Heroes of the Storm is inspired by the original Defence of the Ancients: All-Stars modification for WarCraft III. The original mod went on to kickstart the genre that Dota 2 developer Valve now calls MOBA (multiplayer online battle arena), and League of Legends developer Riot calls ARTS (action real-time strategy), but Blizzard instead opted to avoid calling their game a MOBA/ARTS and instead christen Heroes of the Storm a hero brawler.
Speaking to GameSpot, Heroes of the Storm game director Dustin Browder elaborated on that decision. "We fully feel like we're making something a little bit different and a little bit new," he said. Heroes of the Storm is "certainly based on a lot of the games we played in WarCraft 3 and even in Brood War that were made by our fans, but we're trying to create something that's very very quick, and can be played in about 20 minutes."