FPS level designer Richard Gray dies at 68

Richard "Levelord" Gray, a first-person shooter level designer known for work on Doom, Blood, and Duke Nukem 3D, died Monday at the age of 68. Apogee Entertainment shared the news on social media, noting that Gray had dealt with cancer on and off for some time, according to former colleague Joe Siegler.

Gray entered the industry in 1994 at age 35 after studying computer engineering in the 1980s and working with early games in COBOL. His debut, GrayDoom, consisted of four maps for Doom that circulated widely on CompuServe. The project caught the attention of Nick Newhard at Q Studios, who contracted Gray to design levels for Blood, a cult classic from the late 1990s.

Gray later joined 3D Realms, where he stated he had free rein in designing half the levels for Duke Nukem 3D. He also created the signed "You're Not Supposed to Be Here" easter egg in that title, a hidden area accessible only through cheats that allowed players to explore beyond the standard map boundaries.