Ben Brode is an American

video game designer Video game design is the process of designing the content and rules of video games in the pre-production stage and designing the gameplay, environment, storyline and characters in the production stage. Some common video game design subdiscipline ...

. He was the game director and public face of ''

Hearthstone ''Hearthstone'' is a free-to-play online digital collectible card game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment. Originally subtitled ''Heroes of Warcraft'', ''Hearthstone'' builds upon the existing lore of the ''Warcraft'' series by u ...

'' until 2018 when he left to found his own game studio, Second Dinner, where he is now

Chief Creative Officer A chief creative officer (CCO) is the highest ranking position of the creative team within a company. Depending on the type of company, this position may be responsible for the overall look and feel of marketing, media, and branding associated with ...

Life and career

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. 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. Brode became lead designer of ''

'' in 2015, and was promoted to game director later in the year. While working on Hearthstone, Brode was the public face of the game, giving interviews, responding to player feedback, explaining game concepts, and providing updates on the game's development. When the ''Journey To Un'Goro'' expansion was released without an accompanying song, he recorded his own at the community's request. 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. In 2019 the company announced that it had received a US$30 million investment from

NetEase NetEase, Inc. () is a Chinese Internet technology company providing online services centered on content, community, communications, and commerce. The company was founded in 1997 by Ding Lei. NetEase develops and operates online PC and mobile game ...

, along with the license to create a mobile game for Marvel. The game, ''

Marvel Snap ''Marvel Snap'' is a digital collectible card game developed by Second Dinner and published by Nuverse for Microsoft Windows, Android and iOS. The game features a collection of different Marvel characters from the Marvel Universe. The game was ...

'', was first revealed in May 2022, for mobile devices and personal computers.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Brode, Ben American video game designers Blizzard Entertainment people Living people Year of birth missing (living people)