Obituary: British game development pioneer Mike Singleton

Mike Singleton, best known as the developer behind well-regarded video game titles in the 1980s including The Lords of Midnight, and an important figure in early Britsoft, passed away earlier this month. He was 61. According to a post on GiantBomb, Singleton lost his battle with cancer on October 10. A blog post by Christopher Jon Wild, who was working with Singleton on an iOS version of Lords of Midnight, confirms the news. The industry veteran developed numerous notable titles for 8-bit platforms in the 80s, while also later creating titles for 16-bit platforms. Some of his best known work includes Doomdark's Revenge, Dark Sceptre and Carrier Command. His classic Midwinter series garnered huge praise at the end of the 80s and into the 90s. After the turn of the millennium, he was also involved in development of titles such as GRID and Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows. Wild said Singleton's game Lords of Midnight was "one of the greatest, but overlooked games of all time, by one of the best, but under appreciated developers, there has ever been." Other developers took to Twitter to leave messages about Singleton's passing. Twisted Pixel's Dan Teasdale called the news "A great loss," noting that Midwinter 2 made him want to create games. Elsewhere, Halo 4 lead designer Brad Welch said, "Midwinter was a defining game for me back on the Amiga," while Miles Jacobson, studio director at Sports Interactive, added, "Very sad to hear of the passing of Mike Singleton whose games I enjoyed very much as a youngster and an oldster."