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Mike Donais - official Nov 2014

Mike Donais

"The way his mind works frightens me sometimes. I think he IS the Maddest Bomber." - Zeriyah[1]

Mike Donais is a Blizzard employee who was formerly a Principal Game Designer on Team 5,[2] working on card design and balance.[3] He was introduced as a new member of the Hearthstone team in January 2014, just before the game's open beta. He was the Lead Game Designer for Hearthstone from 2018 to January 2020, at which point he left the team. He now works on an unannounced Blizzard project[4] along with Peter Whalen,[5] but he still occasionally provides advice and design ideas to the Hearthstone developers.[6]

Credits card[]

Mike Donais

Official[]

As a senior game designer on Blizzard Entertainment's Hearthstone team, Mike Donais is responsible for designing Hearthstone cards, balancing those cards, and designing Adventures.

Donais joined Blizzard Entertainment in 2013 after serving as senior designer on Marvel Heroes at Gazillion Entertainment. He was also design director for the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game at Cryptozoic Entertainment. Mike was a senior game designer for 10 years who helped design Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons, among other projects.

Mike is a competitive gamer who began his career in game design as a pro TCG player. In his spare time he enjoys card games and pro gaming. He also holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science.[7]

Notes[]

  • As of September 2016 Donais states that he "probably [has] about 4,000 Arena wins" on his account.[8] Based on comments from the same period his average run is believed to be close to 7 wins.[8]
  • As of September 2016 Donais is the Principal Game Designer, apparently promoted from his previous title of Senior Designer.[2][9] This may be related to the promotion of previous Lead Game Designer Ben Brode to the more supervisory position of Lead Designer, in late 2015.[10][11]
  • Donais previously worked as a designer for Magic: The Gathering and the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game,[9] and is described as having "20 years of card-gaming" experience and "more than 10 years of card game design experience" prior to his joining the Hearthstone team.[9][12]
  • Mike Donais was the 1997 Magic World Team Champion and the 2010 D&D World Champion.[13][14]
  • Donais is responsible for "all the 'Fin' puns".[2]

Quotes[]

About Donais
  • "I'm pretty intimidated by Mike Donais and the decks he creates - I feel like he's always two steps ahead, like a puzzle wrapped in an enigma." - Zeriyah[15]
  • "Mike Donais is known to be the biggest troll of all time." - Ben Brode[16]

Card art[]

The art for Donais's credits card depicts Epicus Maximus.

Gallery[]

Mike Donais full

Credits card artwork

Mike Donais 2016 official

Donais in 2016

Patch changes[]

References[]

External links[]

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