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Jennell Jaquays has passed away (Donkey Kong, Quake 2 & 3, Age of Empires 3, Halo Wars)

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Minthara

Minthara

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Jennell's wife, Rebecca Heineman (A Bard's Tale, a whole bunch of other stuff), formally announced her passing on Twitter/X a little bit ago. She had been in the hospital struggling with her health since mid-October, after being admitted to the hospital with signs of vertigo.


View: https://x.com/burgerbecky/status/1745019247955181958?s=20

She's worked on countless titles, with the highlights being in the OP. She will also be remembered for being the Director of the Transgender Human Rights Institute in Seattle and being one of the main driving forces behind Leelah's Law, which sought to ban conversion therapy in the US.

A list of gaming projects she worked on:

Donkey Kong (ColecoVision port)
Omega Race
WarGames
4x4 Off-Road Racing
The Bard's Tale IV
Quake II
Quake III Arena
Quake III: Team Arena
Age of Empires III
Age of Empires III: The WarChiefs
Halo Wars

She also did a lot of work in the writing world, largely focused on D&D and tabletop stuff.
 
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Spark

Spark

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Dec 6, 2017
2,600
Sad news to hear. Her and Burger Becky are industry legends in every sense.
 
vixolus

vixolus

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Sep 22, 2020
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Scrolling through Rebecca's timeline is heartbreaking seeing how much Jennell was suffering.

RIP.
 
Psamtik

Psamtik

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Oct 27, 2017
6,942
I saw Becky's tweet about going to the hospital last night, and was really dreading this update. They're fascinating people in and out of this industry, and deserved many more years together.

Probably goes without saying, but if you've never heard Burger Becky talk about the 3DO port of DOOM, you owe it to yourself to check that out down the road. Same for Jennell talking about D&D, once we've mourned and are ready to truly celebrate her work.
 
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Storm

Storm

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,031
RIP. Scrolling through Becky's timeline is heartbreaking. I've been there with loved ones before, and it's crushing.


May her memory live on through the countless people that will enjoy her creations and run her tabletop campaigns for generations to come.
 
Heynongman!

Heynongman!

Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,958
Ah shit this sucks. I had only recently been educating myself on her works with Judge's Guild, and how prolific her work was in the AD&D sphere - and how her influence has stayed through all these years. I knew she was not doing well lately, and needed help with medical costs. God what a bummer. RIP.
 
Milennia

Milennia

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Oct 25, 2017
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May her soul rest in peace, truly a sad passing, good human being
 
Foffy

Foffy

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Oct 25, 2017
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I've been following this situation from Rebecca's Twitter and it's been so heartbreaking. Jennell was sick with a lot the last few weeks. Felt like every time a major health episode occurred and it passed, a new one as dangerous immediately followed.

RIP. :(
 
Nairume

Nairume

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Oct 25, 2017
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RIP to an absolute legend. I know Becky was trying to get help for paying for Jennell's treatments and was giving a lot of updates about how things were going for them, so this is absolutely crushing.
 
More About Jennell's career
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    • CHC

    CHC

    Member
    Oct 27, 2017
    10,265
    This is devastating news, she was so massively creative and original.

    While some here might know her from videogames (level design on Quake II for instance) she was one of the best and most influential tabletop adventure designers. I honestly feel like her work deeply influenced (whether consciously or not) games like Super Metroid, Symphony of the Night, Deus Ex, Thief, and Dark Souls when it comes to level design. Her megadungeons and their intricate secrets and interconnections were so amazing to behold, I used think about her work every time I wrote anything for my DnD group. She had a huge impact on the dungeons I designed for an old campaign of mine, which I'll always fondly remember as the peak of my tabletop experiences. RIP.

    And for anyone who may not have read it yet this is a great series of posts on her and her style of adventure design.

    thealexandrian.net

    Xandering the Dungeon

    I believe that dungeons should always be heavily xandered....Okay, it’s true. I’m just making up words now. Recently, though, I’ve been doing some deep dives into the earliest days of
    thealexandrian.net thealexandrian.net

    Thank you for making the thread Minthara, I saw the news a couple hours ago and was going to do the same but I am always slow and shy with thread creation.
     
  • Index
    • OP
    OP
    Minthara

    Minthara

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    Oct 25, 2017
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    CHC said:
    Thank you for making the thread Minthara, I saw the news a couple hours ago and was going to do the same but I am always slow and shy with thread creation.
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    No problem at all. She was important to the game industry for many reasons and a whole bunch of people don't know about her or her work, so it was vital to me to create a thread so more people can know about her and her wonderful work.

    Also threadmarked your post for more info!
     
    CO_Andy

    CO_Andy

    Member
    Oct 25, 2017
    2,539
    Been following Becky for the past few months. Reading the decline of Jennell's health with every update was very sad.

    RIP
     
    Terbinator

    Terbinator

    Member
    Oct 29, 2017
    10,344
    Minions said:
    Sounds like she was diagnosed with Guillain-Barre syndrome . It is crazy how much stuff can trigger it, even recent surgery. RIP.
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    My granddad picked it up after the flu10 years ago and he was bed ridden and on deaths door for almost two years, severe atrophy. He's still alive but it's basically reduced all his abilities, had to learn to re-walk, use his hands again etc. Can't have the covid jab (in his 70s) due to the risk of GBS again.

    The hospital he was in/admitted to had only ever seen one case of it before so it was while before they worked out just what was going on. This is at a major hospital in Manchester (UK).
     
    Minions

    Minions

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    Oct 25, 2017
    444
    Lakeside said:
    I had a brush with this and it was an awful year. I wasn't aware that it can be fata.

    Also wow.. I played pretty much all the stuff she worked on.
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    Reading the twitter thread , she had a lot of complications, (infections, clogged Catheter). She was unable to communicate verbally, so you can see why that could cause lots of issues.

    Terbinator said:
    My granddad picked it up after the flu10 years ago and he was bed ridden and on deaths door for almost two years, severe atrophy. He's still alive but it's basically reduced all his abilities, had to learn to re-walk, use his hands again etc. Can't have the covid jab (in his 70s) due to the risk of GBS again.

    The hospital he was in/admitted to had only ever seen one case of it before so it was while before they worked out just what was going on. This is at a major hospital in Manchester (UK).
    Click to expand...
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    Yeah, it is basically caused by a your bodies reaction/over reaction to something. Your immune system attacks your nerves in reaction to a sickness/injury.
     
    Lakeside

    Lakeside

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    Oct 25, 2017
    9,303
    Minions said:
    Reading the twitter thread , she had a lot of complications, (infections, clogged Catheter). She was unable to communicate verbally, so you can see why that could cause lots of issues.



    Yeah, it is basically caused by a your bodies reaction/over reaction to something. Your immune system attacks your nerves in reaction to a sickness/injury.
    Click to expand...
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    That's awful. They think I had a "mild case", so I just lost 30+ pounds in a month. I lost most of my small nerve fibers permanently and very nearly lost the ability to walk or stand. It was wild. One of the early things, I was at the grocery store and had to abandon my groceries because I couldn't stand long enough to check out. A couple weeks earlier I was doing high intensity elliptical and biking workouts.
     
    Mzen

    Mzen

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    Oct 25, 2017
    579
    Portugal
    2024 has been an absolute dumpster fire of a year so far, this just hammers that nail even deeper. My heart is with Rebecca, she tried her hardest to accommodate Jennell and lift her spirits ever since the hospitalization.

    Absolutely devastating news. Rest in Peace, Jennell.
     
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    GearDraxon

    GearDraxon

    Member
    Oct 25, 2017
    2,786
    RIP to someone whose work I never realized I had been playing for my entire life, in some form or another.

    I spent countless hours playing the ColecoVision version of Donkey Kong as a kid, let alone all of her other great work.
     
    MoonlitSeer

    MoonlitSeer

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    Jun 9, 2023
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    RIP to an absolute legend. Her tabletop artwork is absolutely iconic.

    aisback said:
    May they rest in peace
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    Please don't do this. Gender neutral pronouns are great and more people should be comfortable with using them, but they have a history of being used to deny the legitimacy of trans people and their existence.
     
    Pasokon Deacon

    Pasokon Deacon

    Member
    Oct 25, 2017
    1,687
    Devil Halton's Trap
    RIP to one of the industry greats. I feel so sorry for Heineman and others close to Jaquays; dying from complications of Guillain-Barre syndrome sounds horrific.

    It's hard to understate the impact Jaquays had on early tabletop role-playing culture in the U.S., particularly for players of (Advanced) Dungeons & Dragons before and during its heyday under TSR. She designed some great adventures and sourcebooks, both writing and illustrating for publications big and small, even for lesser-known systems of the period like RuneQuest. Before her illness, she was still consulting and working in the sphere alongside colleagues from Chaosium and (now defunct) SSI. While her game credits at id Soft and Ensemble stand out to most, I think she had even more impact during the early '80s at Coleco when she became one of the first non-coder game designers in the industry, touching many ColecoVision titles in the process. It only gets more impressive when considering she co-founded one of the country's first game design programs at SMU in Dallas, too; she advised many student projects while working at Ensemble nearby. There's just so much to unpack with Jaquays' legacy despite getting the short end of the proverbial stick.

    Minthara Here's what I believe was Jaquays' final public presentation—where she examines her time at Coleco when she was their lead game designer—which I attended at Vintage Computer Festival Southwest last year:
    View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7tEdUgHE8Y

    I made a quick Backloggd list of her works (tabletop and video games), just in case anyone uses the site and wants a primer on games she's contributed to. Let me know if there's anything to add/edit there.
     
    aisback

    aisback

    Member
    Oct 27, 2017
    8,824
    MoonlitSeer said:
    RIP to an absolute legend. Her tabletop artwork is absolutely iconic.


    Please don't do this. Gender neutral pronouns are great and more people should be comfortable with using them, but they have a history of being used to deny the legitimacy of trans people and their existence.
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    Fair enough.

    Please understand I'm not saying it with any of malice. For trans people I will normally use gender neutral or their preferred pronouns. But I will try to be more careful in the future
     
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