1949-2023

Sport designer Mike Berlyn, recognized for his work on the Bubsy video games and others like Zork, died earlier this week at age 73.

Digital Eclipse president Mike Mika shared the unhappy information through Twitter:

Shattered to listen to that sport designer, programmer and author Mike Berlyn has handed away. Suspended, Cutthroats, Infidel (Infocom) in addition to video games like Bubsy, and Busy 3D. Oo-topos, Tass Instances in Tonetown, and lots of extra video games. RIP. pic.twitter.com/vAIJlQPe4D

— Mike Mika (@MikeJMika) March 29, 2023

Whereas Mike Berlyn is finest recognized for designing 1993 platformer Bubsy: Claws Encounters of the Furred Sort and the maligned 1996 titled, Bubsy 3D, I really feel that these video games carry a detrimental connotation and overshadow what was a fruitful profession. He ought to, maybe, be higher recognized for the swaths of interactive fiction he created, together with 1983’s Suspended and 1997’s Zork: The Undiscovered Underground.

Mike co-founded Eidetic Studios with Mark Clean (then often called Clean, Berlyn, and Co) however determined to exit the online game business fully through the creation of 1999’s Syphon Filter. On the time, he expressed frustration with these on the high of the business. He all the time appeared to be somebody who caught to his weapons, and that’s commendable.

He can be remembered for the unimaginable work he did within the early days of the business, and we at Destructoid provide our honest condolences to his family and friends.

_{Lead picture through MobyGames.}