Samwise Didier

Samwise Didier
Didier at BlizzCon 2009
Born1971 (age 52–53)
Tustin, California, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Occupation(s)Artist, designer

Sam "Samwise" Didier (born 1971) is an American artist. He served as senior art director at Blizzard Entertainment, having been with the company since 1991.[1] As the art director for the flagship games of the Warcraft, StarCraft, and Diablo franchises, the producer of several games, and an artistic contributor to almost every game released under the name Blizzard Entertainment, Didier has created a distinctive Blizzard house style.[2][3] Edge described Didier's style as "a striking, pulp sensibility that may be an acquired taste, but one acquirable on either side of the Pacific, side-stepping polarisation of appeal to either eastern or western audiences."[4] His other contributions to Blizzard projects include writing, voice acting, music, sculpture,[5] the Pandaren species, and the name "Warcraft".[6][7] Leonardo Marcato calls him "one of the game designers that can be legitimately called authors thanks to the imprint they gave to projects they directed."[8]

In addition to his work at Blizzard, Didier has written and illustrated novels, released an illustration guide, and created album cover art.

  1. ^ Onyett, Charles (May 19, 2007). "StarCraft 2's Art Design". IGN. Archived from the original on June 9, 2012. Retrieved July 25, 2017.
  2. ^ "Sam Didier Video Game Credits and Biography". mobygames.com. Archived from the original on April 8, 2019. Retrieved July 30, 2017.
  3. ^ Hamilton, Ian (June 13, 2012). "His doodles turn into video game monsters: Now art director for 'StarCraft II,' Sam Didier has been creating orcs, elves and trolls for Blizzard for more than 20 years". Orange County Register. Archived from the original on July 25, 2020. Retrieved July 19, 2017.
  4. ^ "The Art of War: Blizzard's art director, Samwise Didier". Edge. No. 141. October 2004. p. 82. Retrieved July 16, 2017.
  5. ^ "Statues of Blizzard". Blizzard Entertainment. Archived from the original on October 8, 2019. Retrieved August 8, 2018.
  6. ^ Minotti, Mike (May 14, 2019). "Warcraft at 25: How Blizzard's strategy game became a media empire". venturebeat.com. Archived from the original on July 16, 2020. Retrieved July 30, 2019.
  7. ^ Gibson, Sean (March 18, 2013). "Sam "Samwise" Didier Discusses Everything Blizzard". Gaming Illustrated. Archived from the original on April 23, 2013. Retrieved June 14, 2013.
  8. ^ Marcato, Leonardo (2016). Of Human and Posthuman: Videogames and the future of the Human (PDF). The Philosophy of Computer Games Conference, Malta 2016. p. 8.