You may have noticed that Sony’s smash hit, God of War, is in the news almost constantly. The game launched about a month ago, and landed to massively positive reception (and we liked it as well). Today, Nate Stephens, the main environmental artist at PlayStation Santa Monica Studio talked a bit about the plans and ambitions for a potential God of War sequel. Here’s an interesting tidbit for ya:
I assume you can not talk too much about the future, but we know that there is probably a fight with Thor. What are the key features you want to keep from this game for the future?
We still want to be God of War. What I want to say is that the first battle in this game when you’re fighting the “Alien” is really an epic fight. It ends by destroying the entire environment in which you fight. It was really hard to create, I myself was working on lighting in this site and it was super hard to process it there. If we have a meeting with Thor or Odin, it must be bigger than this, better than this. This game was very good, but we think we can make it even better, of course, it must be a little bit bigger, 10% cheaper. So if we do another game – no one actually said that we are doing it – it will be bigger, better, longer.
The game’s development process also features some interesting character design, which made a huge difference in the final product:
Where did you take inspiration for the various creatures in this world. For example, dwarves and elves were completely different from their ordinary people?
Our director, Cory Barlog, had the team of narrative authors, and the first thing they did for the game was a script. And we played the whole game on it. The script was a bit long, so we had to make a district and the like, but they all created it on paper first. Then it went to the drafting department where drawings were made, and Cory and our chief designer (Raphael Grassetti) liked it. It was some natural evolution. We did not want to bring clichés. We still wanted the game to be based on Nordic mythology rather verbally but with our own input.
For example, there was a really interesting dwarf design
Yes, we did not want to look like Lord of the Rings. And if we ever choose the dwarf city, it will not look like a traditional dwarf city because it’s already seen. They’ve seen the Lord of the Rings, they’ve seen Thora, and we’re trying to find our own Santa Monica version of everything. Personally, when I first saw dwarves, I also said that this is not a dwarf. But when you play the game, you really get to heart.
We must also remember that it was Cory Barlog who was determined to push boundaries when it comes to both direction and development. For example, a few months back, we have learned just how much Cory wanted to see some of his ambitions through. So, much that he pitched his ideas to other massive projects. “I was sticking to my guns well before I even got back to Sony,” Barlog said. “I wanted to do this [the one-shot camera technique] and I had pitched it to Crystal Dynamics when I was there working on Tomb Raider and everyone was like, ‘That’s crazy, we don’t want to do that.’ And, my reaction was like, ‘Yeah, you know, I don’t know if this is the best place for me anyway.’ I was already starting to talk to people about new roles at Sony and then I think I realized this [God of War] is the one I can do it on.”
That said, how would you guys feel about a God of War sequel? Have you completed the original, or are you taking your time? Let us know in the comments below.
[Source: Sector and Reddit]
