Japanese video game composer and designer Kenji Eno has passed away. He was 42 years old.

Eno is known for founding now-defunct game developer Warp, where he created the survival horror franchise D, a series of character-driven, cinematic games that earned a cult following starting in the 1990s.

A talented musician and composer, Eno also created the soundtracks for D and D2, among other games, and has produced albums that gained popularity in Japan.

At Warp, Eno additionally produced innovative games such as the audio-only title Real Sound for Sega Saturn. Fumito Ueda, famed designer of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, reportedly once worked for Warp, which boasted a staff of only five.

After D2, Warp left the game industry, becoming Superwarp, which focused on non-game entertainment industries. Superwarp closed in 2001, and Eno's final venture, fyto, was born.

Eno was known as an iconoclast in the video game industry, but his initial attraction to video games was not uncommon. In an interview printed on 1UP in 2008 he said: "The very first game I played was maybe Block Buster. But I didn't think it was anything special at that time because I was very young.

"My next experience was Space Invaders, and I liked how it made you feel kind of different. And the first time I experienced it, it's like the first time you meet a woman -- you feel something there; you feel some kind of chemistry. ... That was probably love at first sight."

According to a Japanese-language report, he died of heart failure brought on by high blood pressure.