Fallout, Dragon Age developer Ferret Baudoin has died

Game designer Eric "Ferret" Baudoin, known for his work on the Fallout and Dragon Age series, sadly passed away on 15 October, PC Gamer reports. Described as a “devoted husband, father, brother, and son”, who “loved real life as much as games”, a post on a Facebook tribute page explained that he “passed suddenly”, and “is surrounded by his family”.

Baudoin worked with Bethesda for 10 years - he was a quest designer and writer on Fallout 4, and also Fallout 76's post-launch lead designer. He also worked with BioWare for six years where he was a lead designer - he worked on Dragon Age: Origins and its sequel, as well as some DLC. Before that, he worked at Obsidian Entertainment, where he was one of the lead designers for Neverwinter Nights 2 (thanks, PC Gamer).

Jeff Gardiner, the founder of Something Wicked Games and former Bethesda employee (specifically, the project lead of Fallout 76), took to Twitter to pay tribute to Baudoin, who he described as “a dear friend”.

“I'm crushed right now. Ferret Baudoin took over as lead designer on Fallout 76 for Wastelanders. An eternal optimist and a dear friend. We had lunch several times since I departed Bethesda. He will be dearly missed,” Gardiner wrote. “We'd text about any and all RPGs we were playing. He's the only person I know that plays more of them than [Emil Pagliarulo, design director at Bethesda] and I. He completed four runs of the most recent Pathfinder Owlcat Games RPG alone.”

Emil Pagliarulo also posted a thread in tribute to Baudoin: “It's so rare to meet someone who has been doing the same thing for so long, and doesn't possess an ounce of cynicism,” he wrote. “That was Ferret. I will forever miss his passion for games and his boundless, joyous collaborative energy.

“But what I'll miss most is a human being so filled with love for his family, his colleagues, and his craft that he constantly reminded me what the point of all this actually is - to be happy, to make each other happy, and to never forget how wonderful life really is.”

Our thoughts go out to Baudoin’s family and friends at this difficult time - may he rest in peace.