Founder of Darkclaws Games
Michael H.H.V. Tran is a creative game designer and 3D Modeler with over 15 years of experience using computer graphics to create three-dimensional images. Highly skilled in using software, including Unreal Engine, Maya, Zbrush, and Photoshop. Expertise in translating concepts into tangible product specifications. An organized and hardworking individual knowledgeable in model and image design and story and character development.
Michael established a diverse game art for his Indie Game project at Darkclaws Games, based in Costa Mesa, CA, in 2005 with a concrete client base specializing in Game Design and 3D Modeling. Currently, he works on his own indie game ZOAB.
What is ZOAB?
The land in the vivarium. ZOAB is the name of a land burdened by a revolving door of misery; barren terrain, hostile wildlife, and a miasma of rot permeate its sprawling flats. For its residents, ZOAB is viewed as a survival gauntlet where drought, diseases, & encroaching molds have become daily challenges. Despite the monumental suffering imposed on ZOAB, its secret remains quite domestic. ZOAB resides within a vivarium, overseen by an absent Caretaker, as an Alien Being. However, this caretaker, a rare species collector, sometimes neglects its ‘’pets’’. This, combined with a severe time dilation between the inside and outside of the vivarium, ends up causing eras of suffering for the creatures desperately trying to survive inside, though their Caretaker barely takes notice. The players are residents of the vivarium & survivors. It is their job to save their world from total collapse by killing the beasts & infectious molds, trying to overtake it before it’s too late.
ZOAB – Navigate & Survive a Cyberpunk ARPG
Out past the horizon, far beyond the last point the eye can see, endless challenges exist. The more you prepare for those challenges, the more effectively you can work through and around them. Push yourself into the unknown and know that even more challenges (and even more fun) will await you.
In ZOAB, there are untold challenges and fun always waiting for you. This cyberpunk-styled survival RPG draws on precisely the concepts and mechanisms that I have seen work so well during my two decades as an RPG player – in addition to some of my innovations, developed to make this take on the genre fresh, different, and most importantly, a joy to play.
Before I show you the art and give you a visual sense of what you can expect from this game, let’s briefly discuss the gameplay.
Step into a Richly Created, Immersive World
For fans of the hack-and-slash genre, ZOAB will feel wonderfully familiar. You can pick up your controller and start playing immediately, diving into the action and the fun without learning an extensive list of moves. Although there is a certain level of complexity to master in the game, as one would expect from a high-quality adventure RPG, I have put a lot of effort into making the gameplay intuitive.
As an intern at Rockstar San Diego, following my education in game design, I saw how a world-class team of designers, developers, planners, creators, and managers handle grand ideas that will ship to millions of players. Because of those experiences and my self-education in Unreal Engine over the last five years, I understand what it takes to turn the concept for ZOAB into a spectacularly whole experience.
Thank you,
Michael H.H.V. Tran
949.662.4118
michael@darkclawsgames.com
Darkclaws Games 