Jasper was a great guy, and he was the perfect example of that older man can still love gaming. Jasper was in his 60-ties and followed the modding scene with great interest for quit some years now.
About a year ago or so he mailed me that he loved the previous Hl2 sp-mods that we made and he wanted to beta test new mods if we still needed a good tester. Well, beta testers do we all need, always. But over time i got quit sceptic about such requests, because beta testing is a so much more as just playing a map or mod ones and say, great mod, loved it!
Still, something said me that Jasper was censer so i did sent him a new map and not even one day later i did get a full report back, with screens, text and more.
He was so dedicated that it was a joy to have my maps tested by him, he was always friendly, willing and full of support. And, he loved the same gameplay as i do, "loads" of enemies.
He was the lead tester on our last Final Project Diary sp-mod, (what isn't our best mod by far). Still, he liked it a lot. And he was very busy with testing the new maps for this new mod. In fact, the title was a idea of him. The last few months he even wanted to do more for the dev team, and we talked about what he then could do. I always need good textures and he was interested to look in to this, he liked the idea of making textures, beside keeping testing of course.
The last 9 days i didn't hear from him anymore, and that when he almost every day was in contact with me and the others. And when i upload 2 new maps and didn't hear from him i became slightly worried. I even wrote on our private dev. forum; maybe there is something wrong with him?
But never, NEVER could i think that there was indeed something wrong with him.
Jasper, you where a great friend and team member,
and we miss you and you're input and comments.
The modding world has lost a very valuable community member
because not only did he mean a lot to our team, he also was a valuable moderator of PlanetPhillip,
and did help out other mod teams with advice.
Jasper, i know you are now in a much better place and will look down on us,
thanks for all the lovely time we have spent with you,
Leon Brinkmann
Baltic.Forever
TB Biggs.
I too lost a friend that same day, nothing is harder than not knowing, at the very least you got closure. :) Rest In Peace Jasp.
You have my sincere condolences.
-Captain-Arse
Thanks Captain Arse, and you have mine because we seem to have lost on the same a day a friend.
leon
sad to hear that, hope the loss of such a great member of the team doesn't slow you down in development.
Hardly a team writes such a thing because of a person who they lost, I see that you considered him a great friend instead of an internet folk who helped you with feedback.
I'm really impressed with your act of writing this, it sure was a big loss, and how did he pass away? How did you come to know that?
Well, it sure was something bad to hear, but cheer up dude, life continues, things like this happens all the time with both people you know and people you don't, that was a great tribute to him.
I will be always here Leon, if there's anything I could do, you can count on me, even if you don't know me or I don't know you...
Sincerely, Gabriel.
Thanks x56erx and xXMaNiAcXx for you're comment,
the loss of Jasper will not slow the development down from my new sp-mod, because he only tested it (although he was the lead tester, and a really good one too).
I'm not sure why he did die, i assume he had a hart stroke or something similar. it has to be sudden because just the day before he still commented on our dev forum like everything was ok. i did hear about it 8 days later though, through a memoriam topic on planetphillip.com that Andyb placed there, otherwise i still wouldn't have know what happend! i too would love to know what happend exactly but i can't write to his wife about it because i never had any contact with her and she has other things on her mind right now of course.
also thanks for offering help xXMaNiAcXx, i always need a texture artist but i assume you are not one, lol. Jasper was not the only beta tester, TB Biggs and Baltic Forever always beta test too so in that department i don't need really help too. still, thanks for offering!!
leon
Damn Leon, 63 or 64 isn't old at all and it just sucks - plain and simple. He and I had some good conversations and he was always willing to offer an honest, straight forward opinion tempered with compassionate wisdom. Jasper was a man who offered a true gift of integrity that's in increasingly short supply on the web anymore.
It's honestly odd to me to feel this strongly for the loss of a man whom I've never actually met in person, but I will personally truly miss his presence. My condolences to his family.
jjawinte, appreciate & agree with the kind words.
I'm sorry Phillip, i thought Andyb had placed it because as far as i can remember was his name under the article. But it is YOU'RE site, so. but now we know that you placed it, thanks for giving Jasper such a well deserved place in you're topics!
and thanks too to JJawinte, for the nice and kind words.
leon