Blue Prince developer announces 'a plea for help': one of the game's lead playtesters 'has only a few months to find a living kidney donor'

A young man looking at something in a dark room

(Image credit: Raw Fury)

Blue Prince developer Dogubomb has appealed to the puzzle roguelike and dark horse GOTY candidate's fanbase for lifesaving assistance. One of Blue Prince's lead playtesters, Matthew "Iggy" Kowalski, needs a kidney transplant from a living donor within the next few months.

Iggy was an invaluable tester and contributed so much to the project. He was absolutely brilliant in the game and came up with so many original strategies we had never considered. Please help us spread the word and as we help find him a living kidney donor. 💙
— @dogubomb.bsky.social (@dogubomb.bsky.social.bsky.social) 2025-11-08T18:43:26.169Z

You can find the full story of Iggy's current medical predicament on his website, where he describes how the donor applicant process works. On the site, Iggy described his experience with autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease as such: "I have a disease that requires a living kidney donor. There are no other viable options for me. I have only a few months before I will need to have this surgery before getting extremely sick and dying.

"[ADPKD] causes my kidneys to have cysts grow all over them and make them massive in size. As they do so, the kidneys grow less and less in function. Think like the chest buster in Alien, except it’s not an alien baby and we don’t anticipate it coming to theatres this fall," his site reads. "My doctors and the transplant doctors strongly recommend a living donor for the best outcome and it’s the only viable option, as the rest drastically reduce life expectancy or I just die."

Hi folks, this is again a plea for help. There still is no cleared donor. People working through the system but again-if you're at all interested in trying to help, it takes months to get cleared as a donor. There's a lot of delays/appointments. So please consider and spread it around, thank you.
— @iggydinosaur.bsky.social (@iggydinosaur.bsky.social.bsky.social) 2025-11-08T18:43:26.202Z

Iggy also tries to dispel some myths about the kidney donation process in his blogpost, noting that TV and films tend to play up things like the need for a perfect match or the health risk of a donation surgery. He added that prohibitive costs shouldn't fall on a prospective donor, and that he's happy to field any questions: "I cannot stress enough, the clinic wants you to be fully informed and assure it’s safe for you to donate. I have a friend who went through who donated for a friend, and offered to be a resource for anyone interested to understand how the entire process works as well. Please get in touch with me and I’ll get you in touch with them."

If you're hoping to get in touch with Iggy, he links to a variety of ways to contact him in his post, such as his email: zipiggydodah@gmail.com.

Justin first became enamored with PC gaming when World of Warcraft and Neverwinter Nights 2 rewired his brain as a wide-eyed kid. As time has passed, he's amassed a hefty backlog of retro shooters, CRPGs, and janky '90s esoterica. Whether he's extolling the virtues of Shenmue or troubleshooting some fiddly old MMO, it's hard to get his mind off games with more ambition than scruples. When he's not at his keyboard, he's probably birdwatching or daydreaming about a glorious comeback for real-time with pause combat. Any day now...

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