The future of DotA seems to be great now with developer IceFrog announcing via his blog that he is now leading a team at Valve and will “do some very exciting stuff“ for the DotA community. He didn’t make any clear announcements regarding what exactly he will do with the new team for DotA, but it’s obvious that it’s going to be a huge leap forward for the game.

“My goal and top priority in the future is to solve the surrounding issues that affect the DotA experience in order to allow it to reach new heights. Addressing these issues will enable us to further enjoy aspects of DotA such as the gameplay, mechanics, and in-game feel that currently work well and ought to be maintained,” wrote IceFrog.

The DotA community, however, is most likely to become a bit more fragmented, since a similar game will be released in the form of Heroes of Newerth (by Demigod and S2 Games) and StarCraft II that will probably push some other modders create something really similar to DotA. However, IceFrog believes that Starcraft II might not be the future of DotA:

“I’ve been actively exploring several options for some time now. Starcraft 2 might not necessarily have what DotA needs to become a better game. Moving to any new engine presents various challenges that need to be considered.”

Either way, I’ll keep you posted with IceFrog’s plans as a team leader over at Valve.