Metroid Database.com

On January 15, 2008, Mark Haigh-Hutchinson, Metroid Prime's lead programmer, passed on after a long battle with cancer. While you probably haven't heard of him before, you certainly know about his games, and he was a well-known and well-liked industry veteran. In fact, when you begin to learn about what all he accomplished, Mark should be considered nothing less than one of game development's finest.

Originally from England, Mark started out in the industry porting early titles like Paperboy (1987) and programming Zombies Ate My Neighbors (1993), the latter of which he got famous for. Afterward, he worked for LucasArts on such well-known games as Star Wars: Dark Forces (1995), Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire (1996), and Star Wars: Rogue Squadron (1998). He was the project leader for both Shadows of the Empire and Rogue Squadron, and we've also been told he programmed all those memorable boss sequences in Shadows of the Empire.

Mark Haigh-Hutchinson was one of the founding members of Retro Studios. He was the senior engineer throughout the Metroid Prime series, and is credited with creating the game's excellent camera system as well as the critically acclaimed Wii-mote control system for Metroid Prime 3, certainly one of the finest control systems ever designed. His book, Real-Time Cameras, should be completed later this year with help from his co-workers at Retro Studios.

On behalf of the Metroid Database and our community, we would like to send our most sincere condolences to Mark's family and friends. His memory will live on in his games, from the urban dystopia of Zombies Ate My Neighbors to the lurking depths of Xizor's Palace, and the melancholy vistas of alien worlds seen through Samus's visor he helped create as well as in the hearts of those who knew him. Mark was 43 years old and will be dearly missed.

A wonderful memorial article is available at Game/AI.

You can read more about Mark's work at Wikipedia and in an interview with The Amstrad CPC Games Resource (1996).

This news has also been reported at Gamasutra.

Please feel free to discuss Mark's life and work here.

On a final note, we'd also like remember a few other big names in gaming who have passed on in the past couple weeks, Richard Knerr, creator of the hula hoop and publisher of the frisbee; Bobby Fischer, the famous chess champion; and Kyle Mannerberg, lead designer for the Legacy of Kain and Tomb Raider series.

Until next time...
Captain Commando