Hello, I'm Mobeen Fikree. 👋

Everyone calls me Mo.

I’m a software developer and game designer based in Toronto, Canada.

I am probably best known as the founder of Vertex Pop, a game development studio focused on feel-good action games. I made some well loved games, like Super Crush KO and Graceful Explosion Machine, alongside an incredible team.

I’ve worked in the Tech and Games industries for over 20 years now. I’m equally passionate about code architecture and low-level optimization as I am about designing a really nice feeling game mechanic.

Projects

HYPER METEOR
2023 • Playdate, Nintendo Switch, Steam

An Asteroids-like game where you survive by ramming your ship into meteors and hostile forces. Designed for the Playdate, the tiny handheld with a crank, HYPER METEOR comes pre-installed on every device.

• I was a guest on the Playdate Podcast where I talked about the creative and development process
• Postmortem: Playdate shoot-em-up Hyper Meteor — Technical article I wrote for Game Developer
• HYPER METEOR is the first (and, as of 2026, the only) port of a Playdate game to consoles/PC. Here’s a short thread on Twitter detailing the process. One day I’ll write a proper article about it
• Won Best Arcade Game at the first Playdate Community Award Show

Super Crush KO
2020 • Nintendo Switch, Steam

A stylish brawler set in a vibrant, near-future city. Punch, shoot and juggle waves of deadly robots to save your kidnapped kitten and, while you’re at it, save humanity from an AI apocalypse.

• Players sent us lots of incredible fan art
• We release a physical edition for the Nintendo Switch with Super Rare Games, and a vinyl with Very Ok Vinyl
• We got coverage from two legendary games magazines: Edge and Famitsu
• Also, a speedrunner ran the game with the Resident Evil 4 Chainsaw Controller 😂

Graceful Explosion Machine
2017 • Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Steam

A colourful side-scrolling shoot-em-up which arms the player with four unique and devastatingly powerful weapons at once. It debuted on the Nintendo Switch in April 2017, making it one of the first titles on the console.

• Featured on the very first Nindies Showcase by Nintendo, as a showcase for the then-new Rumble HD hardware feature
• I was a guest on IGN’s Nintendo Voice Chat show
• Making a Graceful Explosion Machine — Interview with Games Industry
• Graceful Explosion Machine could be Nintendo Switch’s 1st Canadian-made hit — Interview with CBC
• Was one of the ten best-selling indie games on the Switch in 2019
• Showcased at the Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle, as part of their Indie Game Revolution exhibition (photos: 1 2 3)

Zucchini Game Engine

I created an in-house C++ game engine at Vertex Pop called Zucchini. I designed the engine around three core ideals: lightning-fast performance, an efficient and flexible 2D rendering pipeline, and broad cross-platform support.

Contact

If you have any questions for me, or just want to say "Hi", I'd love to hear from you!

• Email: (reveal)
• Bluesky: @mobeenfikree.bsky.social