About Me.
My name is Zane Bartel. I'm a game developer born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio, where I still live. I grew up with my parents, two older brothers, and an older sister. I’ve always been drawn to games, whether they are video games or board games. I met my longtime girlfriend, Ann, in high school, where I also met most of my close friends. We started a D&D campaign, and my passion for board games grew from that point on. I graduated with a degree in Game Development from Ohio University. Since then, I’ve lived in Maine for two years, getting three cats and a house with Ann. In school, I created a tabletop role-playing game called Ascendant Archives, inspired by D&D 5e and based on Greek and Roman mythology. Over the past year, I’ve developed my newest creation, Mischief Meowfia!
MISCHEIF MEOWFIA
After creating my own TTRPG named Ascendant Archives, I graduated with a degree in game development. I still found it challenging to find a position in the gaming industry. Rather than giving up, I decided to make my own game.. again..
The inspiration for Mischief Meowfia came from my three cats, Mr Bean, Calliope, and Cheese. There have been numerous occasions where we (my girlfriend Ann and I) hear a loud bang in a room, we go to investigate, and see a scene of chaos as two cats walk away. This is the core idea behind Mischief Meowfia: house cats causing mischief, but you don't know which one.
My intent for this game was to produce something I could be proud of. To put a game in the hands of people that they can grow to love, as I have with this hobby. I want players to have memorable, humorous experiences while playing the game. I will also be using this game to help me break into the industry.
It took a little over a year to design and playtest, with numerous iterations and adaptations along the way. My family, specifically my brothers, Luke and Max, were instrumental at this stage, playtesting the different versions, helping me build the original prototypes, and providing their own ideas for the game. Max actually came up with the name Mischief Meowfia! The other three cats in the game are each one of my siblings!
Once I felt it was near completion, I started looking into artwork. I was able to generate some example pieces using AI, which provided a better understanding of the style I was looking for when speaking with artists. I began my search on Reddit and received about 50 responses. From there, I narrowed down my pool of candidates until I was left with the artist I used, Judas Benedikas. He was absolutely instrumental in the completion of this project. I can't say enough good things about him, especially since this was his first large-scale project and board game. He brought creative ideas to the design side, he took feedback extremely well, and was overall very collaborative; it felt like we were coming up with the pieces as a team.
I'm incredibly proud of what I've been able to produce, and I can't thank everyone enough who helped me get here. Especially my family and my girlfriend, Ann. Thank you to everyone who helped playtest, and thank you, too, reader, for taking the time to read through all of this and view my project.