George Mawle, one of the people that made the Leviathan Axe one the best parts of God of War (2018) has sadly passed away. The gameplay engineer died on September 2, 2021, and his colleagues from his time at Santa Monica Studio have been paying their respects online.
Mihir Sheth broke the news to God of War fans, that the man who made recalling the Leviathan Axe so satisfying was no longer with us. He had a long career in games, over 20 years in fact, and is credited with helping a lot of the features in God of War along.
Sheth recalls that he was sometimes called Furious George by colleagues because "once he was set on an idea he couldn't be stopped. He was crazy enough to challenge what everyone believed - ie: he pursued a Physics degree in college in an attempt to disprove the theory of relativity... and was not ashamed of it." Sounds like a great guy.
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Cory Barlog, the director of God of War, tweeted his respects to the engineer too, saying: "George was such an amazingly funny, smart and warm human being. He was one of the fathers of the Leviathan feel. Without his curiosity and intellect those moments of pure joy recalling the axe would never have existed. Absolutely breaks my heart that he is gone. RIP brother."
Barlog has in the past credited Mawle along with Vince Napoli, for quietly developing the basis of the Leviathan Axe for months. He said to VentureBeat: "It would be technologically driven, so it could stick anywhere in the world. [...] They showed me, right at the time when I thought we had the foundation in there." Apparently, they didn't know if Barlog was going to be angry with them once they revealed their work, but luckily the director loved it.
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It's sad when people who make such incredible things pass away but it's lovely to see the developer honoured by his old colleagues and his work so highly praised.
Featured Image Credit: Santa Monica StudioTopics: No-Article-Matching, Santa Monica Studio, God Of War
