About Me
Hey there, I'm Tazz! I'm a game designer and programmer.
I've been developing games for almost 20 years, since I published my first game at the age of 14. Over the years, I've worked in a variety of environments from solo development to AAA contract work. My solo-developed games have amassed over 3 million plays in total, with the most played individual game sitting at just over 1.2 million. Currently, I'm working on Steam Workshop support for Rivals of Aether 2.
While gameplay programming and design has always been my primary focus, I've worn many different hats in my time as a game developer. I've taken up roles across many different domains, including system design, engine programming, tool development, copywriting, VFX implementation, analytics, sound design, static analysis, and many others.
Skillset
★★★ Game Design
★★★ Software Devleopment
★★☆ Everything else ;)
Experience
3yrGame Design & Engineering Team Lead
15yrIndie Game Development
2yrFreelance Software Development
Navigating this portfolio
My goal is to provide a wide sample of my work so that you can form your own opinions of my capabilities. I would encourage browsing through the gallery below and checking out the items that interest you, but if you're short on time, I'd recommend taking a look at these:
Programming: My Porting Tool for importing Rivals 1 characters into Rivals 2.
Game Design: The Raymer Character Spotlight for Rushdown Revolt.
If you're really short on time, you could simply check out my resume instead.
Rivals of Aether II
2025-Present · Aether Studios · Unreal Engineer
I was the primary designer and engineer for Rivals 2's large casual content update. I also helped implement Steam Workshop UGC support and several other features.
Casual Content Update
Design
Engineering
Designed and implemented 10 new stages and 20 Smash-bros style items for the studio's biggest update to-date, including all related mechanics.
Character Port Tool
Tools
Engineering
Built a tool to one-click import characters from Rivals 1 into Rivals 2, including a custom transpiler and gameplay emulation shim.
Steam Workshop Modding
Engineering
Helped implement parts of workshop lua scripting, including script sandboxing and incremental compilation of workshop features.
Unreleased Title
2025 · Rockstar Games · Engineer & Designer
I did some contract work on an unreleased multiplayer title for Rockstar Games.
I can't tell you much about it, since the project is under strict NDA. My work was mostly in systems design and tool dev.
I can't tell you much about it, since the project is under strict NDA. My work was mostly in systems design and tool dev.
Rushdown Revolt
2020-2023 · Vortex Games · Engineering and Design Lead
A collection of anecdotes and showcases from my work as design lead on Rushdown Revolt.
Overview
Project Overview
Role & Responsibilities
RushRev is a platform fighter with a focus on fast-paced competitive gameplay and exciting combos.
Raymer Character Spotlight
Design
This character spotlight video showcases my design work on one of the many playable characters in RushRev.
Moveset Reworks
Design
A showcase of some of my design work establishing gameplay identities across the game's roster of characters.
Fusion Characters
Design
Fusion Characters were an initiative that I oversaw to rapidly develop new characters with minimal asset costs.
New Characters
Design
Teamwork
An outline of my involvement in RushRev's character production pipeline.
Afi & Galu Redesigns
Design
Programming
Flexibility
I was in charge of a series of redesigns for a character who exhibited some especially problematic design and balance issues.
Balance Council
Communication
Management
I organized and hosted weekly community meetings to discuss game balance with core players.
Shader Upgrade
Adaptability
Programming
Early on in the project's life, I was tasked with improving the game's visual style in the absence of a technical artist.
Mid-Tourney Hotfix
Adaptability
A fun story about a time when I had to fix a bug on-site at a live event.
Rushdown Rainbow
Design
Adaptability
A wacky April Fools "joke" game mode I developed over the course of a weekend.
Older Stuff
2008-2020 · Solo Dev and Personal Projects
Published games and personal projects from my time as a solo developer.
(Most of these games are no longer playable due to the absence of Flash support in modern web-browsers.)
Overview
Press the Button
2020
Incremental Game
My most recent Flash game, an incremental RPG with a high degree of strategic depth and diversity.
Overview
MineQuest
2015
Incremental Game
My first published incremental game.
Overview
Idle Roller, IdleFall, & IdleFight
2017
Incremental Games
Three incremental games I developed in a very rapid dev cycle between MineQuest and Press The Button.
Overview
Bit Blast
2017
Twin-Stick Shooter
A twin-stick shooter roguelite experiment.
Overview
Slide Knight
2017
Puzzle Game
A puzzle game modeled after classic “the floor is ice” puzzles from many JRPGs.
Overview
The Generic TD
2008
Tower Defense
The first game I ever published, at age 14. As the name implies, a fairly generic Tower Defense game.
Overview
Get Star
2017
Short Platformer
A platformer made in one day.
Overview
Super Business Bob
2016
Twitch Platformer
An extremely difficult twitch platformer with over 30 levels.
Overview
Fighting Frenzy
2022
GPT-3 Experiment
A three-day experiment with GPT-3.
Overview
... And Many More!
2008-Present
The projects and anecdotes showcased here are by no means exhaustive.
Contact
Feel free to send me an email at TazzStieglitz@gmail.com for any reason. I'll do my best to answer as quickly as I'm able!