Developers and the gaming world mourn a 'God of War' gameplay engineer

God of War wouldn’t be considered a modern-day classic without the contributions of George Mawle, a gameplay engineer who sadly passed away on Thursday. 

Working at Sony Santa Monica during God of War’s development as a programmer, Mawle was responsible for everything from enemy combat behaviors to making weapons feel satisfying. Particularly the universally adored Leviathan Axe, which many of Mawle’s co-workers claimed wouldn’t be the same without his efforts.

“If you’ve ever enjoyed throwing and recalling the Leviathan Axe or twirling the chains of the Blades of Chaos in God of War,” Mihir Sheth, combat design lead at Sony Santa Monica, said via Twitter. “Please take a moment to recognize that it was possible in large part to the engineering and energy of George Mawle, who sadly passed away on September 2nd, 2021.”

Sheth continued: “There’s much more I can say, as I’m sure is the case with many other people he’s worked with. I’d welcome others to share in the comments. Games are made by people, and we all lost a great one on Thursday. We’ll miss you big guy.”

A number of Sony Santa Monica developers left some moving words in Mawle’s memory.

Recently one of the best game developers I've ever worked with and an absolute legend of Santa Monica Studio passed away.

His name was George Mawle. He was one of the sweetest most heartfelt guys I knew.

He's on the left in this pic from the game awards. Excited as always. pic.twitter.com/oFiC4w0lQz

— Sam Handrick (@MDSVeritas) September 4, 2021

The only good part about him leaving SMS a few months back was that it gave us the opportunity to say goodbye and say how much we’d miss being around each other.

I’ll aim to work more like Furious George and try to impact younger devs the way he impacted me. RIP, bruv.

— Anthony DiMento (@DiMentoXP) September 4, 2021

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 https://t.co/ILpeSQUsk0

— cory barlog (@corybarlog) September 6, 2021

It’s quite touching to see Mawle’s co-workers take the time to honor their late friend. Rest in peace, king. 

Written by Kyle Campbell on behalf of GLHF.