Ti-Ning Kwa, a designer, developer, and 3D artist, who previously worked at LucasArts passed away last week. The announcement came from an obituary article by Game Developer, which had received the news of his death through Kwa’s former coworker Gaurav Mathur. The cause of death is not specified.
Image via LinkedIn Profile
Kwa’s journey into the gaming industry started in the late 1990s when he entered into the role as a production artist for Dynamix. Before this company went defunct on August 14, 2001, Kwa provided concept art and animation cycles for Outpost 2: Divided Destiny, Starsiege: Tribes, Tribes 2, and 3D Ultra Minigolf Deluxe. On the development of the Tribes game series, he had designed models, textures, and animations for all in-game vehicles and weapons.
Following the closure of the studio, Kwa transitioned to the production team for LucasArts, which would cement his legacy into the worlds of Star Wars games.
He was a major contributor to the artistic gameplay of Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds and Star Wars: Episode I – Jedi Power Battles. Veteran players who fondly reminisce of destroying Destroyer repulsorcrafts or having intense battles against the Trade Federation can have Ti-Ning Kwa to thank. His work involved creating the concept artwork for many of the vehicles and vessels for Galactic Battlegrounds and serving as the lead artist for the additional textures of Jedi Power Battles.
Image via “Star Wars Gaming” | Credits of Star Wars: Jedi Power Battles
In 2003, Kwa had left LucasArts and settled into another major gaming company, Electronic Arts (EA), by the next year. For the next 16 years, he worked on graphics, character models, and object textures for all four games of The Sims series. According to his MobyGames profile, his last major contributions to the gaming industry were the Moschino Stuff, Realm of Magic, and Discover University stuff packs from The Sims 4.
Kwa had won 15 different awards, including the 2022 German Design Award issued by the German Design Council. While most of his awards were related to his major involvement in the fashion industry due to his very own eyewear boutique company RIGARDS, some of his designs have caught the attention of Netflix, which had featured one of his designs during an episode of the live action Cowboy Bebop series.
Ti-Ning Kwa leaves a lasting legacy on the game design for the gaming industry, impacting major companies like EA and LucasArts. The worlds that he have helped create will live on.
