In a rather short statement, August Dean “Iksar” Ayala announced his departure from Blizzard after 11 years.
Iksar has previously worked as QA on Blizzard titles such as Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3, before joining the Hearthstone team in a designer role back in 2014. He became a Lead Designer a few years ago, and roughly six months ago took over the role of Game Director after Ben Lee moved to another project at Blizzard. It’s hard to say what kind of impact his time as Game Director had on Hearthstone because it was rather brief and most of the decisions made during his tenure wouldn’t even come to fruition yet.
After 11 years, I am leaving Blizzard.
Hearthstone is an incredible game. To have played even a small part in its creation is an honor I’ll never forget. Thank you to all the players, and a special thank you to my fellow game creators. I am proud of all we built together. pic.twitter.com/zhc0PBuOke— August Dean Ayala ???? (@IksarHS) September 16, 2022
Dean was always very communicative – many players know him from his Q&A sessions on Twitter, where he shared a lot of info about what’s going on behind the scenes, his design philosophy, as well as the future plans for Hearthstone.
We will miss you, Dean. Wishing you all the best with your future projects!
Sadly, we don’t have any information about who will take over his role as the next Hearthstone Game Director, but we’ll share it as soon as we find out.
