Ben Thompson, the first artist to be brought onto the Hearthstone team 11 years ago, has confirmed that he left Blizzard shortly after BlizzCon last year. He set the artistic style for Hearthstone and became the Lead Artist when more artists joined the team.
Prior to joining Hearthstone, Ben worked on the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game as its Art Director and also contributed over 70 illustrations to Magic the Gathering distributed over 20 sets. After Hearthstone launched, Ben was promoted to the team's Art Director and was promoted once more to Hearthstone's Creative Director in August 2018.
This news was discovered by Imik and was confirmed in a series of tweets.
Quote From Ben Thompson I actually left the company two weeks after BlizzCon last year and just didn’t make a big exit of it. I miss the team and of course the game as I saw it as my child after 11 years, but it was time to hand the reins to others and try something new again
The leave was discovered via the Descent of Dragons logo that Ben uploaded to his ArtStation profile with the following description.
Quote From Ben Thompson The third and final logo for the trilogy of sets brought good and evil into direct conflict, fighting over the bones of an ancient evil (the hint of which can be seen in the skull at bottom center of the design). This logo was bitter sweet as it would also serve to close out my tenure with the Hearthstone team and the game that had come to mean so much to me over the last decade.
Notable Hearthstone Works by Ben Thompson
Here are some of the most iconic pieces created by Ben Thompson. You should check out his ArtStation profile to see more.
Curse of Naxxramas Game Board
Quote From Ben Thompson While the team would go on to make many amazing boards in the subsequent sets, the Naxxramas board would be my last board that I was responsible from beginning to end. The Adventure had so much personality that we felt that a tonal shift for the board was important to help visually set the stage. As a result this was the first time we made major changes to the lighting and overall color scheme for the board. Besides, it really makes the slime glow! Many iterations were given to those spider eggs to assure that they weren't TOO disgusting…
Older Card Backs - Classic, Legend, Diablo, & More
Quote From Ben Thompson The card backs in Hearthstone were always among my favorite things to work on. They were also one of the very first things a new artist on the team would tackle as even a single card back provided immediate insight into the design sense, surface treatment, proportions, color and lighting in the game as a whole. There were always specific foundational design beats to hit consistently across every card in the game, but once these were addressed it was an amazing opportunity for each artist to express themselves within the game.
Rexxar
Quote From Ben Thompson
The Coin
Quote From Ben Thompson
Tavern Doors
Quote From Ben Thompson
Comments
I'm no art expert, but in my opinion, the art style for HS has stayed consistent and most cards have, at the very least, interesting art. So thanks, Ben, and thanks to the other artists that stay true to HS's style.
Hear, hear!