Eric Dodds

Eric Dodds is a former Blizzard Entertainment employee, and past professions designer for World of Warcraft. He was also Game Director for Hearthstone.

It was confirmed on October 28, 2019 that Eric Dodds had left Blizzard Entertainment.^[1]

Official[]

As Blizzard Entertainment's lead designer for Hearthstone™: Heroes of Warcraft™, Eric Dodds oversees all aspects of gameplay, including card design, gameplay balance, game modes, and the user interface.

Dodds joined Blizzard Entertainment in 1997, and during his lengthy tenure with the company has served in key roles on numerous games. His first role was working on StarCraft® and Diablo® in quality assurance. Dodds then went on to serve as a level designer on StarCraft: Brood War® and Warcraft® II: Battle.net® Edition as well as on the strike team for Diablo II and the Lord of Destruction® expansion. He then joined the newly formed World of Warcraft® team and spent eight years serving as a systems designer. More recently he worked on the design of Diablo III before joining the Hearthstone team.

Dodds is a board gaming enthusiast who is always up for a game of Galaxy Trucker or Liar’s Dice.^[2]

Notes[]

Dodds was a designer on World of Warcraft from the game's very beginning until "a little way past" The Burning Crusade. One of Dodds' roles was as professions designer, designing all of the professions for players, including engineering. Dodds was responsible for the [Gnomish Mind Control Cap], [Explosive Sheep], [Discombobulator Ray], Ultrasafe Transporters, Dimensional Rippers and "all the awesome, ridiculous gnomish and goblin inventions" in World of Warcraft up to that point. Dodds would later use this experience to create Hearthstone's first expansion, Goblins vs Gnomes.^[3]
In the game, he is referenced by Watcher Dodds and the unreleased NPC Eric Dodds the Third.