Unfortunately for Julian LeFay, there’s a legitimate reason why he had to quit game development, despite having invested a great deal.

LeFay, who served as a programmer and chief engineer at Bethesda until his departure in 1998, is stepping away from game development and leaving his current project, The Wayward Realms. After years spent fighting cancer, he’s decided—according to OnceLost Games CEO Ted Peterson—to prioritize his health and spend his remaining moments with loved ones. Peterson announced the news in a video, also sharing memories of how their professional paths became intertwined.

“I first met Julian LeFay in 1992 when I came to interview for a junior writer position at Bethesda Softworks, barely out of college. I had never been to a game development company before. When I left, Julian said, ‘If you get the job, you have to lose the suit.’ I could tell you stories about our friendship and how we recently worked together with our team on Wayward Realms as creative and technical directors. However, I need to get to the point. Julian has been courageously battling cancer. His doctors have informed us that he has limited time left, and we are preparing to say goodbye to a true legend of the industry.

Even in the face of this challenge, Julian’s dedication to Wayward Realms and to all of you, our community, has never wavered. He has worked tirelessly to ensure his vision for “The Grand RPG” lives on. However, Julian must now step away from OnceLost Games to focus on his health and spend his final moments surrounded by loved ones. Please share your thoughts, prayers, well wishes, memories, and the impact that Julian’s life and work have had on you. Your words of support mean more than you know—not just to Julian but to all of us who have been privileged to work with him. The team has already had a chance to say goodbye and share their messages. I sat by Julian’s hospital bed and read them to him. In that case, I was reading them out loud, and Julian was dictating replies, which was difficult to do through my tears,” Peterson said.

He describes LeFay as an eccentric, hacker-style programmer with a particular fondness for pen-and-paper RPGs—a passion that ultimately led to the creation of The Elder Scrolls: Arena, his dream project. Peterson previously explained that LeFay was the driving force behind the first Elder Scrolls engine, which originally focused on combat before the team added more RPG elements. This is why some have dubbed LeFay “the father of The Elder Scrolls.” He also contributed to The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall and The Elder Scrolls: Battlespire before leaving Bethesda in 1998.

The video makes it abundantly clear that this news is deeply personal and emotional for Peterson—and frankly, it’s not hard to see why.

Source: PCGamer