Mark Essen, better known as Messhof, is an American

video game designer Video game design is the process of designing the content and rules of video games in the pre-production stage and designing the gameplay, environment, storyline and characters in the production stage. Some common video game design subdiscipline ...

and

artist An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse refers to a practitioner in the visual arts only. However, t ...

best known for '' Nidhogg'', its sequel, and '' Flywrench''.

Career

In college, Messhof made games with GameMaker and Microsoft Paint software. An early game, ''Punishment 1'', began as a group assignment in an advanced, experimental class. His other early games included ''Wally'', ''Bool'', ''Booloid'', ''Punishment 2'', and '' Flywrench'', uploaded on his website. His work was profiled in

The Creators Project Vice Media Group LLC is an American-Canadian digital media and broadcasting company. , the Vice Media Group included five main business areas: VICE.com (digital content); VICE STUDIOS (film and TV production) VICE TV (also known as VICELAND); ...

and the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, and shown in the New York

New Museum The New Museum of Contemporary Art, founded in 1977 by Marcia Tucker, is a museum in New York City at 235 Bowery, on Manhattan's Lower East Side. History The museum originally opened in a space in the Graduate Center of the then-named New Sch ...

, Toronto Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, and Liverpool Foundation for Art and Creative Technology. He was cited by a Savannah College of Art and Design instructor as a successful example of blending arts aesthetics and video games. Messhof developed '' Nidhogg'', a fast-paced, side-scrolling sword

fighting game A fighting game, also known as a versus fighting game, is a genre of video game that involves combat between two or more players. Fighting game combat often features mechanics such as blocking, grappling, counter-attacking, and chaining atta ...

between 2010 and 2014. Its first prototype, ''Raging Hadron'', was expanded over four years to include online multiplayer, new environments, and new gameplay modes. Messhof balanced development as the sole programmer with development on other games and both teaching and student commitments in graduate school. He taught classes on intermediate game design and experimental mobile games at

University of Southern California , mottoeng = "Let whoever earns the palm bear it" , religious_affiliation = Nonsectarian—historically Methodist , established = , accreditation = WSCUC , type = Private research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $8. ...

's Interactive Media & Games program. ''Nidhogg'' production's pace increased when he formed a studio, also known as Messhof, with Kristy Norindr, who found other collaborators for finishing the project. An expanded version of the game, '' Nidhogg 2'', was illustrated by artist Toby Dixon and includes new levels, music, and weapons.

Games developed

References

{{authority control American video game designers Video game artists