Chris Metzen

Chris Vincent Metzen alias Thundergod is a member of Blizzard Entertainment.

He is also part of the Sons of the Storm.

Biography[]

Metzen was the Vice President of Creative Development at Blizzard. He was responsible for most of the storylines and lore (through instruction manuals, etc.) found in the Warcraft and StarCraft series of games as well as concept art and character design.

Metzen was recruited by Blizzard in 1994, at the age of 19. At the time, he had expected to bounce between jobs in the comics, games, and film industries. However, the ability of the videogame medium to focus on multiple genres and generate a variety of ideas compelled him to stay in the industry.

Metzen pioneered the idea of Blizzard's "strike teams," which provided internal feedback to the company's development teams. This was part of an effort to keep the company's original development culture together.^[1]

Metzen worked with Blizzard's cinematic team, and gave feedback on its storyboards.^[2] Metzen left Blizzard in late 2016, entering retirement.^[3] During this period, he briefly worked with Frost Giant Studios on the development of Stormgate.^[4]

On December 15, 2022 it was announced that Metzen had returned to the company to serve as a creative advisor for Warcraft.^[5]

Diablo Related Works[]

"I wanted there to be a relatable core to the fiction, to create a big, classical, mythical backdrop behind what was a relatively simple gameplay experience in terms of lore."

- Metzen on the development of Diablo^(src)

The fictional universe of Diablo was created by both Metzen and fellow designer Bill Roper.^[6] He developed the game's story.^[7] Prior to Metzen working on the game, there was little in the way of backstory or lore.^[8]

Metzen also provided voice acting for some of the game's characters.^[6]

Metzen continued his work on the Diablo series in 2000 on Diablo II, where he worked on the game's story, script, and artwork.^[9] He likewise developed the story of Diablo III.^[7]