Author: Misty Crow
"Thanks to the little black box for inviting me to write"
Waterloo in God of War: Ascension
Within Santa Monica, there has always been an idea for the God of War series, multiplayer, which was proposed by Cory as early as 2007, but PS2 lacked the corresponding technology at that time, and when the media asked about Stig in 2010, the latter only said that "multiplayer games currently have no narrative and gameplay help for our work." ”
After the release of God of War III, the team picked up the idea again and put it in charge of production by Todd Papy, the lead designer of God of War III, while Stig was busy with another unpublished project.
(God of War: Ascension adds multiplayer combat system for the first time)
The development concept of "God of War: Ascension" is very simple, that is, to add a multiplayer module to the original "God of War" system framework, so that different players play different gods to fight each other, but the team ignored a point, the core elements of "God of War" are far more than the ring of battle, and its unique story is also very important to the fans of the series, and under the premise that the story of the canon Quintos has ended, the restrictions on the creation of the script of "God of War: Ascension" almost announced the story sentence in advance.
The same is true, on March 12, 2013, God of War: Ascension was officially released, with sales of 570,000 in the first month, although not bad, but far less than the previous game's feat of selling 1.1 million copies in half a month. Media ratings also dropped sharply by 10%, with an average score of only about 80, and although players expressed a positive attitude in terms of combat, they agreed that the narrative part of the game was completely dog-tailed and completely inferior to the original level.
The poor performance of God of War: Ascension actually hints at Santa Monica's inner performance, and after the end of the story of the God of War trilogy, after a large number of series employees have left, how can the studio continue its previous glory?
The Ice Age of Santa Monica
In February 2014, Sony suddenly carried out a large-scale layoff of Santa Monica Studio, the specific number of personnel involved in this layoff was not announced, but followed by the news that the new IP developed by the studio for 3 years was canceled, this new IP revealed very little information, only in the Easter egg of "God of War III" There is relevant information revealed that it is a science fiction work, and soon after, some of the original art paintings of the project were leaked, which seems to be a parallel world view of technology and originality. There is no other information.
(Original artwork from the game codenamed "Inside 7")
(The existence of a vehicle system in the project can be seen in the development documentary)
The project's principal, Stig, who has been involved in the development of God of War III, chose to leave the layoffs and subsequently joined the Rebirth Studio and created what we now know as Star Wars Jedi: The Fallen Samurai Order. But that's another storyline, and now, let's get back to the perspective of another old friend.
After leaving Santa Monica Studios in 2007, Cory joined Lucas Arts Studios and revealed in an interview that he was working on a companion game title to the 2015 release of Mad Max, which Lucas Arts worked with Avalanche Studios (the masterpiece "JustIn Defense" series), but Cory left Avalanche Studios early in development. Instead, he joined Crystal Dynamic Studios as the cutscene director for the Tomb Raider reboot.
While directing for Tomb Raider, Cory expressed a crazy idea to the team members that players wouldn't see any shots from the start to the end of the game. This idea was immediately rejected by Crystal Dynamics, which they thought was simply unrealistic.
Cory had only been at Crystal Dynamics for a short year, and apparently the latter wasn't very good at showing the crazy thoughts in his head, and he began to miss the past, the studio that was equally crazy, smiling and facing difficulties.
In August 2013, after the defeat of God of War: Ascension, studio head Shannon asked Cory if he had any ideas for returning to the studio, whether it was Santa Monica or the God of War series, needed a leader to get them back on track.
Cory smiled and nodded, and after a 7-year absence, he once again stepped through the doors of santa Monica studios, and this time in front of him would be a sea-shattering adventure.
"God of War" that continues to open up the past
"Change is indispensable, and it will be a story of Kratos teaching his son to be God, and his son teaching him to be a man."
—Cory Barlog, producer of God of War
Reunion after a long absence
Everyone in the studio was thrilled to hear that Cory was coming back, and while it was impossible to gather the core team of God of War I, Santa Monica still had a lot of veteran employees who had worked on God of War II, and they were well aware of Cory's abilities.
On the first day of his return, Cory walked into the office as leisurely as usual, greeted his colleagues with a smile, as if he had never left, and quickly integrated into the team atmosphere. After all these years, neither Cory nor Santa Monica's heart has changed.
But some things have changed, such as Cory's identity, and he now has to take on the responsibility of being a father in addition to doing a good job of the game.
Compared with the restless hairy boys of the year, After starting a family, Cory has a deeper understanding of the story of God of War and the identity of Kratos, which will have a crucial impact on the future direction of the series.
Although Cory was already familiar with the team, the defeat of God of War: Ascension in 2013 gave Sony the idea of "giving the series a break", and did not give Cory the right to restart the series for the time being, plus another producer in the studio at the time, Stig, was still busy with new projects, and Cory could only lead some members of the team to carry out early concept design work.
This leisurely day did not last long, as mentioned earlier, half a year later, Santa Monica's internal structure changed drastically, and Sony had to re-evaluate the comprehensive capabilities of the studio, which was both an opportunity and a challenge for Cory.
(Cory and his son)
Restart the tour
The first thing Cory did after the studio layoffs was to convince Sony to give him the right to reboot the series.
"Reboot series" is not a word to convince Sony, as Stig puts the story of the God of War trilogy to a perfect end, even if Cory uses all his strength, it is difficult to add to a ring. In addition, the original kratos image and story style are no longer new, and Cory already has a new set of ideas in mind that will bring more possibilities to the story.
Studio boss Shannon accompanied Cory to persuade Sony executives that after listening to Cory's script structure and description of new features, they gave Cory the right to restart the series, after all, no one now knows God of War better than this man.
The persuasion trip also brought more serendipity to Cory and Santa Monica, who presented sony with the previous "one shot to the end" idea, which said it would fully support Cory, and Santa Monica will bid farewell to the office building where she has worked for 16 years and move to the new office environment that Sony has prepared for them.
(Team visits new studio)
Money, ready; people, ready; ideas, ready, it's time to get started.
On the first day of moving to the new studio, Cory called the entire staff into the lobby to explain his new ideas for the God of War series— a studio tradition that has been passed down from the David era, and as a producer, you have to listen to your team members.
"This is the face of Kratos, and when players see it, they will only have roars and murderous anger in their minds, which was indeed remarkable in the past, but it is not new now." Pointing to the big screen, Cory said, "We need to reinvent Kratos to make the story more tense." ”
Before Cory could explain the design of the new God of War to the team, a "gift" fell into his hands, and the 110 team members who had been canceled from the project would be merged into Cory's team, and the sudden cancellation of the project that had been developed for three years made them extremely demoralized. Cory needs to find something to do for them and find a way to reinvigorate them.
Fortunately, Santa Monica is never afraid of challenges, and the studio has a tradition of having close-knit departments work together, programming and art sitting together, action design and animation design sitting together, and product department sitting at the center of everyone, so that while improving communication efficiency, the team also allows the team to review each other's work, and constantly improve and optimize internally.
At this point in 2015, Santa Monica also has another identity, and an "incubation team" has been split within the studio that will help independent game studios with game development and distribution work, and several games have given Santa Monica a new understanding of games in the past few years of the project.
Indie games with new understanding
The first title, Flower, from the BeatGame Company, brought a healing gameplay experience with its simple gameplay, allowing the team to recognize a new dimension in the video game playing experience and gradually try to integrate gameplay and narrative.
Then, Wind Traveler, also produced by ThatGame Company, revisited the narrative experience of video games, never imagining that the game would achieve a soul-piercing emotional impact and rely solely on minimalist graphics and gameplay systems.
In addition, there are two works, "Unfinished Swan" developed by Giant Sparrow Studios, "The Unfinished Swan" and "Eddie Finch's Memory", the former allowing the team to see the ingenuity of the video game art style, and the latter allowing the team to see the infinite possibilities of video game storytelling.
With the progress of the times, the development cost of AAA games is getting higher and higher, and developers are more and more afraid of innovation and development, and no one can take responsibility if the investment of hundreds of millions of dollars is messed up. Indie games, as the new industry pioneers, take the initiative to take on the task of opening up the boundaries of video games, and the achievements they have achieved have also made Santa Monica full of loads, reflected in all aspects of the game.
Reinventing Kratos
In addition to his role as a producer, Cory also has the task of writing the script, and the story of God of War II and God of War III is dominated by him, and he knows that if he wants to give God of War a new experience, the priority is to reinvent the character of Kratos, who is the core of the story.
But after the baptism of the trilogy, the image of Kratos has long been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, it is not easy to change the impression of him in the player's heart, and an inattentive mess is bound to trigger a verbal war among the player group, which is a double-edged sword with a cold light.
Fortunately, it was not only Kratos who passed through the baptism of time, but also Cory, who soon found a new entry point - father, in the original trilogy, Kratos hand-bladed his father Zeus, which is a very typical greek mythological tragedy. In the reboot, Cory wants Kratos to take on the role of father, and let a character who lacks fatherly love take on the responsibility of being a father, which sounds full of drama.
In Cory's vision, In the new God of War, Kratos would venture with his son, just like Joel and Ellie in The Last of Us, a proposal that was immediately opposed by the team, with most members believing that Kratos had always been a lone hero and that taking the child on the road was clearly not in line with the character setting. And from the perspective of play, Kuiye's violent fighting method is not suitable for one more bystander, when the player fights, the presence of the child may hinder the fluency, how to write his AI is also a problem, if there is a character who is shaking around Kuiye, the sense of substitution of the game will be greatly reduced.
Cory spent a long time convincing the team to accept his idea, taking his son on the road is indeed not in line with the original Kratos personality, but this is exactly what the new God of War needs to do, not to break, to reshape Quitos, you must first break the player's stereotype, otherwise everything is on paper.
At Cory's insistence, the team gradually began to accept his ideas, as he said, the original kratos image is no longer fresh, there are sacrifices to get, if the team itself can not pass this level, how to let players feel the evolution of the new God of War?
(The original image is outdated)
After determining the setting, Cory also needs an actor who can perfectly interpret the new image of Kratos in his heart, and fortunately, there is such a "live-action version of Kratos".
Drama is like life
Christopher Judge, born in 1964, is a well-known actor in the American film and television industry, he is not only muscular, tall and tall, but also a father of 4 children, which is exactly the same as the image of Kratos in Cory's mind.
Christopher was initially less interested in playing a role in a video game, after all, he was in his 50s at the time and was not very receptive to the culture of young people. But after reading The script cory gave to his agent, he was immediately drawn to the story of Kratos, who saw too much of his own shadow in the weathered man.
(Christopher Judge)
"Because of my work, although I am a father of 4 children, I have not been with them for almost 10 years." Christopher said in front of the camera, his eyes gradually moistening, "This is exactly the same time that the Kratos father and son lack, and I can especially understand his emotions." ”
In the game, Kratos has been difficult to grasp the distance with his son, in order to escape his past, after the birth of his son he has been giving the responsibility of taking care of his son to his wife Fei, when the mother and son are learning at home, Kratos is in the forest bare-handed to fight with his prey, no matter how much he wants to escape the nightmare, blood is still his best sedative.
"The emotions I expressed when I played Kratos were my true feelings and my apologies to the children." Christopher said that in this moment, the two fathers, although they were on the screen, reached a soul resonance, and Christopher's excellent performance made The image of Kratos more plump than Ever, far exceeding Cory's expectations.
In addition to Christopher, the other actors in the game are also very good, and each character in the story of the new "God of War" has his own scars that he does not want to uncover, how to brew emotions, how to deal with emotions, all of which are vividly displayed in the game.
(Guess which plot this is?) ）
Seeds of uneasiness
More than a year after the development of the new God of War, Sony Global Studios President Yoshida Shuhei came to Santa Monica to review the work, as an industry veteran, Yoshida Shuhei's vision is extremely poisonous, and he can quickly judge the quality of the finished product by relying on the game Demo. And this time, of course, his purpose is to see how the rebooted "God of War" performs.
Yoshida didn't stay in the studio for long, he got started playing the demo of the time, his expression was extremely dignified, symbolically pointing a few words and leaving. But everyone in the studio understood that he was very unhappy with the quality of the game.
"He must be thinking, I gave these people so much money to make this thing?" Cory said he was the first to learn of Yoshida's opinion, "I thought, finish the calf." ”
Word of Sony's dissatisfaction with the game's performance quickly spread throughout the studio, with the team members looking at each other, not knowing what had gone wrong, and all eyes were on Cory, who now needed to reorient the team.
In order to give the team members a better understanding of the game style, the core members of Santa Monica planned a trip to Iceland to see the real-life Nordic scenery, which may bring unexpected value to the game.
(Team filming in Iceland)
The small group of six soon set off, admiring countless natural wonders along the way, and they were deeply impressed by the magic of nature. In addition to the natural scenery, the team's trip also has a purpose, Icelandic is the closest language to Norse in existence, the ethereal and gentle tone is suitable for composing music for the new God of War, and the theme song of the game is sung by the Icelandic Choir.
On the other hand, Cory is not idle, in order to deepen the actors' understanding of the daily life of the Nordics, they planned a unique wilderness survival activity, leading the team members to experience the primitive life of the Nordics, from hunting and making fires to building houses and stalking, so that the actors can better understand the environment in which the characters are located.
Thanks to a multifaceted effort, the development of the new God of War is gradually back on track, and it is time to show the fruits of Santa Monica's labor over the years like the world.
(Experience Nordic life)
Thousands of calls began to come out
At E3 2016, Sony's conference, after enjoying the magnificent performance of the live band, the screen gradually appeared on the screen.
The camera follows a young boy into the house, which looks like an ordinary house, and a muffled voice comes out of the darkness, telling the boy to take a test.
The next second, a burly figure with a big beard came out of the darkness, and the scene instantly erupted into a tidal scream, and the audience danced excitedly, and the man returned.
The demo of the new God of War was an unprecedented success, and although the style was greatly changed from the previous game, the punch-to-flesh punch and excellent graphics expression made players excited. You know, at this moment, 6 years have passed since the sequel's previous work "God of War III", and the game industry needs Kratos, a super macho man, to set off a terrifying wave.
(Fanatical fans of the E3 scene in 16 years)
Seeing the affirmation of the players, the stone in Cory's heart was finally put down, the development work of the past two years has made the original spirited youth become white-haired, the pressure of restarting the series has been pressing on him, and what is more painful is that in the closed development environment, he has no idea whether such a design can meet the expectations of players.
Keeping the clouds open to see the moon, there is no worries, the team can finally be assured and bold to improve the game. The game is expected to go on sale on March 13, 2018, just 11 years after the release of Cory's God of War II.
"God of War" and his old father
Although the feedback from the players is very positive, the studio's production time is still limited, the number of Santa Monica employees has reached 150 at this moment, which is a very large team, but the 9 minutes of the E3 demo took them 1 and a half years to polish, and now, they have to polish the remaining 25 to 30 hours of game content.
Cory walks around the office every day, where there are problems and where to go, any trivial details about the game need him to consider, UI design, combat design, animation design... A person is completely unskilled.
The new God of War has made drastic changes to the gameplay design, completely dismantling the original "Iron Triangle" elements and replacing them with semi-open world exploration and RPG elements, and these new systems require a lot of testing work to adjust. The game's perspective has also changed, and although the over-the-shoulder perspective can bring a stronger sense of substitution to the game, it also means that the original Kung Ye's open-ended fighting style is not suitable for such a camera angle, and the team needs to redesign a system similar to the Dark Souls combat style, all of which must start from scratch.
(God of War completely reworked the original combat system)
At the same time, Cory also needs to constantly improve the worldview setting, although it has been determined that the game will be based on Norse mythology, but he also wants to expand to Egyptian mythology and Mayan mythology later, so that the game stage is more abundant.
And just after the team had finished the battle design, feedback from the testers once again left Cory in deep thought.
"Atreus (son) doesn't seem to be of much use, he seems to be in the way of fighting."
This seems to support the team's original prediction that Atreus's actions were all controlled by AI at that time, and when the player controlled Kratos to fight, he would randomly shoot arrows at the enemy on the side, and did not integrate into the player's battle, which was contrary to Cory's initial assumptions.
In order to allow Atreus to better integrate into the gameplay, the team redesigned his action plan, no longer controlled by the AI, but disassembled into individual commands, assigned to the keys, and then triggered by the player instantly.
The effect of this change is very significant, adding more strategy to the original aggressive fighting style, and also making atelus more closely related to players, and was once ridiculed by players as a "real god of war" after its release.
(Cory observes the tester's reaction)
Although the problem was finally solved satisfactorily, but this is after all an unexpected work, the original release date is obviously impossible to achieve, in desperation, the team announced that the game was postponed for one month, and will officially land on the PS4 platform on April 20, 2018.
Ending
On April 20, 2018, Cory sat alone in front of his home computer, and the game was officially unlocked in a few minutes, followed by advanced media reviews.
Cory looked fidgety, staring at the clock little by little, the 5 years of development experience flashing in his mind like a marquee, there were tears and laughter, and now more is uneasiness.
"It's time." Cory looked at the camera and clicked on the Metacritic website with trembling hands, and the God of War had appeared on the homepage, "It has not been updated yet, and I can still slow down one last time." ”
The next second, ratings from global media slowly appeared on the screen.
IGN: 10/10, Gamespot: 9/10, Eurogamer: 10/10, Media Average Score: 94/100, one of the highest rated games in PS4 history.
Relief and ecstasy filled Cory's body in an instant, turning into tears that slipped from the corners of his eyes, the longest run he had in 20 years in his career, and now, it was all worth it.
God of War sold 3 million copies within three days of its release, and by the end of 2021, it had sold more than 20 million copies worldwide, becoming one of the highest-selling first-party works in the history of PS4.
I think in 2010, when the story of the God of War trilogy came to an end, no one would have thought that Santa Monica would reinvent the series after 8 years and take the throne again with a new attitude, and now, 4 years after the release of God of War, if nothing else, "God of War: Twilight of the Gods" based on the second development of God of War will meet with us in the near future, and the story of Kratos is far from over, let us witness how the God of War series will continue to compose its legend.