Game boss interview: Rob Pardo says playtesting is critical to game design

Rob Pardo developed his relentless focus on excellent game design when he was at Blizzard Entertainment, making games, such as StarCraft, Warcraft III, and World of Warcraft. He learned to experiment and playtest and to do that over and over again until the game felt right. He also learned to let go of games that didn’t meet the highest quality standards and move on to the next project.

He took those sentiments with him when he left Blizzard in 2014, after 17 years at the big game publisher. He was an adviser at Unity for a while and then moved on last year to start Bonfire Studios, which raised $25 million from Andreessen Horowitz and Riot Games. Pardo is now working on a secret project, but he still believes that excellence is something that you try to do every day. He has recruited other like-minded professionals, from Min Kim, former CEO of Nexon America, to former game TV broadcaster Morgan Webb.