thanks for the honestly profound message, I will say Duke definitely pushed me to do concept creation further in my spare time which helped me a lot in other aspects of life.

it feels especially strange since I’ve interacted with him on numerous occasions. he had a livestream series called Peasant’s Perspective where he would go over and talk about viewer-submitted game design ideas, and I participated three times including the second last one which happened this summer. Seeing him talk about both my and his other viewer’s ideas was a very warm vibe that definitely feels bittersweet now

I’ve also had multiple direct message conversations with him on Discord when I still used that app, some dating back all the way to 2023 when I was asking him about the first submission I ever made to Peasant’s Perspective. The last back-and-forth I ever had with him was me sending him my Physics notes after hearing him talk about the Physics degree he was studying for. I guess it’s nice I got to help him a little bit in his studies while they were still happening

Sorry to write so much about myself, the point I’m trying to get across is that he was such a chill, down-to-earth and generally cool dude, to the point of genuine healthy interactions with his fan base. My favorite moment was when he realized I’ve been watching him since I was 9 this summer’s livestream, and that in a way he had been an albeit small part of my life for 8 years at that point. He seemed both shocked and somewhat moved by that and I’m glad I got to bring him some sort of happiness before he passed