Mike Donais is no longer on the Hearthstone team.
We were alerted to this fact when a screenshot from Dog's Twitch chat was posted to reddit by quickiethrowie. In the Twitch chat, Mike Donais stated he was on another game's team at Blizzard but could not say which. According to Dean Ayala, Mike is still speaking with the team and recently pitched an idea for a robo-murloc for Battlegrounds.
Mike joined the Hearthstone team in 2013 working on card design and balance. He most recently held the role of Lead Game Designer from 2018 until his leave. You can follow him on Twitter @mike_donais.
Quote From Dean Ayala Mike is OP. He still gives us advice and just recently pitched us a robo-murloc design for battlegrounds even though he had already moved on from the team. Thanks Mike, I know we can always count on you for murloc designs and murloc related puns.
Battlegrounds is now a responsibility of the card design team, so the same team that works on expansions will now also handle content production for that game mode.
Response from Mike Donais
His name was Gilligain Mark 1. With a name like that…. nothing can stop him! (Source)
Was this gonna be the artwork? :D
Polina's art is amazing, needs more gains though! (Source)
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Comments
If he was the design lead from 2018 till now, then we are missing out bc that is the period where some really cool stuff was added
Dean Ayala is now literally the only Team 5 member that I know from the 'good old days'. Can't believe all others left.
As much as I don't want to be a Doomsayer, this might be the beginning of the end.
Blizzard is clearly turning into a shitshow internally. So far, Hearthstone has been spared from most of the fallout (I don't count the Blitzchung thing because it would have literally happened the exact same way in any other context. The entertainment industry is now partially owned by China, deal with it) but eventually it's gonna feel the sting.
I have no idea how much influence Mike had on Hearthstone for the past year, but it's pretty obvious that the game has improved significantly (coincidentally around the time Ben Brode ditched, make of that what you will). However, the "smol indie company" meme exists for a reason, and one of those reasons is that the hearthstone dev team has always been significantly smaller than other games.
If they're cutting personnel now (and they do, this is not Mike leaving on his own accord, he was clearly moved to more important projects, presumably because he is actually competent at his job and clearly Blizzard is dire need of people like that) to me it means that Hearthstone is not something they'll continue to pour many ressources into.
Maybe the game isn't as profitable as it needs to be, maybe they have data that suggest that online Card Games aren't sustainable. Whatever it is, there is no reason that they would shrink the team for a game they plan giving quality attention, which is especially worrying because Legends of Runeterra is basically the biggest rival Hearthstone has had in a long time, and now would be the time for some genuine competition.
However this turns out, enjoy the game while it lasts...and if you want to keep playing card games, maybe give LOR a try. At least that game has a company behind that doesn't actively antagonize its fanbase (even though they are still a Chinese sockpuppet and you should never forget that).
Well, it doesn't mean the team is shrinking, you don't know maybe they hired more people, the fact that the main guy leaves doesn't mean he isn't replaced.
Mike was, for the last 2 years, the face of HS just like Ben Brode was until witchwood it doesn't tell much about the actual state of mind..
What does tell is those glaring bugs they don't bother to fix.. that's another story...
I've seen essentially this same comment posted literally every time a major member of the team leaves. And yet Hearthstone has continually gotten better and better over time. So I'm very far from worried. Hearthstone is a cash cow that takes FAR fewer development resources than any of their other games.
true...but what if they keep sapping ressource just to see how far they can push it.
Keep in mind, there are interviews that show that the internal development of Warcraft Reforged got basically sabotaged by stripping them of ressources which led to the disaster we have now.
Blizzard is in flames at the moment and Hearthstone will eventualy have to catch fire as well.
After the Warcraft 3 debacle I think it is time we stopped having hope that things are ok inside Blizz.
It's a shitshow......Obviously.
Wow fucked, Diablo fucked, Warcraft fucked. Are they really betting it all on Overwatch and HS? and that other thing that I never hear anyone talk about.
Shame but looks like the Blizzard we all knew and grew up with is dead.
F in chat for Blizzard.
You should post on Reddit, you'll get dem sweeeeet Internet Points. Commenting on any potentially negative news to say Blizzard is dead is the lowest hanging fruit you can grab nowadays.
yes, instead we should all just consoom product and get excited for next product.
Better not question the authorities, wouldn't want our social credit score to suffer
So now i am a bit worried about our favourite game
Yeah this is pretty impactful - so many staff changes and he had a massive input into the game. Wish the guy well on whatever he is working on.
Sad to see him leave the Hearthstone team, but I wish him the best of luck on what he works on in the future.
Its always sad, but hearthstone is moving towards its 6th year now, so changes in the organization charts is expected.
All the best to Mike and his future endeavors.
A little curious to see what a mech-murloc design would do in battlegrounds. Seems a little too OP in my opinion.
So let me get this straight, they are piling another task on to the card design team? Not a smart move Blizz....
Sad to see another old member of the Hearthstone team go.
Peter Whalen reportedly is also no longer on the HS team and is working with Mike on something that they can't talk about yet.
Sad, sure. But also good for mike. This is clearly a promotion.
Change isn't always a bad thing.
Brode leaving left a mark but then again a fair while later we saw more frequent updates to cards that I don't believe we'd ever have if he was still around. Donais was initially trashed for ruining Magic before moving on to "ruin" Hearthstone. Then again we've had an ok run of late.
I'm curious to see how things play out. Could get worse. Could get better. Though given the recent track record of Activision bean-counters and the recent run of other Blizzard titles, it sadly may end up being more of the prior than the latter.
Sad indeed, and a tad worrying to hear they have yet again shorten the effective
the winds of change are upon HS. i wonder why?