Obituary: Stuido Studios co-founder Jose Zambrano

VR developer and Stuido Studios co-founder Jose Zambrano has passed away at the age of 26.

Fellow co-founder Rob Canciello shared word of his passing in an emotional series of Tweets today, news met with condolences and memories from others that had come to know him throughout the industry.

Zambrano founded Stuido Studios alongside Canciello in 2015 as a hobby, and moved the studio toward a full-time venture years later through the releases of VR games like the horror title Don’t Look Away. 

The studio's most recent game, the competitive VR party game The Take, was selected as one of fifteen games featured at The Smithsonian American Art Museum's 2018 SAAM Arcade, an event highlighting innovative use of spaces and level design in indie games. Zambrano was a member of Latinx in Gaming, an online community dedicated to fostering Latinx representation in the game industry. He also co-founded the NYC Gaming Discord server, a community that has now set up a fundraiser to help cover costs for his loved ones.