Mark Essen, better known as Messhof, is an American

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

and

artist An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating the work of art. The most common usage (in both everyday speech and academic discourse) refers to a practitioner in the visual arts o ...

best known for '' Nidhogg'', its sequel, and '' Flywrench''. He is currently developing a new game, '' Wheel World''.

Career

In college, Messhof made games with

GameMaker GameMaker (originally Animo, Game Maker (until 2011) and GameMaker Studio) is a series of cross-platform game engines created by Mark Overmars in 1999 and developed by YoYo Games since 2007. The latest iteration of ''GameMaker'' was released ...

and

Microsoft Paint Microsoft Paint (commonly known as MS Paint or simply Paint) is a simple raster graphics editor that has been included with all versions of Microsoft Windows. The program opens, modifies and saves image files in Windows bitmap (BMP), JPEG, GI ...

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 a Canadian-American digital media and broadcasting company. Vice Media encompasses four main business areas: Vice Studios Group (film and TV production); Vice TV (a joint venture with A&E Networks, also known as Vicelan ...

and the

Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA) is a contemporary art museum with two locations in greater Los Angeles, California. The main branch is located on Grand Avenue in Downtown Los Angeles, near the Walt Disney Concert Hall. MOCA's ori ...

, and shown in the New York

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

, Toronto

Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art The Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto Canada (MOCA), formerly known as the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art (MOCCA), is a museum and art gallery in Toronto, Ontario. It is an independent, registered charitable organization. ...

, and Liverpool

Foundation for Art and Creative Technology FACT Liverpool is a new media arts centre in Liverpool, England. The building houses galleries, a cinema operated by Picturehouse, a bar, and a café. History FACT was established as an organisation focussed on video and new media art, exhibi ...

. He was cited by a

Savannah College of Art and Design Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) is a private art school with locations in Savannah, Georgia; Atlanta, Georgia; and Lacoste, France. It was founded in 1978 to provide degrees in programs not yet offered in the southeast of the United ...

instructor as a successful example of blending arts aesthetics and video games. Messhof developed '' Nidhogg'', a fast-paced,

side-scrolling A side-scrolling video game (alternatively side-scroller) is a video game viewed from a side-view camera angle where the screen follows the player as they move left or right. The jump from single-screen or flip-screen graphics to scrolling grap ...

sword

fighting game The fighting game video game genre, genre involves combat between multiple characters, often (but not limited to) one-on-one battles. Fighting game combat often features mechanics such as Blocking (martial arts), blocking, grappling, counter- ...

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 The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in ...

'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. In 2023, Messhof revealed ''Ghost Bike'', an adventure/racing game focused around cycling. The game was delayed and rebranded as ''Wheel World'' in 2024, after changes were made to its story and core gameplay features.

Legacy

Messhof influenced

Jonatan Söderström Jonatan Söderström (born 9 October 1985), also known as Cactus, is a Swedish video game developer. He is best-known as the co-designer and programmer of ''Hotline Miami'' (2012) and '' Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number'' (2015), but had prior to th ...

, co-creator of ''

Hotline Miami ''Hotline Miami'' is a 2012 top-down shooter game developed by Dennaton Games and published by Devolver Digital. Set in Miami in 1989, the game follows an unnamed silent protagonist—dubbed Jacket by fans—as he commits massacres against the ...

''.

Games developed

References

{{authority control American video game designers American video game artists