Heroes of the Storm Lead Hero Designer Wants More Diversity, Explains Hero Selection Process

In an interview released by Forbes earlier today, Heroes of the Storm’s Lead Hero Designer Kent-Erik Hagman explained how the team decides which characters to add to the game’s ever growing roster.

Speaking to Forbes, Hagman revealed that when deciding which characters they’re going to add, these characters need to strike a balance between various factors, including their silhouette, Artistic Direction, Game Design Direction and so on. Silhouettes are particularly important, he said, so players can easily distinguish which Hero they’re playing. Size matters as well, because their silhouette affects player expectation. For example, larger heroes are expected to be tanks because their size gives the player the idea that they can take tons of damage.

Hagman also revealed that over the course of a year, the Heroes of the Storm team want to hit some “important notes.” These include adding diversity to the roster, which led him to say that fans should expect more support heroes to come to Heroes of the Storm in the future:

“Right now we’re looking at the roster and trying to get more supports in our lineup as we feel the feedback has been (correctly) pointing out the game could use more supports in general.”

Speaking of new content, when asked if the team are planning on adding an Overwatch map anytime soon, Hagman commented that they would like to one day have a Battleground for all their universes.

When asked if some of Blizzard’s universes such as Diablo are running out of characters, with remaining options “too minor” to be added, Hagman noted that Heroes of the Storm already has succeeded in turning minor characters into heroes. These heroes include Sgt. Hammer who’s a basic siege tank unit in Starcraft and Murky from Warcraft. He also credited the game’s art and writing teams for turning these minor characters into the heroes that they are in Heroes of the Storm.

Finally, when asked how he felt about Heroes of the Storm when compared to other MOBA titles like League of Legends, Hagman responded by saying that the team is very happy with Heroes, but that they are “perfection-driven game designers,” so they won’t stop till they make the best version of the game that they can.

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