Hi, 
I'm Maksim
Mihaylov

I specialize in Narrative and Game Design and I have been developing my creative vision for a couple of years and have taken part in various projects over my first year at Hanze, such as the culture-learning card game To Find Our Way, a city building score-chaser 2D game It Takes a King and an action adventure detective game about climate change called ''The Energy Case'', in all of which I've played a major role in designing the mechanics,settings and stories of the games.

As a Game Designer I tend to look at games more from the creative side, writing stories, characters and designing mechanics. With my experience from my previous works I am able to contribute and develop concepts and ideas and work well with the rest of the team to achieve the overall vision of the game. In I particular enjoy creating deep combat systems, especially in games with deep, difficult and intimidating boss encounters. My biggest inspirations for this are the Monster Hunter series, with deep almost infinetly replayable fights with stratospherically high skill ceilings that make you feel like you climbed a mountain by the time you are done with them.

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Aside from my passion for games I also have many other interests, I adore following science, in particular paleontology, and enjoy animated TV series a lot.

I also have had a passion for role playing for years, be it DnD or more free style, and I have used this passion as an outlet for my story writing and have been creating stories for players to go through for 5 years now. If I could describe my stories in 2 words it would be ''Realistic Idealism'', as in I've always made it a point to make things happen realistically and authentically. For example if I am running a medieval campaign I will address the injustices and cruelties of the worlds at the time. I focus on the realism in these worlds because I believe that by showing the bad it will only make the moments of light stand out more, because a person who chooses to do better in the face of an uncaring world to me makes for the most impactful story telling.

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With my passion for creating narrative and drive to create deep combat I hope to eventually blend them together seemlessly in a game where the difficult and monumental challenges expressed in the story are reflected within the victories the player achieves in combat, I want the incredible victory of defeating an extremely challenging boss to have had great symbolic and narrative lead up to that triumph. I want the player to truly feel the achievement in every possible aspect.