Team 5

Info

Team 5 (also known as Blizzard Team 5) are the Blizzard Entertainment development team responsible for Hearthstone The Hearthstone icon Hearthstone (formerly known as Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft 1] 2]) is a free-to-play digital collectible card game from Blizzard Entertainment. It was first announced in a presentation by Rob Pardo at the . A "small and nimble" team of 15 members for much of the game`s original development, the team has since grown to more than 70 members. Created specifically in order to develop Hearthstone, Team 5 is responsible for all ongoing game design.

Members

For most of the game`s original development, the team comprised only 15 "hard-core ninjas", but by the game`s mid- beta The Hearthstone beta was the beta test phase in the development of Hearthstone, following the alpha test. The beta test began in its closed phase in the Americas region on Aug. 16th 2013, and in in Nov. 2013 had begun to grow. The next few months saw the recruitment of several additional members, and the team has continued to grow since then. As of Jun. 2015 the team numbered 44 members; by Jan. 2016 this had grown to "about 50 people". As of Sep. 2016 there are "70+" people on the team. After roughly doubling in size each year since the game`s launch, Ben Brode Ben Brode Type: Minion Rarity: Legendary Cost: 3 Attack: 4 Health: 1 Your volume can t be reduced below maximum.See this card on Hearthpwn data page] "There is no way to contain the Brode." - Yong stated in Jan. 2017 that he expects the team to continue to grow, becoming "significantly larger" over the next couple of years.

Each member of the team as stated in the game`s credits ] is depicted in their own credits card Credits cards are non-playable cards that depict prominent members of the Hearthstone development team. These cards are not found in play, but are displayed in random order during the game s credits, accessed through the Options , shown during the credits reel.

Videos

Confirmed members

The only public listings of Team 5`s members are found in the game`s credits, which are updated infrequently and often lack more recent additions to the team. It is not therefore possible to state with certainty the current size of Team 5 or to comprehensively list its members. Below are the latest official listings of Team 5, as stated in Jun. 2015 in the game`s credits, as well as some additional confirmed members.

Personnel titles are based on the latest known information, but due to infrequent official confirmation are potentially out of date.

Team 5 in Nov. 2016

Former members

Ryan Chew - Software Engineer. As of at least Mar. 2016 is now working on Overwatch.
Brian Schwab - AI and gameplay engineer. Member from 2011 or earlier. Left some time shortly before Aug. 2014.
Shay Pierce - Involved in prototyping and coding. Member since at least early 2009, appears to have left some time prior to Mar. 2013.

Unconfirmed members

The following personnel are known to be working on Hearthstone, but their position as members of Team 5 has not yet been confirmed.

Pat Nagle - Designer (Tavern Brawls)
Hadidjah Chamberlin - FX Artist

Non-Team 5 developers

Team 5 is assisted in its role as primary designers of the game by various other Blizzard employees. For a full list see Credits (list). A few notable members perform a particularly significant role in the game`s development, and are listed below. Some of these employees may be part of Team 5, but without official confirmation.

Jeramiah Johnson - Senior Cinematic Artist
Chadd Nervig (Celestalon)

Former

Micky Neilson - Listed as Story Lead in the game`s original credits. Left Blizzard in Mar. 2016.
Rob Pardo - Listed as Chief Executive in the game`s original credits. Left Blizzard in Jul. 2014.

Teams

Team 5 itself breaks down into several more specific teams, many of which in turn contain sub-teams or groups, each dedicated to a specific area or phase of the production process.

In Feb. 2017 Dean Ayala Dean Ayala Set: CREDITS Type: Minion Rarity: Legendary Cost: 7 Attack: 7 Health: 5 You can t lose stars while this is in your deck.See this card on Hearthpwn data page] Aug. Dean Ayala is a explained how the design team breaks down:

Design team is around 15 people now. Live Content (Brawls, Firesides, Other Events), Initial Design (Card Designs, Mechanic Designs, Set Flavor and Theme), System Design (Ranked Systems, Tons of Other Systems), Final Design (Set Tuning, Card Design, Mechanic Design), and Mission Design (Mission Design, Card Design). We also have Ben that directs the ship and another sort of jack of all trades designer than works a lot on new player experience, matchmaking, and flavor things. That said, well all help each other out quite a bit and the real list of things each individual person does is more like 20 bullet points rather than 2. That`s the general jist though.

Ayala explains that the majority of Team 5 members work primarily in other areas:

There are many other people of various disciplines like art, engineering, production, community, QA, customer support, marketing, business, etc that make an equally large impact on the game.

UI has the difficult task of trying to make everyone`s ideas work on PC/Tablet/Phone in addition to a bunch of other additional art tasks they get pulled into.

For more information on the role each team plays in the design process, see Design and development of Hearthstone#Card creation.

Creation

The original 15 members of Team 5, being presented at Blizzcon 2013 by Eric Dodds and Ben Brode

"There were all these new platforms emerging that people were playing on. We loved those platforms as well. We wanted to figure out if we could make a team who could jump in and do those type of games. That was the impetus for starting up this group called Team 5." - Jason Chayes Jason Chayes Type: Minion Rarity: Legendary Cost: 6 Attack: 7 Health: 6 Enrage: Just kidding! He never Enrages.See this card on Hearthpwn data page] Jason Chayes is a Blizzard employee, member of Team 5, and

Team 5 was created in 2008 specifically for the development of Hearthstone, with the intention of taking a different approach to game creation than that previously taken by Blizzard in developing its games, with 50+ person teams and multi-year development cycles. Team 5 was created with the intention of working on a smaller scale but at the same level of quality. The mandate for the team was to keep the team very small, and to "think of ways to develop a game that might be non-traditional within Blizzard`s walls". The smaller team required its members to be "old-school" "garage programmers" and able to "wear a lot of different hats", with far less specialization than that typically found in larger teams.

The initial composition of the team included long-time Blizzard veterans and "new blood brought in specifically to help Blizzard create a type of game the developer had never done before: a card collecting game."

Team 5 was created in 2008, but for a long time was a very small group of less than 15 members, mostly focusing on prototyping. Full development appears to have started spring 2012. Team 5 was first announced along with Hearthstone itself at PAX East in Mar. 2013, by which time it had grown to 15 members.

Team 5 was initially known as "Team Pegasus".

Notes

While each team member has a specific focus, the designers "all work together on pretty much everything". The design team is "very collaborative", with designers exchanging input and feedback across different areas, ensuring the whole team is "on the same page".
Every Thursday the team holds "a big team playtest", to provide feedback on the latest card set, changes or game feature, with "the whole team" playing and providing input.
With regard to iterative design, and ongoing management of the game, Mike Donais explains, "The Hearthstone team has a philosophy of not having specific rules in general. We just want to be open-minded, see what happens, learn from feedback and our mistakes, and so on. So we⃢₀ₙre going to keep deciding as we go, and listening to people."
Knowledge of Warcraft lore is a prerequisite for many or possibly any position on the team. Advertisements for positions such as associate game designer list "Extensive knowledge of the lore and setting of World of Warcraft" as a requirement alongside card design skills and a passion for games.
The Hearthstone art team is made up of "generalists", meaning they each have 2 or 3 different things that they do very well. The team members have a strong affinity for Hearthstone`s "whimsical/charming" art style, and are proficient at creating assets that feel hand-painted.
The success of Team 5 as a smaller development team appears to have led Blizzard to seek to emulate this success with the creation of more small teams. A Blizzard job listing for a Lead Producer stated, "With Hearthstone, Blizzard has revived its tradition of creating small and nimble game teams and we are following in those footsteps". The job listing may have been related to Blizzard`s then-unannounced team shooter Overwatch.
By the time an expansion is released, Team 5 are "already working a lot on future expansions", including "not only the next expansion but the one after that as well". Lead Designer Ben Brode Ben Brode Type: Minion Rarity: Legendary Cost: 3 Attack: 4 Health: 1 Your volume can t be reduced below maximum.See this card on Hearthpwn data page] "There is no way to contain the Brode." - Yong states that the team always have "3-ish expansions in development", although it is likely this also includes adventures. According to Senior Producer Yong Woo, the developers are always "trying to get ahead of the curve".

Trivia

Team 5 and other Blizzard employees do not receive a full complement of cards for their personal use, but must purchase packs or otherwise collect their cards like other players. Be that as it may, employees do receive some of their bonus money in "Blizzard bucks", which can be spent on products such as card packs.
Some members of the game`s design team play exclusively free to play. Others have free to play accounts they play in addition to their main accounts.
Team 5 communicate and collaborate using a variety of media, including meetings, calls, emails, and even internal wiki documents.
The team sometimes hold PechaKuchas, fast-paced slide presentations intended to help the developers get to know each other a little better. Ben Brode explains, "Somebody gets up and does a 15 or 20 minute presentation about their life, or where they came from, show some baby pictures and tell some stories; it`s super fun and brings the whole team closer together."

Gallery

Team 5 in Nov. 2015
"Our group pic of the #Hearthstone Dev team might have gone better if we HADN`T launched on mobile."
A team meeting in the new `tea room`, Jan. 2015
Team 5 in Nov. 2014
The team gather round to watch Yong Woo play
Team 5 and friends in Apr. 2014
The original 15 members of Team 5, plus a few extra guests
Team 5`s original announcement at PAX East 2013
Team 5 in 2011: "Once upon a time Team 5 was 10 dudes and a QA homie."
An embryonic Team 5 on a trip in early 2009

Videos

The Angry Chicken #100: “May the Chicken be with You” (2015-09-01) - Team 5 tribute reel. (2015-09-01)
UI position recruitment video (Ben Brode, Derek Sakamoto, Max Ma) (2016-06-10)

Info

Members

Videos

Confirmed members

Former members

Unconfirmed members

Non-Team 5 developers

Former

Teams

Creation

Notes

Trivia

Gallery

Videos

Known changes

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