On November 17, 2025 the Co-Founder of Interplay and legendary developer Rebecca Heineman died at 62 from her battle with cancer.
Heineman died after battling an aggressive lung cancer called adenocarcinoma. One month after announcing her diagnosis through a GoFundMe that she announced her passing in an update, writing “Please donate so my kids can create a funeral worthy of my keyboard, Pixelbreaker! So I can make a worthy entrance for reuniting with my one true love, Jennell Jaquays.” Jaquays is Heineman’s wife who died in 2024. She is survived by her five kids.
Heineman started programming at the age of 14 and landed a job at 16 writing for Electronic Games after becoming Space Invaders champion and began coding games working at Avalon Hill and then co-founded Interplay Productions with Brian Fargo, Jay Patel and Troy Worrell. Interplay worked on some of the biggest games of the 80s and 90s. And eventually creating Fallout and Wasteland. She would later found two more studios, Logicware and Contraband Entertainment and would do programming for big companies. She was a pioneer for transgender game developers after transitioning in 2003 she sat on the board of directors of an LGBTQ+ advocacy organization called GLAAD. Heineman was honored with the Gayming Icon Award earlier this year.
Many industry peers and fans are sharing tributes on social media.
