Guardian Maia
Prototypes

Most recently while working at Metia Interactive Michael has been involved developing a series pitching prototypes for the Guardian Maia IP using Unreal Engine 5 game engine. Guardian Maia is a hybrid historical/science-fiction story that draws on the mythology of the Māori culture in Aotearoa, New Zealand. You play as our heroine Maia in a 3rd person action adventure game featuring traversal puzzles, challenging combat, NPC conversations and riding a giant Moa bird.

The ambitious prototypes were developed by small team where Michael was responsible for many aspects of their creation including game design, level design, gameplay programming using Unreal’s visual scripting language, user interface design, cinematics and general games development problem solving.

Lake

Our most recent prototype which revolved around Maia escaping a ravine, rescuing her bird friends Moa and Kiwi, fighting Mānga warriors and defeating a massive Robot boss puzzle before flying away on a giant Hokioi eagle.

Forest

Our second prototype where Maia explores a path through a dense New Zealand forest went through 2 iterations. The first where she rides a Giant Moa bird, clashes with Mānga warriors and navigates action puzzles such as falling boulders and deadly hidden spike pits on her journey back to a Māori Pā (settlement).

The second had Maia exploring a costal settlement that was invaded by Mānga warriors, collecting precious pounamu stones and more ambitious platforming and traversal puzzles.

Tahuna

Our first prototype in which Maia breaks in the the dilapidated eco-hub city Tahuna to search for the Kawakawa seeds she needs to save her people. Along the way she speaks with friends, fights or sneaks around killer robots, scales buildings and finds a new armoured suit. All to face of against the massive Kaitieki robot boss.