The DeanBeat: Gaming mental health conference encourages men to seek help

Brett Schnepf was a veteran of the game industry, with decades of experience. Earlier this month, he killed himself. In a GoFundMe campaign for funeral expenses, his son Duke recounted with pride how his father was part of so many amazing teams in the video game business. The elder Schnepf had worked on the original Xbox, Flight Simulator, Sidewinder, and many other projects. The original Duke controller for the Xbox was named after Schnepf’s son. I held that giant controller many times. As I think of the joy that it brought, Schnepf’s death makes me so sad.

The suicide devastated a close circle of friends in the game industry that was already reeling from the pandemic. And it’s one reason that The International Game Summit on Mental Health Awareness (TIGS) is urging men to come forward and seek help when they need it, TIGS founder Mark Chandler said in an interview with GamesBeat. Schnepf was one of Chandler’s best friends from the 1990s. The death was one more blow in a pandemic that has claimed a lot of people, and it was yet another reason to highlight mental health in gaming.