Obituary: Adam Zamoyski

On September 7th 2011, Adam Zamoyski, after a four-year battle with Leukemia, passed away at the age of 27.

From any early age, both Adam and his older brother Andrzej dreamed of one day working on the games they loved so much to play.

After enrolling on a game design course at university in Leeds they skipped out of exams for a week’s work experience at Lionhead Studios down in Guildford. This taste of the industry left such an impression that they withdrew from university in favour of pursuing real industry experience, and as luck would have it were hired into the QA department at Lionhead not long after.

After working on titles such as Fable, Black and White 2, The Movies and various expansion packs, Adam left Lionhead in 2006 to take up a role at Headstrong Games – at that time Kuju London. It was here that Adam made the leap from senior tester to designer.

During his time at Headstrong, Adam was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. With the support of his family, friends and colleagues he battled bravely against this debilitating disease. In the next three years Adam managed to return to work at Kuju, marry his Japanese sweetheart Natsumi, and then make a move back to Lionhead to join his brother on Milo & Kate, thus realising their lifelong goal of designing games together.

Sadly soon after joining Wonderland Software (now Zynga Mobile UK) and with everything looking up, Adam cruelly suffered a relapse of his leukemia and after a 6 month battle finally succumbed to the disease.

Adam was a truly inspirational contributor to the development of video games; a talented designer, incredible friend and colleague to all of those fortunate enough to work with him, and his gentle kindness will always be remembered and missed. Our thoughts go out to Adam’s family and wife during this tough time.

Adam and Andrzej set up a page for donations to the Leukemia ward on which Adam was treated at University College Hospital London.

Any donations no matter how small make a direct difference to the environment in which fellow Leukemia sufferers are treated, so please give generously.