Nintendo confirmed Saturday its CEO and President Satoru Iwata’s died at 55 from a bile duct growth.

No, this is not another online scam about how the creator of Pokemon has died. (You know that’s one that circulates every year.) This is the real deal.

Iwata was a legend in the gaming universe, known for single-handedly rewriting the code for EarthBound and cutting his salary in half in 2014 to keep Nintendo’s production and budget in line.

It feels like the father of the gaming world has passed. We’ll never see him hosting a silly Nintendo Direct episode again.

It’s easy to say Iwata served as a huge inspiration for my desire to play and create today.

When I received a Game Boy Advance (pink) at age six, my eyes quickly opened to Iwata’s world of magic. While he did not directly work on the console, Iwata did help create my favorite pink puff that I was always playing with – Kirby.

I spent a lot of my young life peeking over my older brother’s shoulder as he played the games that were considered mine. I certainly didn’t mind, as I thought the games were masterpieces. I would get involved in every story, every character. My brother would almost get annoyed at how much I’d talk about them when we weren’t playing.

Iwata also played large parts in creating Mario, the The Legend of Zelda franchise and Animal Crossing.

Iwata served as an inspiration to people everywhere. Certainly without him, I would never have wanted to write about gaming, much less write at all. Practicing drawing video-game characters as a child and thinking about swerving around Dreamland on a warp star with Kirby were things I did on the regular.

Maybe I’m just a Nintendo fangirl, but it really does seem Iwata worked on every game that was magical to me. From Rhythm Heaven to Pokemon, his name is on everything.

He managed to run his company with a whimsical personality, staying positive even when people doubted Nintendo.

His description of himself at a game conference still hits deep.

“On my business card, I am a corporate president. In my mind, I am a game developer. In my heart, I am a gamer.”

Thank you, Satoru Iwata, for everything you’ve given us. Thank you for sharing your creative mind and for making us smile.