Rebecca Heineman, the co-founder of video game company Interplay, has died at age 62. Heineman suffered from adenocarcinoma, a form of cancer affecting the glands that line your organs. Heineman set up a GoFundMe page originally intended for medical costs which will now go towards helping her children cover funeral expenses.
Medical Struggles
In her GoFundMe page, Heineman explained how she was diagnosed. She said, “I noticed when I was at PAX prime that I was out of breath climbing a single flight of stairs. When I got back to Dallas, I went to the emergency room and they found I had 2300ml of fluid in my lung cavity.”
Doctors drained more fluid from Heineman’s lungs until CAT scans, X-rays and blood tests revealed cancer in her lungs and liver. When announcing that “all further treatments are pointless,” Heineman said that she hopes the funeral expenses from the GoFundMe can help her kids “create a funeral worthy of my keyboard, Pixelbreaker! So I can make a worthy entrance for reuniting with my one true love, Jennell Jaquays.”
Jennell Jaquays passed away in 2024 due to complications from Guillain–Barré syndrome. Heinman’s final Instagram post was a tribute to Jaquays.
Heineman’s Legacy
She received a job offer from Avalon Hill Games, after winning the Atari 2600 Space Invaders Championship in 1980. In 1983, she co-founded Interplay, then known as Interplay Productions, with Brian Fargo, Jay Patel and Troy Worrell. While at Interplay, she designed games such as The Bard’s Tale III: Thief of Fate and Dragon Wars.
In 1999, she founded Contraband Entertainment, responsible for the Mac OS ports for Aliens vs. Predator and Baldur’s Gate II. She also worked at Electronic Arts (EA), Ubisoft Toronto and Sony Computer Entertainment America. She served as a senior software engineer, senior engine programmer and senior software architect at these respective companies.
According to Rock Paper Shotgun, Heineman, a transgender woman, received a Gayming Icon Award from Gayming Magazine in 2025 for her advocacy for LGBTQ+ inclusion, accessibility and diversity in tech.
She also co-founded companies such as Logicware and Olde Sküül. Several game developers who worked with her paid tributes and sent condolences on social media.
We at Total Apex Media offer our deepest condolences to Heineman’s family and friends in this time of great sadness.
