Jennell Jaquays, designer on Quake 2 and 3, has passed away

[plums]

https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/obituary-jennell-jaquays-game-designer-passed-away-at-age-67

 

Jennell (Born Paul) was a designer at Id for Quake II and Quake III, though that was only one of the many things she worked on over her career.

 

In addition to the Quake games, I most know her work from old RPG games, where her non-linear dungeon layouts still draw praise and serve as inspiration. (For a while people were even using the term "Jacquaying a dungeon" to mean dungeons that are non-linear both in terms of exploration space, and player interactions, though eventually this term was replaced.)

 

I knew she was having health problems lately but I didn't know how bad they had gotten recently.

 

The top link has a further link to a gofundme for funeral and medical costs, run by her wife Rebecca Heineman, another name familiar to Doom fans.

Edited January 10 by plums

[Rudolph]

Sorry to hear that. :(

 

I did not know about her involvement in Quake II. Here is what I have found in an interview for Quake2.com:

 

EDIT: The interview is quite old and was released before Jennell came out, so unfortunately it uses her deadname.

 

I currently have the primary responsibility for the levels in the last unit in the game, the alien's city (three levels). I'm also working on a secret level. I've done some very minor texture work (mostly adapting an existing texture into a new use, like turning a couple wall textures into one door texture).

One thing that I have been doing is suggesting new entities for the game (targets and triggers) that increase the versatility of already existing entity features. John Cash has turned these suggestions around quickly and American has been going crazy with one of them in his factory unit.

I've also taken the overall working concept of the game (killing aliens on their home planet before they finish us off on ours) and developed a back-story that takes the player up to the point where he or she enters the game world.

Much of the base information in the story comes from work that Paul Steed did as a prelude to developing his cinematic game intro.

Edited January 10 by Rudolph

[Man of Doom]

I took the time to look through Rebecca Heineman’s Twitter timeline. 

 

I am not going to lie: so much of how this all unfolded reminded me of how I ended up losing my mom about a year ago.

 

First, there’s the initial shock and the visceral feeling of knowing that the one you love is very much not ok.

Then, it seems like they’re on the mend after a scarily intense time. Maybe things will be ok, right?

 

And then all it takes is one night to prove that nothing will be ok ever again (or at least, that’s how it feels that night).

 

It’s not quite triggering, but it does feel very familiar.

 

I know this may not be the best kind of eulogy to give, but it’s the one I know how to give in a time like this.

 

 

My heart absolutely goes out to Rebecca, and I hope she knows she’s not alone in all of this.

 

Rest in peace, Jennell.

["JL" was too short]

Oh no.  This is horrible news.  :(

Rest in peace.

[Daytime Waitress]

It's a damn shame, and I do wish her wife all the best. But I still feel that there's something incredibly uplifting in the legacy she's left behind: I'd doubt that there's many folks who can conceptualize nonlinear design in TTRPGs without conjuring her name, and that's one hell of an achievement for something you loved sharing with others.

 

On 1/11/2024 at 12:24 PM, Man of Doom said:

I know this may not be the best kind of eulogy to give, but it’s the one I know how to give in a time like this.

 

Sorry you had to go through something equally horrible to be able to do it, but that was a genuinely lovely attempt to lessen someone else's pain.

[plums]

On 1/11/2024 at 3:24 AM, Man of Doom said:

I know this may not be the best kind of eulogy to give, but it’s the one I know how to give in a time like this.

I think it's both appropriate and heartfelt for the context, where none of us knew her personally but appreciate her through her work. Thank you for sharing.

 

1 hour ago, Daytime Waitress said:

But I still feel that there's something incredibly uplifting in the legacy she's left behind: I'd doubt that there's many folks who can conceptualize nonlinear design in TTRPGs without conjuring her name, and that's one hell of an achievement for something you loved sharing with others.

Well put, and I agree.

[scalliano]

Sad to hear. Quake 3 is probably second only to Doom for me in terms of lifetime hours played.

 

Rest in peace.

[TheMagicMushroomMan]

That's sad to hear. I'm not as familiar with Quake's development like I am with Doom, so this isn't a name I've heard as far as I'm aware.

 

Why does the article refer to Rebecca as Rachel, though?

[Tetzlaff]

My first thought was "I don't remember any female id employee besides Donna Jackson", but reading the name Paul Jaquays rang a bell. Didn't even know she was transgender.

 

Sad to hear she passed away. Quake 2 is my favorite FPS, she designed the Makron palace for example, the only non-industrial setting in the game.

 

Here is an old interview from back in the day.

Edited January 16 by Tetzlaff

[Rudolph]

1 hour ago, Tetzlaff said:

Here is an old interview from back in the day.

That is the same interview that I shared in my own post. :P

[Panzermann11]

Initially, I thought it was someone I never heard of when I saw Rebbecas tweet, but I was shocked and heartbroken to find out she used to be Paul, the person responsible for Quake 2 and 3's level design. I'm so sorry for Rebecca's loss, and I wish her the best of luck.

Edited January 19 by Panzermann11

[Daytime Waitress]

On 1/13/2024 at 7:33 PM, TheMagicMushroomMan said:

That's sad to hear. I'm not as familiar with Quake's development like I am with Doom, so this isn't a name I've heard as far as I'm aware.

 

Why does the article refer to Rebecca as Rachel, though?

 

Presumably a typo.

Weird that it was corrected like a week later but not acknowledged.

Egregious because it was a hotlink directly to the correct name.

Pretty gross because it was in an obituary.

[Garlichead]

Such a loss. As a ttrpg player I find it surprising that her works are related to many of my hobbies, she inspired not only a generation of mappers but also took part in some of the greatest video games of all time

 

A couple of days ago I saw this on itch.io https://itch.io/jam/jennell-jaquays-memorial-game-jam looks like there is a memorial game jam going on. It is rpg related, so not sure if it may be of interest of the community but posting here in case it appeals to someone