Celebrated game programmer, designer, and interactive fiction author Stu Galley has passed away. 

News of Galley's passing has been circulating on social media, where fans and colleagues have been paying tribute to his life and work. 

Galley was perhaps best known for creating some notable interactive fiction titles during his time as a senior game designer at Infocom. 

He was the driving force behind popular games like Moonmist, Seastalker, and The Witness, the latter of which won multiple awards including the 'best computer game of the year' accolade from Electronic Games magazine. 

After Infocom was acquired and eventually shut down by Activision, Galley left the company for pastures new, and began working as a sales system analyst for Thinking Machines Corporation before eventually joining MIT as a systems engineer. 

When asked whether or not he enjoyed his job in a 1986 interview with Zzap! magazine, Galley responded with a memorable quote that highlights the pioneering work he was doing at the time.  

"Yes, yes I do," he replied. "It's funny, it's almost like a dream fulfilled but up until a few years ago, I had no idea that this was what my dream was because I had no examples to go by."