Bluepoint Games has announced some tragic news – their co-founder, Andy O’Neil, has passed away.

The co-founder of the up-and-coming developer has died at the age of 47. The obituary for Andy notes he died at his Austin, Texas home and is survived by his girlfriend Stephanie, hsi brother Alistair, half-brother David, and his nieces Isobel and Lucy.

“Andy was key in the formation of Bluepoint Games and his engineering prowess helped catapult a tiny two-person studio to where we are today,” Bluepoint said. “Andy, never afraid of a challenge, drove us to undertake difficult projects and exceed expectations. He would remind us that we do this work not because it is easy, but because it is hard. He always pushed Bluepoint to do great things and we will continue his legacy.”

A native Brit from Birmingham, England, O’Neil moved to Austin in the 90s to work for Acclaim on both Turok: Rage Wars and Turok: Shadow of Oblivion. He then moved to Retro Studios, where he was technical lead on the first two Metroid Prime games, as well as the principal engineer on the third game.

“Andy’s contributions to the gaming industry will never be forgotten,” Bluepoint said. “We are saddened by his passing, but grateful he will forever be a part of our lives.”

Later, O’Neil went rogue and founded Bluepoint Games in 2006. Their first game was Blast Factor, however they quickly began remastering and porting older games to modern platforms – a business model they’ve been pursuing every since.