Ben Brode | |
|---|---|
 Brode at BlizzCon 2013 | |
| Occupation | Video game designer |
| Employer(s) | Blizzard Inc. (2003–2018) Second Dinner (2018–present) |
| Known for | Lead designer of Hearthstone (2015–2018) |
Ben Brode is an American video game designer . He was the game director and public face of Hearthstone until 2018 when he left to found his own game studio, Second Dinner, where he is now Chief Development Officer.
Brode joined Blizzard Entertainment as a video game tester at the age of 20, working on Warcraft III and World of Warcraft , a position in which he worked for a total of 18 months before becoming Environment Test Lead. [1] [2] During his work testing these games he spent time making custom maps for Warcraft III, one of which became 'Map of the Week' and was released to the wider community. Brode began looking for a new position at Blizzard, including applying for a position as a designer on StarCraft II, before finding himself in a creative position on the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game. [2]
Brode became lead designer of Hearthstone in 2015, and was promoted to game director later in the year. [2] While working on Hearthstone, Brode was the public face of the game, giving interviews, [3] responding to player feedback, explaining game concepts, [4] and providing updates on the game's development. [2] [5] [6] When the Journey To Un'Goro expansion was released without an accompanying song, he recorded his own at the community's request. [7]
After 15 years working at Blizzard, Brode left the company in 2018 to start his own game development studio called Second Dinner along with several other ex-Blizzard employees. [1] [8] [9] Brode is the Chief Development Officer at the company. [10] In 2019 the company announced that it had received a US$30 million investment from NetEase, along with the license to create a mobile game for Marvel. [3] The game, Marvel Snap , was first revealed in May 2022, for mobile devices and personal computers. [11] In designing Marvel Snap, Brode said he was directly inspired by his experiences working on the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game and Hearthstone - he wanted to make a card game that was quicker to play and had a lower barrier to entry. [12] [13]
Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. is an American video game developer and publisher based in Irvine, California, and a subsidiary of Activision Blizzard. Originally founded in 1991, the company is best known for producing the highly influential massively multiplayer online role-playing game World of Warcraft (2004), as well as the multi-million selling video game franchises Diablo,StarCraft and Overwatch. The company also operates Battle.net, an online gaming service.
Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos is a high fantasy real-time strategy computer video game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment released in July 2002. It is the second sequel to Warcraft: Orcs & Humans, after Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness, the third game set in the Warcraft fictional universe, and the first to be rendered in three dimensions. An expansion pack, The Frozen Throne, was released in July 2003. Warcraft III is set several years after the events of Warcraft II, and tells the story of the Burning Legion's attempt to conquer the fictional world of Azeroth with the help of an army of the Undead known as the Scourge, led by fallen paladin Arthas Menethil. It chronicles the combined efforts of the Human Alliance, Orcish Horde, and Night Elves to stop them before they can corrupt the World Tree.
World of Warcraft (WoW) is a 2004 massively multiplayer online role-playing (MMORPG) video game produced by Blizzard Entertainment. Set in the Warcraft fantasy universe, World of Warcraft takes place within the world of Azeroth, approximately four years after the events of the previous game in the series, Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne. The game was announced in 2001, and was released for the 10th anniversary of the Warcraft franchise on November 23, 2004. Since launch, World of Warcraft has had ten major expansion packs: The Burning Crusade (2007), Wrath of the Lich King (2008), Cataclysm (2010), Mists of Pandaria (2012), Warlords of Draenor (2014), Legion (2016), Battle for Azeroth (2018), Shadowlands (2020), Dragonflight (2022), and The War Within (2024). Two further expansions, Midnight and The Last Titan, were announced in 2023.
Warcraft is a franchise of video games, novels, and other media created by Blizzard Entertainment. The series is made up of six core games: Warcraft: Orcs & Humans, Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness, Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, World of Warcraft, Hearthstone, and Warcraft Rumble. The first three of these core games are in the real-time strategy genre, where opposing players command virtual armies in battle against each other or a computer-controlled enemy. The fourth and best-selling title of the franchise is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), where players control their character and interact with each other in a virtual world.
BlizzCon is an annual gaming convention held by Blizzard Entertainment to promote its major franchises including Warcraft, StarCraft, Diablo, Hearthstone, Heroes of the Storm, and Overwatch.
The secret cow level, or simply the cow level, is a level featured in the action role-playing hack and slash video game series Diablo, developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment. It first appears as postgame content in 2000's Diablo II, where it is officially known as the "Moo Moo Farm". Players may access the level after collecting a special combination of items to conjure a portal leading to the level. The player character is confronted upon arrival by a large horde of armed anthropomorphic cows led by a boss character called the "Cow King".
Jeffrey Kaplan is an American video game designer and former vice president of Blizzard Entertainment, a position he held until he left the company in 2021. He designed elements of World of Warcraft and is the former lead director of Overwatch.
Leeroy Jenkins is a player character created by Ben Schulz in Blizzard Entertainment's multiplayer online video game World of Warcraft.
Battle.net is an Internet-based online game, social networking service, digital distribution, and digital rights management platform developed by Blizzard Entertainment. The service was launched on December 31, 1996, followed a few days later with the release of Blizzard's action-role-playing video game Diablo on January 3, 1997. Battle.net was officially renamed to "Blizzard Battle.net" in August 2017, with the change being reverted in January 2021.
Russell Brower is an American music composer and three-time Emmy Award-winning sound designer who has created sounds for Tiny Toon Adventures, Animaniacs and Batman: The Animated Series, and video game music for games including Joint Operations: Typhoon Rising, World of Warcraft, StarCraft II, Diablo III and Arena of Valor. He was previously the Director of Audio/Video for Blizzard Entertainment, the sound designer/editor at Warner Bros. Animation and DiC Entertainment, the Audio Director at NovaLogic, and the Principal Media Designer and Music Director at Walt Disney Imagineering.
Brian McCormick Kibler is an American collectible card game player, game designer, and streamer. In 2016 Kibler helped design Drawing Dead. Previously, he designed Ascension: Chronicle of the Godslayer with Justin Gary, Rob Dougherty and John Fiorillo, and worked on Chaotic and SolForge and was the lead designer of the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game. As of 2016, he is a design consultant for Eternal, in addition to streaming and casting Hearthstone and certain associated tournaments.
Heroes of the Storm is a crossover multiplayer online battle arena video game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment. Announced at BlizzCon 2010, it was released on June 2, 2015 for macOS and Windows. The game features various characters from Blizzard's franchises as playable heroes, as well as different battlegrounds based on Warcraft, Diablo, StarCraft, and Overwatch universes.
Hearthstone is a 2014 online digital collectible card video game produced by Blizzard Entertainment, released under the free-to-play model. Originally subtitled Heroes of Warcraft, Hearthstone builds upon the existing lore of the Warcraft series by using the same elements, characters, and relics. The game is available on the Windows, macOS, iOS and Android platforms, featuring cross-platform play. It has been a critical and commercial success, with Blizzard reporting more than 100 million Hearthstone players as of November 2018, and the game has become popular as an esport, with cash prize tournaments hosted by Blizzard and other organizers.
Jaina Proudmoore is a fictional character who appears in the Warcraft series of video games by Blizzard Entertainment. Within the games, she is the most powerful sorceress alive. She is currently Lord Admiral, ruler of the Kul Tiras kingdom. Jaina was formerly the leader of the Kirin Tor, a faction of mages ruling over the city of Dalaran. She swore to defeat the Burning Legion and its sinister agents any way she could and helped defeat and banish the demons. Once a diplomat, she advocated for peace between the Alliance and the Horde, and she later joined the Alliance after the destruction of her city of Theramore at the hands of the Horde. The character has become one of the most iconic and noted characters in Warcraft lore, and has received positive critical reception from gamers. Jaina's other appearances include the collectible card game Hearthstone and the crossover multiplayer online battle arena video game Heroes of the Storm. Jaina was voiced by Carrie Gordon Lowrey in Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos and World of Warcraft, and is currently voiced by Laura Bailey in the subsequent World of Warcraft expansions, Hearthstone, and Heroes of the Storm.
Octavian Morosan better known by his online username Kripparrian, is a Romanian-Canadian Twitch streamer, YouTuber and video game personality. He is known for his achievements on Diablo III, World of Warcraft, and Hearthstone, as well as winning the "Favorite Hearthstone Stream" and Most "Engaged" Viewers categories, and coming second in the "Highest Stream View Average" category at the Blizzard Stream Awards in 2014. In June 2017 he achieved over one million followers on Twitch and as of October 2024, he has over 1.5 million followers.
Blizzard Entertainment's online collectible card game Hearthstone became played professionally quickly after its release in March 2014. The game is played as an esport, with high-level tournaments such as Blizzard's official World Championship featuring prize pool of up to $1 million, and livestreamers can earn money streaming gameplay on Twitch.
Hearthstone is a digital collectible card game released by Blizzard Entertainment in 2014, available for Microsoft Windows and macOS PCs and iOS and Android smartphones. The game is free-to-play, with players gaining in-game currency and card packs via winning matches and completing quests, while real-world money can be spent to acquire additional card packs and cosmetic items. The game has been critically well-received and financially successful, estimated in August 2017 to earn nearly US$40 million per month. As of November 2018, Blizzard has reported more than 100 million Hearthstone players. Blizzard has continued to expand the game with the addition of multiple expansions, adventures and game modes.
A digital collectible card game (DCCG) or online collectible card game (OCCG) is a computer or video game that emulates collectible card games (CCG) and is typically played online or occasionally as a standalone video game. Many DCCGs are types of digital tabletop games and follow traditional card game-style rules, while some DCCGs use alternatives for cards and gameboards, such as icons, dice and avatars. Originally, DCCGs started out as replications of a CCG's physical counterpart, but many DCCGs have foregone a physical version and exclusively release as a video game, such as with Hearthstone.
Dota is a series of strategy video games. The series began in 2003 with the release of Defense of the Ancients (DotA), a fan-developed multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) mod for the video game Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos and its expansion, The Frozen Throne. The original mod features gameplay centered around two teams of up to five players who assume control of individual characters called "heroes", which must coordinate to destroy the enemy's central base structure called an "Ancient", to win the game. Ownership and development of DotA were passed on multiple times since its initial release until Valve hired the mod's lead designer IceFrog and after a legal dispute with Blizzard Entertainment, the developer of Warcraft III, brokered a deal that allowed for Valve to inherit the trademark to the Dota name.
Marvel Snap is a digital collectible card game developed by Second Dinner and published by Nuverse for Android, iOS, and Windows. The game features a collection of different characters from the Marvel Universe. The game was released on October 18, 2022, after a period of beta testing.