Richard Gray, better known to gamers of a certain age as Levelord, has died. Gray's death was reported on social media by Apogee Entertainment, who paid tribute to his "legendary work on Duke Nukem 3D" and the lasting legacy he left behind.

We are deeply saddened by the passing of Richard “Levelord” Gray.From his legendary work on Duke Nukem 3D to the countless players and developers he inspired, Richard leaves behind a lasting legacy.Rest in peace, Levelord.

— @apogeeent.com (@apogeeent.com.bsky.social) 2026-10-13T20:34:18.004Z

Gray worked as a level and map designer on numerous shooters in the late 1990s and early 2000, beginning with Duke Nukem 3D in 1996. Shortly after that game launched, he left 3D Realms and co-founded Hipnotic Interactive, later renamed to Ritual Entertainment, where he worked on games including Quake: Scourge of Armagon, Sin, Star Trek: Elite Force 2, Counter-Strike: Condition Zero, 25 to Life, and others.

He also earned a very specific fame for his "You're not supposed to be here" Easter egg in Duke Nukem 3D, which was only accessible via cheating.

Gray came to the game business at a (relatively, for the industry) advanced age. In a 2016 interview with Duke64Nukem.com he said he was 35 when he made his first Doom level, calling himself "a late bloomer with games," while Apogee founder Scott Miller said Gray was "in his 40s" when the studio hired him out of the Doom mod scene to work on Duke Nukem 3D.

"I hired him to work on Duke 3D in 1994, after seeing some of his really impressive Doom levels—he was pretty active in the mod scene," Miller shared with PC Gamer. "He then moved to Dallas, and worked from our offices. He got along well with everyone and impressed everyone with his dedication and talent. Richard loved to push the engine to its limits and he came up with a lot of fun level design tricks, using portals for example, that our other level designers learned from.

"Richard was also so helpful to anyone who approached him for help getting into the industry or becoming a better designer. He had a terrific sense of humor, too. For example, in Duke 3D he made this hung jury room. A real legend."

Other developers also paid tribute to Gray on social media:

Frederik Schreiber, Slipgate Ironworkers CEO: "Richard was, without a doubt, one of the kindest people I’ve ever met in the games industry. Incredibly humble, remarkably intelligent, endlessly creative, and always a pleasure to be around. Despite everything he had accomplished and the enormous influence his work had on my generation of game developers, he never carried himself as anything other than a genuinely good human being."

Richard B. Gray - LEVELORD11/15/1957 - 10/12/2026Just heard the news that an old friend of mine has passed on. Richard Gray - aka Levelord has departed the planet. I know he's dealt with cancer on and off for awhile now, a word that I cannot stand. Word comes from his wife Olga.

— @joesiegler.blog (@joesiegler.blog.bsky.social) 2026-10-13T20:34:18.129Z

Andrew Hulshult, composer: "Richard Gray was one of those industry vets I always looked forward to hanging out with when I had the chance. He was VERY smart and I always felt like I learned something just from hanging out with him. I'm thankful Rob and Christine Atkins introduced me to him. R.I.P. friend."

Cliff Bleszinski, Gears of War creator: "RIP Richard 'Levelord' Gray. You broke the mold, fella. Guy paved the way for so many level/environment designers."

Devastating news today. Richard “Levelord” Gray was such a great guy. Like many of our friends, I wish I could have hung out with him again. He was full of life, a gentle soul, and an excellent level designer. He was called “Levelord” for a reason.

— @johnromero.bsky.social (@johnromero.bsky.social.bsky.social) 2026-10-13T20:34:17.887Z

I loved the first episode of DN3D but was more drawn in by E2 and E3 that had such distinctive designs. We’re gonna miss you, man. You were one of the best.

— @johnromero.bsky.social (@johnromero.bsky.social.bsky.social) 2026-10-13T20:34:18.264Z

Siegler said Gray had struggled with cancer "on and off for a while now." but the cause of death was not announced. He was 68.

World of Warcraft: Forever is the third mainline World of Warcraft MMO Blizzard's bringing to the table to stand alongside retail and Classic – but the developers aren't trying to cause a rift in their community with yet another version of the game.

In fact, they actually want to draw more players into Azeroth's welcoming hands, as game director Ion Hazzikostas tells PC Gamer in a new magazine interview.

"Our belief is that Forever will offer something that appeals to a lot of folks who maybe aren't currently well-served by what they see from WoW," he explains – and that lines up nicely with what Blizzard's been saying, honestly. World of Warcraft: Forever is for fresh faces and old fans.

"Maybe modern Wow isn't quite their speed, and when they look at Classic, they played that game already, or it's a little bit too janky and too 2004," he continues. World builder Matthew Armstrong said similar before, that WoW: Forever is "for the millions of people who have had their accounts lapse" in Classic – that plus newcomers, of course.

Blizzard wants to reach more fans across the board, and Hazzikostas assures the community of this. "Our hope is to grow the audience, not to fracture it," he states. And "it's not something we take lightly."

This isn't the devs' first go at revamping World of Warcraft, after all, considering Classic. "For years now we've had two distinct flavors of the game, with different paces to them, and they've appealed to large but distinct audiences," as the lead puts it.

We've got retail and, of course, Classic. Soon, we'll have three.

Much like with Classic, WoW: Forever will hopefully bring people who've never touched a WoW game in their life to the MMO universe, Hazzikostas says – and, you know what, I'd argue it already has.

I'd never been willing to dive into World of Warcraft prior to the new Beta myself, having suffered from some serious FOMO. Now, I'm all in, and I doubt I'll be any sort of exception to the standard.

Here's hoping World of Warcraft: Forever indeed doesn't "fracture" the community. Senior game designer Josh Greenfield said he's witnessing "the craziest numbers I've seen in 17 years working at Blizzard" however, so I've got a good feeling.

World of Warcraft: Forever may take us to Northrend and Pandaria one day as "Azeroth is a big place," Blizzard teases, even if it's all about the first year of the MMO for now

Considering only eight minutes of it were shown at Gamescom's Opening Night Live, I went on a real journey with Warlock: Dungeons & Dragons. At first, I was nonplussed by it. While the production values were impressive, it also looked like every Sony game released in the last ten years, right down to the specific angle of the camera and the quippy NPC companion.

Yet as the reveal unfurled, I found myself growing intrigued by Warlock's invocation-based puzzle-solving and combat. Levitating objects to create platforms, using teleportation spells to swap places with enemies, conjuring a whole-ass storm to make electrical attacks more viable. It's rare to see a game of this scope encourage guile and cleverness from the player, to set its mechanical ambitions slightly beyond timed dodges and grisly executions.

And then, just as I thought I was sold on Warlock, the main character pulled out a sword.

Well, to be specific, Warlock's magical protagonist Kaatri conjured a sword. After all, why bother lugging around several pounds of sharpened steel when you can just make one appear out of thin air any time you like? It's silly to carry around a sword that you don't need. Which is precisely why I was dismayed to see one appear in Warlock at all.

Now, to be clear, I like swords—to the point where I spent several years training to use one. I also like games about swords, and appreciate how difficult it is to create interesting and authentic swordplay in a videogame context. Despite being simpler weapons, swords are way harder to depict in videogames for a whole bunch of reasons, from the technical demands of animating convincing swordplay to the many nuances associated with different kinds of swordfighting.

But there was something about seeing hack 'n' slash combat crop up in Warlock that really punctured my enthusiasm for it. Admittedly, it probably didn't help that Opening Night Live had already delivered a torrent of Dark Souls knockoffs and identikit Chinese action adventures up to that point. You'd be forgiven for thinking that swords were the only thing holding the games industry up.

But the more I thought about it, the more I realised it wasn't swords per-se that I had a problem with. Instead, what bothered me was the fact that we don't really see games that are about being a Warlock. Or a wizard, or a mage, or a sorcerer, or whichever brand of berobed spell-slinger floats your boat.

Now don't worry, I've not been struck in the head by a magic missile. I'm aware that there are loads of games that feature mages (which is the umbrella term I'm going to use henceforth). They appear in virtually every fantasy roleplaying game ever made. But mages nearly always appear as an option, one of innumerable roles that players can assume. It's far rarer to see games that are purpose-built around wielding the arcane arts.

I don't know why this is. Perhaps it's a lingering perception that mages are weedy and wet, which goes against what was until recently a very masculine gaming culture. Or perhaps mages simply represent a sterner game design challenge. Certainly, what few mage games exist tend to be first-person shooters that replace the guns with spells. Examples include Lichdom: Battlemage, the potential of which was squandered by aching repetition. More recently, we saw Immortals of Aveum, which offers some decent action if you can get past its infuriating writing, but remains a reductive interpretation of wielding arcane power.

There is one exception, however, and that's Magicka, Arrowhead's debut title about cooking up chaos as a bunch of mages. Magicka is probably the best demonstration of what you can do when you ditch all the other bits of fantasy RPGs and focus squarely on the spellcasting. Its spell-customisation mechanic is a great encapsulation of being a wizard, in how it encourages ingenuity from the player which often results in reckless, destructive experimentation. Magicka understands that being an all-powerful wizard is accidentally burning down half a city because you slightly mispronounced a spell.

15 years since Magicka was released, there isn't really another game like it (apart from its sequel). And I think that tells us something quite important. If you drill down on a specific kind of experience, and ask "What would it be like to be X?" you'll probably end up building something more interesting than if you try to make your game cater to absolutely everyone—which is the approach adopted by most big-budget titles.

And that's why I felt bummed out when that sword appeared in Kaatri's hand. It made the game seem less distinctive, and more like every third-person action adventure that I've played in the last 10-15 years. I should point out here that I'm coming at this as a fan of videogames rather than a fan of Dungeons & Dragons, which I like well enough but do not possess any deep knowledge of. Maybe Warlocks use swords all the time in D&D [They do indeed like flailing around with swords - ed.], in which case I understand developer Invoke Studios featuring them. But thinking about Warlocks as a general concept, "whacking stuff with melee weapons" is not what I immediately associate them with, and not the reason I would choose to play as one.

In fairness to Invoke, the showcase does prioritise invocations, and I am still keen to play with all the magical abilities it offers. But every time that blade appeared on screen and Kaatri began hacking away, I got the sense that it's a crutch for a developer concerned not enough people will buy into just being a magic wielder, that's anxious about catering to unimaginative players who simply want to wallop enemies with a big metal stick.

Maybe I'll be proved utterly wrong on this, and Warlock's swordplay will turn out to be the best bit of the game. Either way, watching Warlock's reveal has made me realise how much I want a game that goes all-in on being a physically feeble but magically almighty wizard. Maybe for its next game, Arrowhead will give Magicka the Helldivers 2 treatment, in which case I will be there on day one.