Gamer for Life is an art book honoring Kevin Kanai Griffith, who worked at Blizzard Entertainment. Diagnosed in 2012 with Alveolar Soft Part Sarcoma (ASPS), a rare form of soft tissue cancer, friends and fellow game industry workers wanted to show their support. Friends of Kevin started the non-profit Gamers for Good, seeking to allow gamers to act as a response team and display support in times of need. The decision was made to compile a book of fan art consisting of their friend’s top 10 games (Chrono Trigger, Altered Beast, Super Metroid, Mario RPG, Minecraft, the Diablo Series [With Kevin doing art for the 3rd game], Final Fantasy 4, Final Fantasy 6, Mortal Kombat 2, and World of Warcraft).
The effort to help Kevin soon spread like wildfire, seeing submissions from all over. Aside from Kevin’s fellow Blizzard employees, Gamer for Life saw art submissions from Riot Games, Activision, Turtle Rock, and much more.
Sadly, Kevin Kanai Griffith passed away on October 2014. Determined to see the project through, completion of the Gamer for Life book was continued. Gamer for Life is now available on crowd funding site, Indiegogo with different perk levels depending on donation amounts. Both digital and hard copy books are available with no other plans of production after the funding is over.
The money gathered by the project will be split between two different charities:
- Game Changer: a nonprofit organization that helps donate funding and video games to children with cancer.
- Cure ASPS: the leading organization that focuses on researching the type of cancer Kevin had.
For some of the gorgeous artwork that will seen in the book and the link to the Indiegogo campaign, see below.
Indiegogo Campaign: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/gamer-for-life-kkg-fan-art-tribute-book
Source: GamesPress
