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)