The Developer Behind God Of War's Incredible Leviathan Axe Has ...

George Mawle, a former gameplay engineer at Sony Santa Monica Studio who is credited with the handling behind God of War's Leviathan Axe and Blades of Chaos, sadly passed away last Thursday. Tributes have been paid across social media since, with combat design lead Mihir Sheth crediting him with playing a large part in the engineering behind the feel of the two iconic weapons.

"At SMS he worked on Kratos' weaponry, navigation, RPG systems, a myriad of combat behaviors, improvements to the scripting system to empower designers, and SO much more. He was a veteran on the team who played a huge role in closing out the game and squashing bugs." George picked up the nickname "Furious George" thanks to his commitment to seeing an idea through to fruition, as Sheth explains how he would pursue side projects in cooking, carpentry, and homemade movies.

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

It appears George considered God of War the peak of his working career, as Sheth explains how "he never thought he'd work on a game and feature so beloved in his career of ups and downs. He would repeat this out of the blue, two years after. "We really did alright didn't we"." George's career in game development spanned more than 20 years, but left Sony Santa Monica Studio some months ago.

Alongside God of War, he also worked on Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z, Prototype 2, Crash of the Titans, and Scarface: The World Is Yours, among others.

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. pic.twitter.com/CR4go6tgDc— Mihir Sheth (@youtheremehere) September 4, 2021

R.I.P George Mawle.