Obituary: Project Gorgon developer Sandra Powers has passed away

    
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I’m horribly sorry to be the bearer of this dreadful news this morning: Sandra Powers, one of the two key devs behind Project Gorgon studio Elder Game, has passed away.

The news came from Powers’ husband and co-dev, Eric Heimburg, who told the indie playerbase that it happened this past weekend and asked for an extra week on the patch. Not gonna lie, that’s where my heart broke, as if anyone would begrudge him a hundred times that.

“I wanted to let you know that Sandra passed away over the weekend. She was in a lot of pain at the end, so her passing is really a relief. But even so, it’s proving hard to work. I’m postponing the update a week because I just don’t think I’m going to get enough done this week. I apologize for the delay. I want to get this big update out the door because Vidaria is the prerequisite for Statehelm, and we have so much exciting stuff to do in Statehelm… but well, it’ll have to wait another week I guess. Vidaria still needs more polish, and I need to oversee that work. I don’t think launching Vidaria without that polish is a good idea, because I already know what your feedback would be in that case. (‘Needs polish.’) We’ll get it live ASAP. Thanks for your patience.”

The outpouring of support in the game’s Discord has been intense, with players begging Heimburg to take time off to rest and mourn.

“[I]t really helps to have something to create, when I can. It feels really good to know that sometimes what I do can can make people happy.” –Sandra Powers
MMORPG gamers will remember Powers as “srand,” an old school MMO producer and engineer who worked on Asheron’s Call as well as EverQuest II before settling in to build Project Gorgon, a beloved tiny MMO that has won our own indie GOTY award for the last two years in a row. In 2022, Powers told fans that she had been diagnosed with a late-stage cancer (liposarcoma) that was affecting the game’s cadence, and at the end of 2023, Powers and Heimburg admitted that the team was running out of money and would draw down updates. Gamers rallied instead and raised thousands of dollars in donations and subscriptions, which kept the game online and continued funding its development.

A tremendous loss for the genre. Our hearts go out to all who knew her and benefited from her work. We are assuming there will be remembrances in the game and will update fans when we have details.

Source: Discord. Thank you, Eskild.
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