie studio named Graybeard Games, which already brought out the game IT Lurks Below on Steam. Together with Bill Wang, a former member of Perfect World Entertainment, the ex-Blizzard size founded the Publishing and Development Studio Skystone Games in 2020, the emerging Indie studios attacks the arms. Our insider tip: On the website GraybeardGames.com you will find the original pitch document for Diablo 1. An absolute compulsory reading for anyone who wants to understand the design process behind the old blizzard games.

Second Dinner: Ben Brodes Financial Marvel Project

There is probably no ex-Blizzard legend, which could gather in such a short time such a big fanbase around him: Ben Brode became known for his friendliness, his contagious laugh and his ulcious actions. Our tip: Look at Ben Brodes Un goro Rap. In 2018, Brode took his hat and founded his own development studio Second Dinner three months later. In 2019, the announcement concluded that the studio had not only found a well-known partner, but also fully funded: In a cooperation with Marvel, Brode was able to ensure a financial syringe of $ 30,000,000 (!). Together with ex-Blizzard sizes such as the Production Director Yong Woo and the Art Director Jomaro Kindred is now on a high-speed unity-based Marvel-Game. Due to the absolutely enormous investment of Marvels, for which Brode had to be a compromise according to its own statement, the studio also offers its employees something that is not self-evident in the indie sector: financial security. Brode summarizes it on his website: Here one feels like in a strong start-up - only that you do not have to be afraid that one thing happens before the next milestone! We wish you definitely success. Ben Brode was able to lie a point landing with a Studio Second Dinner: a cooperation with marvel and several million dollars financing allow good guesses.

Source: Second Dinner

One More Game: Patrick Wyatts wish workstation

Patrick Wyatt was not just one of the first blizzard employees at all, he also programmed at the original version of the Battle.net. In addition, besides Blizzard flag ships such as Warcraft 2, Starcraft and Diablo also involved in absolute classics such as Rock n Roll Racing and Lost Vikings. After working for eight years as a Vice President of Research and Development as well as Senior Programmer for Blizzard, he founded the company Arenanet together with two friends, which was particularly famous by the Guild Wars series. In 2010, the post of Chief Operations Officer for EN Mass Entertainment took over the release of the online role-playing game Tera and then switched to Undead Labs in 2014, where he worked together with Jeff Strain, another founding member of Arenanet. Since 2015, Patrick Wyatt takes the place of the Senior Principal Engineer for Amazon Games. However, that did not stop him from starting his own studio.

In 2019, the Studio One More Game (abbreviated OMG! ) Was launched and financed by investors in the following year with $ 5,700,000. The focus of the developer studio is on the creation of cross-platform games for mobile and PC. However, especially the company philosophy, which is very clearly, is interesting: no on-site jobs. Everyone works basically from home. So much holidays as you want, there is no annually limited disease days and each employee receives a complete insurance package, including disability insurance and a $ 6,000 scholarship per year with which he can finance his training at its sole discretion. As long as the work is finished when to finish, the studio turns off his staff. Within the USA culture of the USA, the almost paradisiacal states are. How Wyatt summarizes it on his website: We want to create an exemplary workplace, working on creative, hardworking and friendly people.

Cautious optimism

Finally, it can be summarized that the studios of ex-blizzard quantities want to define themselves mainly by one: a pleasant working environment in which it is possible to develop good games again. Anyone who is constantly sitting in the neck, creates no masterpieces. Of course, this sounds, but is extremely difficult in practice. On the one hand, the American group culture counteracted this principle by being seen workers rather as office accessories than as a felt beings. On the other hand, many studios look rather the investors as their customers - the player themselves is merely part of the sales cycle. Can the fresh studios capture the old blizzard feeling through their small size and family atmosphere or repeat the sins of their fathers? What do you all mean? Anyway, we are very curious what the future brings.

From Christian Schmid author & Maria Beyer-Fistrich Brand / Editorial Director 09.09.2021 at 17:00