RIP Zach Ford (1985-2022)

[kleinluka]

I just learned one of our original members, Zach Ford @Zaford20 aka “von ferret” has passed away unexpectedly at the age of 36.
 

For those of you who don’t know him, Zach was one of the original members of Mapcore. Working at Gearbox for most of his career he worked on (among others) Borderlands and more recently PUBG as a Level and Game Designer. 

 

I have so many good memories with Zach, wasting fools in BF2 every night while teaming up in the attack helicopter, playing frisbee in a park in Savannah during a thunderstorm, long conversations about life…
 

RIP buddy. You will be missed.

 

[-HP-]

RIP

[cyberjunkie]

Saddened by the news. My condolences to his near and dear ones.

[General Vivi]

I just saw this and I'm shocked, I will forever be thankful for Zach helping me get my first job at Raven. Rest in peace man. 

[Bl1tz]

Saw the news today, very sad. He was way too young.

I remember playtesting his HL2DM map with a bunch of other mapcore folks, and then in the crazy small world of gamedev, randomly hanging out with him and a few other folks on a night out in Seattle maybe 6 or 7 years later. He definitely stood out among that crowd - not the typically quiet shy gamedev type but a big loud hurricane of a dude. Definitely a presence. RIP.

Also gonna take his passing as a chance to wish well to all the old school folks here and thank those responsible for keeping this place going over the years. Time flies and life's too short.

[Izuno]

Late to this thread.  A lot going on.

I was not close to Zach but I remember him back in the early days of Mapcore. Painful to hear. So sorry to those close to him and his family.

[chips]

I remember him from early mapcore, sorry to hear about his passing and my condolences to all his friends and family.

[Thrik]

Jesus, just saw this. That is so sad to hear.