Ben Brode has spent most of the last decade working on Blizzard Entertainment’s card battler Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, but for him, that work is now coming to an end. Brode announced today that he is leaving the publisher to start a new game studio even though that means leaving behind Blizzard’s on-campus Starbucks.

“I am very fortunate to be able to take a crazy risk right now in my life,” Brode wrote in a farewell message on Blizzard’s forums. “And I’m excited to be scrappy and a little scared. I’m going to help start a new company. We’ll probably make games, but we haven’t figured anything else out, yet. I’m looking forward to designing, programming, and actually creating things again.”

Brode has overseen Hearthstone since he joined Blizzard’s “Team 5” in 2008. As creative director, he led the design and development of Hearthstone into the free-to-play behemoth it is today. The game generates more money from microtransaction revenues than any other card battler on the market. Brode is also the face of Hearthstone among the fan community, but he doesn’t want fans to worry.

“The 80-plus people on the development team are still there, and they are the ones actually making the cards, brawls, events, missions, and features,” said Brode. “I am confident the game is in the best possible hands, and I’m excited to see where a new generation of leaders takes Hearthstone from here.”

Brode went on to say that he is proud of Hearthstone and that he believes the game changed the industry. He finished by saying that he will miss the Hearthstone community.

Here’s his full farewell message: