Hello fellow yak-lovers. Three years ago I met the lead designers on Faeria at a game developer’s conference in California. After bonding over our shared love of card games, they offered me a key to Faeria’s beta. I immediately fell in love with the game, and started sending endless suggestions for tweaking the card base and mechanics. Not ready to wait for digital updates, I cut out a paper prototype and printed the new designs on cards for physical playtesting. Here’s a picture of a few cards from those early prototypes.
After a few weeks of playtests and sending reports back to the designers, I was offered a job as a game designer on Faeria. Now it’s three years later, and they’ve been some of the best of my life. I’ve gotten to work on an incredible and innovative game with people that love gaming and design. I’ve watched the rise of the Yak memes, weathered the storms of yellow rush, and had the privilege of reading thousands of posts and comments by one of the friendliest and most passionate player bases I’ve ever encountered.
However, the time outside the office has been hard on me. I’m an American working in Belgium surrounded by a language barrier. For these last years everything in my life has been about Faeria. It’s time for me to head back home.
On August 28th, I’ll be starting at Blizzard as a game designer on Hearthstone. I know there’s a lot of rivalry among the gamer communities, but we designers don’t view each other as opponents. We all love designing games, and different games appeal to different audiences. It’s why we go to conferences, like the one where I first met the Faeria team. I’ll definitely be playing Faeria in the future, and can’t wait to see what fantastic new ideas the team comes up with.
I wish you the best of luck with the Hearthstone team and the rest of your life.
I never understood the rivalry between gamers from different games. Some games appeal to me, some don’t. And that goes for anyone. Seeing others as opponents does not make much sense to me either.
I played many card games, eventually I will quit some, but then I just start playing another card game. Though for now it looks like the card games I currently play stick with me for a long time - which I didn’t feel for any of the previous games.
Good Luck Dan!
I hope you can help make Hearthstone fun again It appears you did a great job working on Faeria. Also- keep up the great blog and youtube insights on game design- very interesting stuff!
We, Pilgrims of the Holy Yak, wish you the best. There is no rivalry upon the infinite valley of His Almighty Yakness. We are all part of the same Herd, and we won’t forget you.
Hey Dan!
I want to thank you for all your hard work. You have certainly been incredible for Faeria and its community. We have a lot to thank you for. I remember having many great conversations with you and the rest of the team.
I am a little sad that I havent had time to visit yet and that you wont be there when I finally do. But I am also very happy for you - its many peoples dream to work with Blizzard - but in reality its Blizzard whos lucky to have the opportunity to work with you.
Your awesome. Before you leave, can you convince the rest of the team that we should bring back fatigue decks?
I remember so clearly how I was streaming over a year ago, always only 1 viewer - you. “This cant be viable!!!”
Congratulations and thank you, Dan! I’ve only been playing Faeria for just over a month, though the fact that I’ve played every single day, loved every moment, and go to sleep at night crafting decks in my head is, no doubt, a testament to the thoughtfulness and energy you’ve poured into this game over the past three years. Welcome back to the US and best wishes at Blizzard! What an exciting opportunity. Take care!
It appears you did a great job working on Faeria. Also- keep up the great blog and youtube insights on game design- very interesting stuff!
