In Destiny 2, two well-deserved and well-known employees have announced their departure. Weapon specialist Jon Weisnewski and sandbox design lead Josh Hamrick are leaving. The two have been responsible for the “balance” in Destiny for years.
Personnel changes are normal in the gaming industry, but Bungie rarely replaces its key figures. Many faces associated with Destiny 2 have become familiar over the years.
We look at the recent departures. Both developers had their last working day at Bungie on Friday, March 29, 2019, as they announced via Twitter.
This is what the sandbox team does: Both departures were part of the sandbox team. The team takes care of the core and balancing of Destiny:
- Player abilities
- Grenades
- Melee
- Vehicles
- Weapons
- Armor
Hamrick and Weisnewski had clear roles, both externally and internally: Hamrick explained how class abilities change. Weisnewski elaborated on how individual weapons and weapon types shift.
While Hamrick, as the team leader, appeared more frequently in streams, Weisnewski’s appearances were rare.
This is Josh Hamrick: He has been the “sandbox design lead” since 2016. Thus, he was responsible for balancing the game, ensuring that no class is too strong or too weak.
He is also known to players as the “Hat Guy” because Hamrick wore some form of headgear in every appearance.
This was Hamrick’s career:
- Hamrick had been at Bungie since 2009 as a “senior gameplay designer” and worked on Destiny 1.
- Then he was with Bethesda for a year starting in August 2015, working on Fallout 4.
- However, he returned to Bungie in September 2016 and was the “gameplay design lead” here.
(via LinkedIn)
Hamrick: Blade Dancer fans hated him for a while
This was Hamrick’s job: He was responsible as the “sandbox lead” for “balance changes” and also explained them in streams:
- He is known for his statement that he personally nerfed the perk “Hungry Blade” of the Blade Dancer. He was criticized for this, as that specialization of the Hunter was already considered too weak.
- It was Hamrick who openly criticized the “mod system” from the release version of Destiny 2 and spoke of operational blindness – that was in May 2018, a kind of “turning point” when Destiny developers spoke frankly.
- And he had to endure questions like “Are you stupid?” during the “dark times” of Destiny 2.
This is how Hamrick says goodbye: He appeared emotional and thanked the fans. He never expected to work on something that moves and inspires people like Destiny.
He will now take a break and then do something with games again.
Weisnewski – the weapon nerd of Destiny
This is Jon Weisnewski: He was the “weapon guy” of Destiny. He was responsible for the balance of weapons and archetypes. He was always called upon when it came to explaining the balance changes to the individual weapon types that would come with the next patch to the Guardians.
On Twitter, he was a point of contact for experts when they wanted more info. There, he occasionally dropped hints about which exotics could look forward to a buff.
In Destiny community podcasts, he was the voice of the developers and explained thought processes, workflows, and background.
Weisnewski was also involved in the legendary “0.04%” buff developed, which was extensively discussed at the end of 2015.
Somewhere, something went horribly wrong in the patch notes.
This was Weisnewski’s career: It is significantly more straightforward than Hamrick’s.
Weisnewski had been at Bungie since 2009; he started as a test lead, became a gameplay designer in 2013, and was promoted to senior gameplay designer in September 2015. (via LinkedIn)
This was Weisnewski’s farewell: Like Hamrick, emotional. After 12 magical years, he is leaving now. The experience of building “this thing” with everyone else has been the experience of his life.
However, he now feels the urge to push himself again and try something new.
With the two of them, a piece of Destiny history is certainly also leaving. It will be interesting to see who follows in their footsteps.
