Industry Legend Rebecca Heineman Reveals Cancer Diagnosis, Launches GoFundMe Campaign

A few weeks ago Rebecca Ann Heineman, known for her pioneering work on The Bard’s Tale trilogy, the 3DO port of Doom and keeping burgers in her desk drawer, was diagnosed with “aggressive” adenocarcinoma. To help pay for her out-of-network medical fees, she has set up a GoFundMe campaign.

Heineman started in the games industry after winning a Space Invaders championship in New York at the age of 14. According to a 2010 interview with Game Developer, she leveraged Electronic Games Magazine’s coverage of the event into writing some articles for them, before using her homemade Atari 2600 “dev kit” to consult for various companies looking to develop for it. In 2003, she came out as transgender, making her one of the first women to work in video games.

Recently she was given the 2025 Gayming Icon Award, and has been on LGBT rights organisation GLAAD’s board of directors in the past. With her partner and fellow industry legend Jennell Jaquays (Quake II, Dungeons & Dragons scenario writer), she founded Old Sküül games and developed Luxor Evolved. Until Jaquays’ passing last year, she was also working on the Sailor Ranko crossover webcomic with artist Erwin Prasetya and others.