Stormfront Studios Co-Founder David Bunnett Passes Away

Gamasutra brings the sad news that Beyond Software/Stormfront Studios co-founder and art director David Burnett has passed away of heart failure. Long-time CRPG fans will no doubt recall his graphics work on the original Neverwinter Nights for AOL, Gateway to the Savage Frontier, Treasures of the Savage Frontier, and strategy/RPG hybrid Stronghold:

Game industry veteran David Bunnett, known for his work on games like Neverwinter Nights and the Xbox exclusive Bloodwake, passed away on October 13, 2013 of heart failure. He lived in Point Reyes California for the last 40 years of his life, where he had recently been very active in public service and community efforts. He was a member of the board for the Coastal Health Alliance and KWMR community radio, as well as a writer and editor for the West Marin Citizen.

In games, his career began in 1989, working on Typhoon Thompson in Search for the Sea Child, with Choplifter designer Dan Gorlin. Not long after, Bunnett co-founded Beyond Software, which eventually became Stormfront Studios. There, he contributed all graphics work in Neverwinter Nights, which was lauded as one of the first graphical MMOs, and was awarded a Technology & Engineering Emmy Award in 2008 for advancing the massively multiplayer online genre.

Rest in peace, David.