Alan's passion for technology and games led to a 25 year career at Blizzard Entertainment where he helped develop several critically acclaimed titles such as Warcraft III, StarCraft II, and Heroes of the Storm. His journey has included both technical and game direction, and he's had the honor of leading teams both small and large. He's incredibly excited to start this new chapter with some pretty awesome people.

I guess if I had saved all the quarters I pumped into Street Fighter II at the arcade, I'd have a lot more money today. But then I wouldn't be as good with Blanka, so I think it was worth it.

During her two-decade career in gaming, Amy has held leadership roles on StarCraft II, Heroes of the Storm, World of Warcraft in China, and Blizzard’s Global Esports teams. She is passionate about building & fostering communities. And believes that gaming  brings together an exceptional community of creators, competitors and players that connect across geographies, languages, and beliefs, to accomplish amazing feats and be a part of something much larger.

Favorite game of all time: StarCraft II

First completed game: Legend of Zelda

Hobbies: Board games, playing pretend, cooking/baking

Also loves: Any time spent with family and friends, travel adventures, dinner parties

A twenty-year veteran of the game industry both tabletop and digital, Ben’s roles have included college professor, illustrator, concept artist, art director, and creative director. He has a passion for building games and teams from the ground up, which he did for over a decade on Hearthstone where he helped to define the aesthetics and creative direction for the game from its earliest days.

Greatest Strength: The ability to answer most questions in the form of a song lyric.

Greatest Weakness: Using multiple metaphors to make a point, and misusing the word “literally” in conversation.

Three Best Smells: Fresh coffee, pipe tobacco, linseed oil

Plan “B” Careers: Music, photography, or woodworking

Billy is a serious gamer with a wide set of art and technology skills including rigging, animation, programming, tools/pipeline development, and cinematic storytelling. He has over 15 years in game development, most recently as principal/lead technical artist at Blizzard Entertainment. Billy also has 5 years of experience designing and programming websites for Walmart, Gilead Sciences, and Disney.

Strengths: Wearing many hats, cross-discipline interaction

Weaknesses: Stubbornly playing games until reaching max level and then promptly quitting

Hobbies: Gaming, tennis, yoga

Interests: Electronic music, mixed martial arts, exploring bicycle paths with family

A veteran of the video game industry, Chris has overseen the development of several award-winning video games including Warcraft III, StarCraft II, Heroes of the Storm, and Hearthstone. Chris’s goal is to link arms with passionate developers to craft game experiences that bring players together and create positivity in the world.

Receiving the Wookie life pledge was the highlight of a recent trip to Disneyland. The original Star Wars movies probably had the most influence on turning Chris into the fantasy, science fiction, and D&D nerd that he is.

With over 15 years designing and implementing user interfaces, Derek has helped shape the UX for World of Warcraft and Hearthstone. He believes UI can bridge art, design, engineering, and the player to help make a fun experience. He's humbled by the passion, dedication, and positive energy of gamers from around the world. In addition to UI design, he's passionate about promoting a positive and joyful team culture.

Strengths: Dad jokes, jack of all trades, doing things without thinking, Pokemon puzzle league

Weaknesses: Dancing, pastries

Favorite Restaurants: Alinea, Shibucho, Panda Express

Favorite Bakeries: Porto’s, Cream Pan, Paderia

With twenty-five years' experience, Dustin has contributed to design and game direction on a variety of cool games, including StarCraft II, Heroes of the Storm, World of Warcraft, Lord of the Rings, Command & Conquer, and Mechwarrior 2. Dustin believes great teams make great games and people should be creatively empowered and encouraged to try new things. Experiment and thrill in the joy of creation. Everyone is a game maker.

Hobbies: Baking, Dungeon Master. I am not really getting better at either and I have given up trying to improve, but I love them both. 

Secret Shame: I have seen the movie Starship Troopers several hundred times. Whether you think Starship Troopers is a fine example of artistic cinema or not, you must admit, that is too many times. 

Eric has been designing games since he was 5, and has no intention of stopping anytime soon. During his 20+ years at Blizzard Entertainment, Eric was the Game Director for the first seven years of Hearthstone's development and was the first designer working on World of Warcraft. While he is still on this earth, he will be involved in games.

Eric spends most of his free time playing games with his friends (Board, RP, Video, VR). That being said, he is probably happiest when he is just sitting on the beach.

Erin has been an HR leader for more than a decade and believes people are the heart of any company. She works hard to build trust with her colleagues and geeks out on organizational behavior, psychology, and analytics. She built out multiple teams across different disciplines while at Blizzard Entertainment and Surefoot and loves onboarding new colleagues, coaching high performing teams, and cultivating an inclusive culture.

Pets: Willie (pug), Charlie (boxer)‍

Favorite pastime: Singing Adele at the top of my lungs ‍

Favorite restaurants: Cafe Gazelle and Christakis‍

Favorite emoji:

Fifteen years ago, Gina dreamed about one day working in the gaming industry. Her career journey has taken her to multiple entertainment companies, including Disney, NBC-Universal, Sony Pictures, and Warner Bros. Eventually, her dream was realized as she supported talent acquisition for AAA studios such as Netherrealm, Monolith, Disney Interactive, and Blizzard Entertainment. 

Gina’s been obsessed with video games since childhood. Her parents would hide her SNES system, but Gina and her sister would find it every time to sneak in a few rounds of Mario Kart before their parents came home. She also enjoyed PC gaming at a young age and loved playing the King’s Quest and Space Quest series from Sierra games. Today, you can find her playing Final Fantasy XIV (MMO), Fortnite, and Overwatch.

Grant has been writing code since he was 6 years old and has been developing video games his entire adult life. He has made everything from action games to racing games and has lived on three different continents. Grant believes that teams with a shared purpose and complementary skills create the best experiences for both players and developers.

Happiest when playing Ultimate four or more days a week.

Reads at least 30 science fiction and fantasy books a year.

Only likes to cook if it's BBQ and there's beer in the fridge.

Hadidjah's 10-year career in games has seen them in Technical Art, Environment Art, and finally VFX. In that time they've worked on everything from indie games to MMOs to building and leading Hearthstone's VFX team. They believe strongly in the ability of games to make the world a happier and more connected place, and are thrilled to be pursuing that with Moonshot.

Interests: drawing (poorly), reading (slowly), game dev (but outside of work this time), rating fishing minigames, dice-making, crafting, animation, tabletop games, insta-locking Support, accidentally saying hi to people's dogs first, good food, great drinks, making bold claims about VFX color palettes, taking naps in different countries, baking, animals, ethology, bookbindin-

Back in the day, Jason started his career as an artist for the Walt Disney Company. He learned from a bunch of talented folks while there and later had the chance to join Electronic Arts as an art lead and development director. He found joy there while working with small and scrappy teams and brought that passion with him to Blizzard where he helped build Hearthstone and some other really cool stuff.

The 1985 Tri-Logo Yak Face action figure. I love collecting as much as I love Star Wars, so it was a good day 35 years ago when I completed the full 92 figure set…right until the discovery of a 93rd figure! Never released in the US, Yak Face was impossibly hard to get for a kid in Texas before the internet. Through secret magics, he arrived as a surprise gift from my folks, and remains the best birthday present I have ever received.

Jason helps teams understand and define their needs through a process of inquiry to move towards thoughtful solutions. He has 20 years of cross-disciplinary experience in concept design, animation, UX/UI, branding, product design, 3D modeling and story. His previous stops include, Disney, Electronic Arts, Sony Animation, and most recently Blizzard Entertainment. He enjoys a good doodle as much as the next person.

Hobbies: Indulging my fickle curiosity and watching cartoons.

Jenny grew up loving video games and animated films, and she spent a lot of time drawing. This led to her studying 3D art in college, while also taking math and science classes to get a ‘real’ job. Once she realized there were careers that combined technology and art, she never looked back. Jenny started as a technical artist intern at Blizzard, where she learned a lot from really talented people and eventually worked on some cool projects including Overwatch. From there, she had the chance to join Apple and work on AR/VR applications.

Random Facts: I used to compete in figure skating, and my first job in high school was as a figure skating instructor. Before getting into the gaming industry, I considered a career in biological research. I spent a lot of time growing cell cultures, running DNA tests, and even studied wildlife in Costa Rica.

Favorite Games: Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Breath of the Wild, Diablo 3

Working as a software engineer for the last twenty years Jonny has helped build a catalogue of games including the Driver series, Grand Theft Auto V, StarCraft II and Heroes of the Storm. Specializing as a tools engineer Jonny enjoys a diverse range of work with a consistent goal of making game development as frictionless as possible for the rest of his team.

World's Greatest Football Team: Newcastle United

Favorite Quote: "The meaning of life is that it ends"

Guitar Heroes: Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan, John Frusciante, Dave Gilmour, Dimebag Darrell

In 2001, Kate discovered Photoshop and HTML, and the rest was history. Her career in games started in 2010 and has spanned web design, UX/UI, game design, narrative design, and art. She’s proudest of working on the minutiae of player economy design in Guild Wars 2 and of her years as a game designer on Dungeons & Dragons.

Being a game master is low-key the best part of RPGs. Not because you get to play god (although you do), but because you get to orchestrate the fun of a group of people who are there to escape with you into something else for a few hours. As long as everyone is having fun, you’re playing the game right. What could be better than that?

Laurel has worked as an artist in the games industry for over a decade. Her first job of note was character design for Splash Damage's 2011 game, Brink. After which, she spent years at Blizzard Entertainment, where she painted many a concept, key art and 2.5D cinematic. She makes a lot of different sorts of artwork, from illustration to concept design to physical sculpture.

I grew up in the wilds of northern Canada and learned how to evade large predators (mostly bears). Now in Southern California, there are fewer bears, but way more rattlesnakes. My training has left me woefully unprepared.

All Time Favorite Animal: Allosaurus

Favorite Living Animal: The Ossifrage

Least Favorite Animal: Elephant seals (Pinnipeds! What is their deal?)

Mike wrote his first line of code on his Bally Professional Arcade gaming console when he was in sixth grade. He loved it. A decade later he was writing code as one of the cofounders of Blizzard Entertainment. He eventually became the company's CEO, overseeing all creative and operational aspects, and during that time helped launch more than twenty consecutive #1 hits. Mike's values-driven leadership and passion for bringing people together in positive ways remain stronger than ever.

Music: Rush, The Beatles, Frozen 1 & 2, Moana‍

Books: Lord of the Rings, Hyperion, The Three Body Problem, On Intelligence

Hobbies: Piano, guitar, Texas Hold 'Em, bass player for Elite Tauren Chieftain‍

Best of Times: Time spent with my wife and daughter

Paul is a lifelong gamer who is living his dream of working with amazing people to bring games to players around the world. As an experienced entrepreneur and industry leader in global game publishing, development, community development, and esports, he’s been fortunate enough to work on some of the most renowned franchises in gaming, including Diablo, League of Legends, StarCraft, and World of Warcraft.

When Paul is not playing games (which isn’t often), he’s skiing, bodysurfing, traveling, and hanging out with his wonderful family and friends. Paul cannot drive by a local comic book shop without stopping in and adding to what’s becoming a massive collection of trade paperbacks.

Rick is Moonshot’s resident Math Artist, and he's a kaleidoscope of skills. His 17 year career spans 3D Modeling, Technical Art, and Tools Engineering. He is just as likely to be found creating props as he is spinning up servers. Rick helped make Tomb Raider, StarCraft II, and Heroes of the Storm. Now he’s excited to be with Moonshot weaving wonderous games.

Favorite Curve Function: Cubic Hermite Spline

Favorite API: Maya’s MPxCommand

Secret Super Power: Better than average at feeding fish

Career Highlights: Sold turnips at 473 Bells

Role Queue: Damage, Support

Rob's been in communications for more than two decades, working on everything from tv shows and films to celebrity and influencer relations, and a number of amazing video games. One of his favorite moments was announcing Overwatch at BlizzCon in 2014. It was an incredible experience to work with many talented colleagues across the company to help bring a new gaming franchise to the world.

Strengths: RPGs, Mortal Kombat I & II, electric guitars, consuming burritos

Weaknesses: Avoiding RPGs, burritos

Pet: Cubby (yellow lab)

Favorite Van Halen Solo: Impossible to choose just one

Rod began his career working in product development while attending law school. He landed his dream job at one of the preeminent video game companies and has now worked as an attorney in the game industry for over 20 years.  We won't bore you with his legal specialties, but he's had the pleasure of working with some of the most creative and talented people in the industry. Despite his friendly demeanor, he is also sometimes fondly referred to as "The Hammer."

Interests: Ideas, design, architecture, art, craft beer, roadside attractions, and a good practical joke

Fun Facts: Operates a themed bed and breakfast and is working on opening an alien-themed boutique motel near Joshua Tree (shameless plug). Once surprised one of his co-workers when he was delivered to their office in a package.

Shane swears he was a gamer in the womb, and anyone who knows him would agree. He’s committed his life to making games and supporting and cheering on game developers. Shane knows that it takes a village to make video games, and he’s had the opportunity to work with teams on amazing franchises like World of Warcraft and StarCraft. He feels the most rewarding work is helping others realize their dreams of making great games.

Hobbies: From boardgames to video games - you name it, I'll play it

Hobbies Part 2: Okay just so I'm not one dimensional - fishing, astronomy, travel and... games

Things I Love: My wife, my niece, family, friends, and games

D&D Class: Cleric. Teamwork makes the dream work!

After spending his early career getting to learn from titans of industry at Bain and rocket scientists at Boeing, Tom joined Blizzard's finance team in 2012 (and later Activision Blizzard's). He discovered that being a gamer didn't make him any good at forecasting games, but luckily didn't break anything along the way. He believes finance should be a tool, not a terror, to support the game development process.

Some Favorite Gaming Memories:

Pre-history: Repeatedly destroying my palms playing Activision Decathlon

Ancient: Pulling all-nighter to make it through the Stygian Abyss in Ultima IV

Classical: Downing Gruul

Modern: Making it to the end of Inside and feeling my brain turn to mush

Wes is a generalist game developer who dreams of building experiences that forge meaningful connections between people. His experience is diverse, having worked in different roles across the industry, from indie games to connected products and toys to triple-A mobile games. Wes is thrilled to return to his passion of creating social games that bring people together.

XP: Game development, wilderness survival, improv comedy

Hobbies: Wilderness backpacking, fitness & nutrition, writing music, gaming

Interests: Tabletop RPGs, Star Wars, being outside, learning new things