Yong Woo Leaves Blizzard - Joins Ben Brode at Second Dinner
Yong Woo, Hearthstone's Production Director, has left the company. He joins Ben Brode and Hamilton Chu at the new Second Dinner game studio.
Another two Hearthstone employees quit in recent time, Michael Schweitzer and Jomaro Kindred, who are also at the studio. There are now five ex-Hearthstone team members working at Second Dinner.
Quote from Yong WooAfter 9 epic years at Blizzard, I am embarking on a new adventure. Thank you for your love and support over the years. I'm super excited to join @seconddinner to build something new & amazing together!
Quote from Second DinnerThe team is growing! Say hi to our newest teammates!
@KindredConcepts@ywoo_dev@mfschweitzer
lol, no
Ben Brode is what happens when a dnd character puts all his ability points in charisma! :D
Higher charisma means higher healing powers right?
Thats why Ben Brode's laugh can cure cancer
You saying he's stupid, that's dank bro.
For those who are curious, Jomaro was generally a Senior Concept Artist who was also responsible for making art of such cards as Core Rager, Cornered Sentry, Lone Champion, Blingtron 3000, Boommaster Flark, Glinda Crowskin, Kazakus, and Justicar Trueheart. He also drew the artworks for Alleria Windrunner and Lady Liadrin.
ah I love the art he did as well.
When Activision greed gets in the way of passionate game designers.
Nerf creativity and buff profit I guess.
Or they spent nearly a decade working on one product and wanted a change.
Keep in mind that the entirety of Hearthstone was developed under Activision-Blizzard and Blizzard was owned by corporate interests before Warcraft was released (it was acquired in 1994, before it was even known as Blizzard and, then by Vivendi in 1996).
This whole “Activision turned blizzard into a corporate whore” is BS.
THEY ARE STEALING OUR MANS
No matter what Brode and his team develop but I'll definitely buy it. This guy alone is making a game worth buying if he keeps on making videos like that and shows his spirit and love towards pc games.
I wish I can get back the money I spent on HS and transfer on their next game
Well it does look very bad for blizzard if all the major devs left.. good luck to BB expect an awesome game to come out from SD.
Last one out turn off the lights
Its not really normal to see such high profile departures from a company, either something wrong is going on at Blizzard or the guys at the Second Dinner are cooking something really huge to lure these guys there.
I'm old enough to remember when the Blizzard community all freaked out over the guys who left to ultimately create the first Guild Wars. There was nothing wrong with Blizzard then or now. Game developers all want to strike out and make their own games/found their own studio after enough years of success. Blizzard probably paid them a ton of money over the years that makes this kind of independent move possible, and I'm sure they're still grateful and happy with the company.
You are very, very naive Firenza
nope, most likely he is right, I never for a second thought that there is something wrong going on with Blizzard, they are a big company that pays their people a lot of money, especially people like BB or YW and doing the same thing for X years can get tedious,
it's super normal for developers to change jobs when they get bored with a project/company and have the opportunity to work on something new
This is actually 100% normal. Hardly any companies were founded without offshoots from established, big development houses.
There are 3 main reasons to someone leave their dream job and start a company:
1- To pursue a dream; 2- Assignments not related to the job; 3- Insatisfaction with company decisions/directions
Ben Brode was really passionate about HS. No one smart just leaves their dream job to do number 1 without planning at least 6 months or even years in advance.
If he trully had plans of developing a company, he would rather be working on that plan as a side project other then doing Ungoro rhymes. You can even see in that video there is a guy working on the coach and another on an improvised chair. No problem with that, but everything points out it was not planned.
Motive number 1 is still possible, but its very unlikely , motives 2 and 3 or a combination of both would be my guess.
4) you have been doing something for nearly a decade and need a change of pace?