Showcases: MassDigi 2019, PREGAMER 2019, PAX East 2019, Northeastern Games Showcase 2019, MassDigi 2020
Awards: MassDigi 2019 Finalist, MassDigi 2020 Indie Category Winners
Mazu is a narrative driven, hack and slash, bullet hell game. It is currently in development, with a late 2020 release expected.
Drawing inspiration from Chinese, Japanese, Persian, and Indonesian mythology, Mazu drops you into a world on the brink of environmental destruction. Nature has risen up against humanity, forcing them to lock themselves behind a treacherous maze.
The player takes the role of Xun, the black sheep of a highly respected family. After getting caught tinkering in a workshop instead of performing his ritual duties he is sent into the maze. A death sentence. Help Xun survive the perils before him, and show his family he is not useless.
For more information on the game visit the game's site.
I filled two roles at Oxhead Studios. My main roll was as a the lead Mechanical Designer. I had a hand in crafting every mechanic in the game. In addition I was the one to push our team in the direction of bullet hells instead of sticking with the more generic hack and slash formula. In addition to my design rolls I was the lead user tester. I was in charge of running almost all of the playtests and implementing balance changes. Below is a list of the various tasks I performed in these roll:
- Design core character mechanics
- Differentiated mechanics from similar games (Meditate, and Ranged attack for instance)
- Work directly with Narrative team to interweave mechanics and narrative
- Play test every build of the game
- Find play testers
- Follow Scrum methodology
- Implement changes based on playtests
- Use Unity to build levels
- Work with artists to populate environment
- Provide general cultural information to team (in Particular on Japan)
