Today is the last day to get in on the Gamer for Life: KKG Fan Art Tribute Book. If you don’t remember, Kevin Kanai Griffith worked as an artist over at Blizzard and was diagnosed with stage four Alveolar Soft Part Sarcoma, a rare form of cancer, in 2012. Sadly Kevin passed away on October 17th 2014 but the book lives on in his memory.
The outpouring of love from the gaming community is huge with 283 artists contributing 476 different art pieces for the book. Gamers for Good was formed to band all these artists and gamers like you together and raise money to fight cancer. The two charities that money will be going to after campaign fees and memorial costs, are Game Changer and CureASPS. Game Changer donates games and medical treatment to kids and their families with cancer and CureASPS is the group who are looking for a cure for the Alveolar Soft Part Sarcoma cancer that Kevin had.
If you are wondering what type of art will be included in the book the artists were inspired by Kevin’s top 10 games which are Chrono Trigger, Altered Beast, Super Metroid, Mario RPG, Minecraft, the Diablo Series, Final Fantasy 4, Final Fantasy 6, Mortal Kombat 2 and World of Warcraft. Head on over to the Gamers for Good page to see a sampling of the artwork and know that this will be your last chance to get a copy of the book. Campaign founder Liz Cooper also writes a touching letter to her fallen friend and fellow gamer after the initial press release below. I like how she signs off and I always feel that video games can come back to positivity and hope in the end even if other people keep trying to use video games in some grand agenda of negativity.
PRESS RELEASE
Final Day: Gamer for Good’s video game fan art book campaign ends today
Los Angeles, CA
March 18, 2015
Today is the day, it is your last chance to secure this piece of Game Art History. 283 artist from around the world, gathered together to create the unforgettable volume of video game fan art.
1 great man, 10 rad games. KKG, Kevin Kanai Griffith the inspiration for the Gamer for Life charity project, was an artist at Blizzard Entertainment. His personal battle with cancer invoked the creation of the nonprofit, Gamers for Good and their tribute project Gamer for Life.
Gamer for Life is a fan art book compiled from top artist all over the world. The full credits for the art book can be seen at:http://www.gamersforgood.com/gamer-for-life-artist-credits/ . The art is all focused around KKG’s favorite video games; Altered Beast, Chrono Trigger, Diablo 2/3, Final Fantasy 4/6, Minecraft, Mortal Kombat 2, Super Mario RPG, Super Metroid and World of Warcraft. You can see all the previews that had been released at: http://www.gamersforgood.com/kkg-artbook/
Proceeds of fundraising campaign will be donated in KKG’s memory to 2 awesome cancer nonprofits, GameChanger and Cure ASPS.
The campaign is in its final day and will close at midnight today PST. It has already met it’s first goal and hoping to hit stretch goal for hard cover upgrade before campaign runs out of time.
Gamers for Good hopes you will join them in the tribute to the awesomeness of KKG and the great opportunity to get fantastic art, raise money for the fight against cancer and show the world gamers are awesome and can create purely positive moments in time.
Campaign URL’s:
www.gamerforlife.org
www.kkgartbook.com
www.indiegogo.com/projects/gamer-for-life-kkg-fan-art-tribute-book/x/8270339#home
About Gamers for Good
www.Gamersforgood.com
Gamers for Good (G4G) came together as part of a response to gamers wanting to unite and be of service when needed. In a time where so much negativity can be attached to the game industry we are ready to give back and hopefully shed some positive light in the name of the game development community. The mission of the organization is; to provide charitable assistance for and in the name of Gamers and to educate the general public about game development as a positive part of our society. Gamers for Good is a registered 501©(3) charity.
Letter to fallen friend: Gamer for Life campaign ends today
Los Angeles, CA
March 18, 2015
Dear KKG (Kevin Kanai Griffith),
I met you at a friend’s 4th of July party one year while during our time with Blizzard Entertainment. I knew lots of you through Peet, which can always make introductions weird, but you were like a ray of sunshine. Your megawatt smile and laid back body language put me instantly at ease. From that moment on you were a present character in my life, Blizzard events, and social gatherings. I continued to hear about your Blizzard shenanigans with Peet and your budding relationship with Connie.
Then you finally got that growing lump looked at and everything changed.
From that point on I got to know more and more about you, through contact with others and hearing sooo many awesome stories and seeing so much awesome art. I checked out your Soundcloud station, your blog and was like your internet stalker. I was intrigued by the spark I saw and heard in everyone as they spoke about you.
As your health declined, I saw those around you starting to suffer to. We all wanted to do something to help, anything.
Many conversations ensued, and we came up with a solid idea for an art book project to help raise money for your cancer fight. It took some time to figure out HOW to actually pull our project off and a little steam to get everyone behind it. At first it was just those who knew you, then it grew to those who knew someone who knew you, but it didn’t stop there. Artists around the world heard about your project and wanted to help if they could.
Gamer for Life is our best attempt to honor what you inspired in all of us and to make sure you are never forgotten and that your legacy lives on. We hoped to honor your valiant battle by trying to help ease the struggle of others suffering with cancer.
We sure do hope you like it, we miss you KKG.
Liz
We invite everyone to join us in our effort to celebrate the life of one truly awesome human being, Kevin Kanai Griffith (KKG). He inspired so many wonderful things from all he knew, this project and Gamers for Good are just the tip of the ice berg. We hope that this project can help some of the negativity associated with the game industry to be forgotten if even for just a short time. We want to replace it with the positivity and love that inspired this project.
You can find our campaign at: www.gamerforlife.org . We hope you’ll join us.
Campaign URL’s:
www.gamerforlife.org
www.kkgartbook.com
www.indiegogo.com/projects/gamer-for-life-kkg-fan-art-tribute-book/x/8270339#home
About Gamers for Good
www.Gamersforgood.com
Gamers for Good (G4G) came together as part of a response to gamers wanting to unite and be of service when needed. In a time where so much negativity can be attached to the game industry we are ready to give back and hopefully shed some positive light in the name of the game development community. The mission of the organization is; to provide charitable assistance for and in the name of Gamers and to educate the general public about game development as a positive part of our society. Gamers for Good is a registered 501©(3) charity.
You May Also Like:
Guinness World Records 2013 Gamer’s Edition Here Now
Disney Epic Mickey For The 3DS Is Sure To Bring Joy To The Retro Gamer In Your Life
The Book Of Unwritten Tales 2 Blasts Toward Stretch Goals On Kickstarter
PC Gamer Looks Back At It’s Coverage Of Battlefield And More In The Latest PC Gamer Digital EP07 (PC)
