From Heretic to Warzone, one of first-person shooters’ quiet architects is stepping away. Brian Raffel, who co-founded Raven Software with his brother Steve in 1990, is retiring from game development after 36 years steering the studio through PC shooters’ defining eras.

A 36-Year Run At Raven

Raffel has served as Raven’s Vice President since its inception and took over as Studio Head in 1997. He also became a Vice President at Activision that same year following Raven’s acquisition by the publisher. In 2024, he began sharing the Studio Head role with Dave Pellas, a veteran who joined Raven in 2011, signaling a planned leadership transition.

“It’s hard to put into words what this journey has meant for me,” Raffel wrote on LinkedIn. “From those early days building Raven to becoming the first studio acquired by Activision, I’m grateful for the people, the culture and the games we created together. Most of all, I want to thank my brother Steve. Taking this path together and choosing Activision was one of the best decisions of our lives.” Steve Raffel retired from Raven in 2017.

From Black Crypt To Heretic

Raven’s debut, Black Crypt, was a first-person RPG in the Wizardry mold. A year later came ShadowCaster on DOS, a sharper, more ambitious take on dungeon-crawling. Momentum truly shifted with the studio’s third game, Heretic, published by id Software. It spliced Raven’s dark fantasy sensibilities with Doom’s blistering speed, and introduced forward-looking ideas like usable inventory items and the ability to look up and down. Thanks to a recent Nightdive Studios remaster, Heretic still holds up for modern players.

That success cast Raven as an FPS specialist. HeXen expanded Heretic’s formula with hub-based levels and class-driven combat, while Soldier of Fortune chased gritty realism and notorious gore. Perhaps the brightest spot in that early stretch arrived with Star Wars: Jedi Knight II — Jedi Outcast and Jedi Academy. Both games remain fan favorites, largely because of lightsaber combat that felt adventurous and technical instead of canned.