Marvel Includes Tribute To Fan In 'Midnight Suns'

"Luke Was Here" is engraved on one of the trees in "Marvel's Midnight Suns" video game in tribute to a deceased fan.

The tactical role-playing game was released on Friday and the tribute to Luke Wiltshire was included to fulfill one of his last wishes. GI.biz showcased the lengths that "Midnight Sun" developers went to so they could fulfill the dying wish of one of their fans, including getting a world build of "Midnight Suns" up and running a year ahead of schedule.

"Midnight Suns" had more than a year to go before it was ready for release and the Maryland-based developers Firaxis hadn't heard of Wiltshire and the rare cancer he had been fighting for nine years. That was when the Solving Kids' Cancer charity, which had been supporting Wiltshire and his family, made a post on LinkedIn about Wiltshire and his wish.

"People reshared it, shared it in their networks, I started getting messages, I got a message from Disney and different gaming companies," Solving Kids' Cancer CEO Gail Jackson told GI.biz. "After a couple of weeks, an email dropped into my inbox from some company called 2K, which I had never heard of. They had seen my post and wanted to know how they could help."

There was just one problem, there was no build for the game created yet, as there was still more than a year left in the production pipeline. 2K, Firaxis and Marvel got together and in 24 hours created a playable build for Wiltshire.

"Heroes come in many forms, and in this most important hour, they came in the form of the wonderful people at Firaxis, Marvel and 2K," wrote Jackson in a blog post.

Jackson added that the game developers "did this purely from the purity of heart that drives the very best of humanity," and that they did everything "to achieve what should have been unachievable, on behalf of a complete stranger."

Asim Tanvir, then social media manager of 2K, personally delivered the game to Wiltshire in England on a gaming laptop. Despite the time difference, developers from 2K and Firaxis, as well as Marvel Games creative director Bill Rosemann, surprised Wiltshire with a video call to talk about the game and listen to Wiltshire's ideas and designs.

Firaxis included a tribute to him by listing him as a game design consultant in the credits. There's also a carving on a tree in the game's Abbey with the words "Luke Was Here." Wiltshire was shown these tributes before his passing and said that he had been "forever immortalized in Marvel."

Luke Wiltshire died a few weeks after playing the game on Nov. 12, 2021 at 23 years old.