Michael Mrizek - Game Designs

Completed Works

This game focuses around the Pagan holiday of Samhain (pronounced saw-win), presenting the player with a positive and non threatening glimpse into the rituals of a non-Abrahamic religion. In the game, you need to follow the framework of a ritual performed during Samhain in order to summon your recently deceased friend only to learn they were murdered and task you to trying to find out what happened to them. Created as the final project to our Writing for Interactivity class at American University. Created using the Unity 2020.3 engine, Blender, Substance Designer, and Substance Painter.

Roles: 3D Artist, Texture Artist, VFX Artist, Assistant Developer, and Co-Designer

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A game based off of producer Sam Smyth's experience after a traumatic event during 2021. In a state of depression, he noticed the world around him had little color and only returned when he went on a walk with his mother. In this prototype, you need to use the limited energy you have to give color to objects in the world in order to use them. Created as our final project for our Making Meaningful Games class at American University. Created using the Unity 2020.3 engine and Adobe Creative Suite.

Roles: Lead Developer and UI Developer

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The spiritual successor to our midterm project, "Dog Days", you take on the role of a dog named Fry who needs to round up enough sheep on his farm before time runs out. Created as the final project to our Game Dev II class at American University where we learned about common design patterns used in games and applied them to projects throughout the semester. Created using the Unity 2020.3 engine and Blender.

Roles: Co-Developer, Co-Designer, and UI programmer and Designer.

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Take on the lives of dogs as your story is linked to humans more than you think.

Created as the midterm project for my Writing for Interactivity class at American University's Game Center. We wanted to explore all the unnoticed ways dogs help us throughout our lives. Created using Twine narrative software and the Adobe Creative Suite.

Roles: Producer, Narrative Editor

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You are new to the Adventuring Guild and need to prove yourself to the local Guild Master by completing a variety of quests throughout town.

Midterm project for our Making Meaningful Games class at the American University. This prototype is meant to convey the experience of being a workaholic, completionist, and perfectionist through a top down 2D adventure game. Created with Unity 2020.3.

Role: Co-Designer, Lead Developer

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Lost at sea, A ship's captain needs to find his way back home to his wife and loyal dog. Carrying a cargo of fireworks, he needs to light his way back.

Created as part of the Global Game Jam in January 2021 at the American University Game Lab jam site. Our team was mostly made up of the first year Game Design students. Created using Construct 3 and the Adobe Creative Suite.

Role: Co-Designer, Lead Developer

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Puzzle-Maze game examining light used as a game mechanic.

Final solo project for my Game Prototyping class. Created using the Construct 3 engine heavily featuring the shadow light and cast shadow functions.

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The first act of an interactive narrative following a 16 year old kid during the final years of their country's reign.

Solo project created as an assignment for my Game Prototyping class. Based on a screenplay from a high school screenwriting class. Story is inspired by the Rush album Clockwork Angels and the Kevin J Anderson book of the same name. Created using the Twine narrative software.