Sam 'Samwise' Didier, the longtime Blizzard art director who defined the iconic look of the studio's games, has announced that he's retiring after 32 years with the company.
"Blizzard was never just a job for me," Didier wrote on Twitter. "I joined the company in 1991 and it immediately became my second home. I found out I had a family that I didn't even know I had! I grew up there. I learned almost everything I know about art there."
Didier contributed to many of Blizzard's early games, including The Lost Vikings, Rock n' Roll Racing, and Blackthorne. But his contributions to the original Warcraft RTS essentially defined the look that Blizzard would be known for in the decades to come - and he's even credited with coming up with the "Warcraft" name.
Serving as art director on Diablo, StarCraft, and most of the Warcraft series - including WoW - Didier had a massive hand in creating Blizzard's most beloved worlds, and has continued to contribute to pretty much every game the studio has put out in the past 30 years.
"Your talent helped build Blizzard’s signature art style, and I know many of our artists have learned so much from you over the years," Blizzard president Mike Ybarra told Didier on social media. "Thanks for what you did for them, and for gamers and artists everywhere. Congrats on your retirement!"
Didier finished his retirement message with one last piece of advice to his former colleagues at Blizzard: "Always draw big shoulder pads."
Today's announcement comes shortly after BlizzCon 2023, where the studio announced a big shakeup to World of Warcraft with the next three expansions forming a single story arc called the Worldsoul Saga. Across all its series, Blizzard wants to "pay more attention to what players want, and deliver on that more consistently," but after a shaky few years, it remains to be seen how well the studio can make good on that promise.
