Heroes of the Storm Game Director Moving to Another Project

In a post on the Heroes of the Storm official forum, Game Director Alan Dabiri has announced that he will transition away from the game’s development team to assist with another project at Blizzard. An excerpt of his letter can be read below.

It’s in this spirit of trying new things that I want to let everyone know that a few months ago, I accepted an opportunity to transition off my role as Heroes’ game director to heed Blizzard’s call and begin a new adventure elsewhere within the company. The game director has always been one part of the overall leadership team that drives Heroes forward and it’s been a privilege to work among some of the best game developers at every level on the team all the way up to our production director, Kaéo Milker.

Dabiri also said that “Heroes has one of the most passionate and dedicated development teams [he’s] had the pleasure of working with, and they have a ton of exciting new content in development.”

While Heroes of the Storm isn’t as dominant in the MOBA space as League of Legends or DOTA 2, the game has seen a rise in popularity during Dabiri’s tenure as game director. Most notably, he oversaw the game’s 2.0 release, which overhauled the progression system and allowed players to begin earning select cosmetic rewards in-game. The frequency of hero releases and in-game events also increased under Dabiri’s leadership.

Dabiri is one of several Blizzard veterans who have moved to unspecified development assignments within the company. In October 2016, World of Warcraft Game Director Tom Chilton announced that he would be working on a new project, and handed over the reins to current Game Director Ion Hazzikostas. Two months later, former Heroes of the Storm Game Director Dustin Browder left the game’s team to “try something new at Blizzard,” and Dabiri took his place.

We’re a few weeks away from BlizzCon, where some of these projects could be announced. Early this month, Blizzard President J. Allen Brack mentioned that the studio is “working on more games now than at any point” in its history. Brack became president when studio co-founder Mike Morhaime stepped down as president and CEO.