pafzel

RIP Richard B. Gray - LEVELORD 11/15/1957 - 10/12/2026 I was sad to hear of the recent passing of Richard. In many ways it's a reminder of my own mortality. I still remember Richard from the early 90s when we hired him to be a level designer on Duke Nukem 3D. Richard had been in the navy had a varied adult life and was a few years older than Scott and I who were the elders of the company. Richard went on to do about 50% of the levels in the game. It was the wild west back then and getting hired was often as simple as making some Doom levels and sending them in. This was the pattern to get hired as a level designer for nearly a decade in Dallas. Richard was a unique character. He didn't like a lot of feedback and meddling in his levels and he had a strong vision for them. This often caused some friction on the team but the results spoke for themselves. He'd slip in things like when you viewed a space station level from above the outline of the map was a rough approximation of the Starship Enterprise. I remember when Richard came in after a weekend and showed me the opening to Pigsty (a level in the add-on) that started with a car crashing into a police station. Richard had watched Terminator that weekend and Arnold said his famous "I'll be back" line then crashed into the station. He was big into secret areas and surprises for players. Richard was always happy and smiling around the office and well liked by everyone. He often walked around with a large mug of orange juice. A while later I saw a large jug of Vodka stashed back under his desk and asked him about it and he smiled. I had to be the bad guy but he understood. Another day I came into the Duke are and it was empty but I heard *thunk* *thunk* *thunk* and laughter from the other room. I go in and Richard was throwing small throwing knives at a large cardboard box leaned against he wall. The sheetrock had played the game as well. Hey, that's how we rolled in the 90s. I had to be the bad guy again. After Duke shipped, Richard and a few others broke off (in the middle of the night) to form Ritual Entertainment. They had early success with the Quake add-on packs, but after that they were between projects and ran out of money. We bridge loaned them 100k to get them through. Even though things were often competitive and a little contentious between local studios, there was comradery. A lot of that was due to relationships with people like Richard. After Ritual folded (many years later) Richard sort of drifted out of game development. In the early 00's he created a series of casual game hidden object series with Becky Brogan. These found success for him. We would often get together for lunch or dinner when Richard was in town. A favorite spot for us was Burger Island a few miles from the old offices. Massive burgers in a hole in the wall that he said he couldn't get in Russia, where he lived now. I would want to talk about games, but Richard would listen but was generally uninterested. He liked doing his own smaller games and being free. He valued the freedom a lot. My big takeaway over lots of burger lunches was that Richard was content and happy. He had peace. He'd moved to Russia and married his wife Olga and was just enjoying life. He'd entered a new phase of life. He never wanted to own/run a studio again. He didn't want to work on large teams. He didn't even consider working in AAA. He liked doing the Becky Brogan games because it was all him. No bosses, no partners, just him. That idea will resonate with every indie game developer today. Richard was loved by name people and had *lots* of friends in the Dallas game community and all over the world. He was a unique individual, wildly creative and fun to hang out with. He had a creative vision and a drive to create but his priority later in life was just to live his life to the fullest. He will be sorely missed. Richard was a good guy. I will miss him.