Travis Day, an Irvine-area game designer who spent over a decade at Blizzard Entertainment, has died at age 41. The news comes from his sister Rachel Day, a VFX artist and producer at Bonfire Studios.
No cause of death was given.
Day’s journey in the video game industry began at 2005 at Blizzard Entertainment, where he worked first as a customer service representative, then quality assurance tester. He would eventually become a game designer on World of Warcraft and system designer on Diablo III. He also worked on major expansions for both titles.
In 2018, he left Blizzard Entertainment and joined Phoenix Labs, working on Dauntless. According to his Twitter profile, he also spent time at Lightspeed LA, Tencent’s Irvine-area game development studio.
Day’s colleagues left kind words for him in response to the news shared by his sister Rachel. He was described as “a pleasure and chat to work with,” and “a friend, colleague and caring individual who shared his life and insights with anyone who would listen.”
For her part, Rachel Day said that “Travis was loved greatly by friends and family and will be deeply missed.”