"Thanks to Little Black Box for inviting me to write"
Preface
As one of the most iconic works on the PS platform, the "God of War" series has always been famous for its thin The atmospheric epic story, hearty and refreshing battles and ingenious level design are famous far and wide. The protagonist of the series, Kratos, has also become a legend passed down by word of mouth among players. How did this series come about? Where did the image of Mr. Kui come from? What happened in the eight-year gap after three generations? How does the rebooted series continue its legend? Let me tell you.
The ground-breaking "God of War I"
"We don't want those traditional Greek heroes wearing feathered helmets, short skirts and robes, and sandals. What we want is a release A frightening bastard who shows the dark side of his heart."
——David Jaffe, the original producer of "God of War"
The beginning of everything
In 1999, Sony employee Allan Becker founded a studio next to Naughty Dog Studios, then moved to the suburbs of Santa Monica, California, and named it Santa Monica Studio. In order to prove the studio's development capabilities to Sony, they spent two years creating the studio's debut "Kinetica" and developed a PS2 development engine in-house.
Although "Kinetica" received a mediocre response, it successfully proved the studio's potential to Sony. What's more valuable is that the studio already has a game engine with excellent performance. Now they only lack An opportunity.
("Kinetica" on PS2)
Among the developers of "Kinetica", there is a designer named David Jaffe, who entered as a game tester as early as 1993 He entered the gaming industry and launched his first game "Twisted Metal" in 1995. This game was widely praised by the media and players, and was even selected into IGN's "Top 25 Best PS2 Games of All Time" ranking. It ranks ninth on the list, and this work is also published by Sony. When the development of "Kinetica" was coming to an end, David proposed a game concept based on mythological themes to studio boss Shannon Studstill, code-named "Dark Odyssey". Shannon was quite interested in it, and after the development of "Kinetica" was completed, he applied for more development resources from Sony.
Due to the previous success of "Chariots of Fire", Sony had great confidence in David's ability, invested a lot of R&D funds, and allowed David to fully lead the project development.
(David's famous work)
In the game industry at that time, Japanese manufacturers accounted for half of the action-adventure genre, and even claimed that "Europeans and Americans cannot make action games." How could the young and energetic Santa Monica team tolerate such bad breath? David relied on his rich experience in movies and games, especially his playing experience in Capcom's "Onimusha", to quickly finalize the style of the new work—— Greek mythology action adventure.
David briefly explained his idea to the team, which immediately caused an uproar. For European and American players, it is a dream to be able to incorporate the Greek mythology they have seen since childhood into the game, especially the art team. I can't wait to show off my skills.
At that time, there were few works using the style of Greek mythology in the game industry. In order to seek inspiration, David led the team to watch a large number of film and television works and select materials, but few fragments met his inner expectations. Compared to the traditional Greek hero, he has in mind a more bloody, violent, dark and profound character that can inspire the player's primitive animality.
(Early concept design drawing of Kratos)
In order to allow the team to understand their inner thoughts more intuitively, David led the core team to spend several months making a simple The demo showed some scene styles, combat styles and characters in the game. Although it looked rough on the outside, it successfully gave the team a glimpse of the tip of the iceberg of the grand project in David's mind. Although a lot of the content in the demo was deleted and modified in the end, that is a story for another time, and we will leave it to the end of the paragraph.
Another advantage of the game demo is that compared to the dry dictation and writing, the work that can be played can obviously stimulate the morale of the team, especially for the young team in Santa Monica, rebellious He and himself were originally synonymous with them. The violent spirit contained in "God of War" gradually seeped out and fed back into the work of the team. Every member was extremely excited.
(Early Demo of "God of War")
Except the art team.
The Birth of Kratos
Since Santa Monica had only been established for two years when God of War was produced, the size and structure of the team were not yet mature. Although I use " "Art team" refers to all art workers, but there is actually no such team within Santa Monica. All artists work independently.
CharlieWen is one of the brightest new stars.
(Concept Artist Charlie)
The creation of "God of War" is very unique. David did not write the complete plot at the beginning, but first refined the game Various elements in the script are gradually improved during the production process. But this method is simply a disaster for Charlie. He wants to create an unprecedented game in the history of games based on only the keywords David calls "violent, cruel, and antisocial" without a script. Role.
David's approach to this was very abstract - "Come to work with anger and see what happens." He told Charlie, who had no choice but to cross the river by feeling the stones. Relying on his own artistic accomplishment and understanding of the word "violent", he slowly sketched out the character image.
At the beginning, Charlie looked for a lot of lone wolf hero images to get inspiration from them. These images often carried children or wolves on their backs, which is a very classic art style. But David didn't buy it, especially his attitude towards armor. Whenever the team added some armor to the characters, David would feel "uninteresting". Gradually, the team understood that the "violent" in David's mouth might be It is related to the primitive animal nature of human beings, gradually removing all armor decorations. Although it is getting further and further away from the traditional Greek style, it is getting closer and closer to David's rage.
In this way, a muscular, shirtless, bald anti-hero character with bristling eyebrows was gradually unveiled, and he was destined to become a famous character in the history of the game.
The smoke-filled internal "war"
Although Greek mythology was determined to be the main art style of "God of War" very early on, David did not want to create a mythical and legendary world step by step. Instead, while ensuring authenticity, we create ourselves on the basis of the original style, thereby obtaining a "magical realism" style game world.
“We want to immerse players in our own world of Greek mythology, so that when they see a four-legged and three-headed creature, they will think that it is a three-headed hell dog, even though it is not related to traditional Greek stories. The image in "God of War" is very different. "This is the definition of the art style of "God of War" by team artist Terry Smith. In order to achieve this, they must squeeze out all the functions of PS2.
“I was definitely the person the program wanted to kill because I kept forcing them to push the engine to the limit.
"Level artist Ken Feldman said that although there is a legend that "PS2 has unlimited functions", it is still difficult to face the colorful world in David's mind, especially at a point where there is no major breakthrough in technology. In order to take into account the diversity of scenes and the The expressiveness of the graphics can be described as painstaking.
(Santa Monica studio interior)
“We want to fight from time to time, and the anger level will increase as time goes by. There are too many, which is not pleasing to anyone. "The main programmer Tim Moss said that in order to achieve the effects that David and the art team wanted, the program team continued to improve and improve the Kinetica engine, thus presenting the feat of crossing dark and gloomy dungeons and sunny deserts in "God of War", which made Players at the time were dumbfounded.
While art and programming were at loggerheads, animators and combat designers were also at loggerheads. Lead animator Cory Barlog and motion designer Richard Foge spent every day discussing character motion design. , in order to show the "violent" feeling in David's words, they hope to make Kratos' movements look full of power.
"I will put Kratos and a group of enemies in the arena, and keep doing it. Fight on your own, and then gradually adjust the battle rhythm, enemy configuration, action design, etc. "Richard said.
But this is difficult for Cory as an animator. You must know that in an era when motion capture technology has not yet become popular, all character animations are hand-made by animators. The precision envisioned by Richard The exaggerated action performance means an extremely huge workload, and he is also responsible for the action performance of each enemy in the game. For this reason, there are constant exchanges and compromises between the two teams
(Chief Animator Cory). )
The core elements of God of War
“In my opinion, God of War has three core elements, combat, decryption and exploration. "David said this, and this is also the direction the team is working hard for.
In fact, these three points were considered iconic elements of action games at the time. There is definitely no problem for "God of War" to move in this direction. , and the team members strive for excellence in quality, adhering to the principle of "doing it the best" and striving to catch up with the industry's top level, and the final product successfully represents the industry's top level of performance.
But in addition, "God of War" also has a core element that was rare in games at the time - a sense of cinema.
Greek mythology has always been the darling of the film and television industry, and works based on it have been adapted. There are countless of them. Although David said that he did not refer to movies, he must have been influenced by those film and television works. The lens design in "God of War" uses a fixed perspective and is very cinematic. Kratos's finishing move is a close-up. The same goes for the lenses and environment interactive lenses, which convey a majestic and epic feeling to players at all times.
The first generation of "God of War" was officially released in 2005. GameSpot reviewers said that this game "integrated "Devil May Cry". "The action performance of "ICO" and the decrypted design of "ICO". One year later, it sold 1 million copies in the United States alone, and was selected by IGN as the first among the "25 Best PS2 Games in History". It is widely loved by players and
Compromise and Regret
Although Sony gave David generous resources and production autonomy, Sony was not Microsoft after all. At that time, PS2 had become the company's main source of income. , they need to launch more high-quality games on the platform, which means limited development time for Santa Monica.
Except for the early planning stage, the development of "God of War" lasted about 3 years. , and a lot of content was deleted because David repeatedly changed the settings. For example, in the Demo we mentioned earlier, the protagonist was actually a dying Cyclops, and it also included an entire test level for Wings of Icarus. David I hope that players can fly freely in this level, and at the same time, they can land on the ground to fight enemies at any time. Due to the construction period, the entire system had to be cut off.
(The Wings of Icarus level in the Demo)
There are several levels in the Demo that have quite complete art resources and layouts, but they lack some scene elements and adjustments. Time eventually had to be cut off. The most obvious one is the Pandora level. In the original design, there will be a BOSS battle here. There is a huge harpy entrenched here. Players need to crush her eggs to anger her, but in the finished product, this is just a palace. .
Although some of these regrets have disappeared in the long river of time, some of them were reincarnated during the subsequent development of "God of War II" and are talked about by players.
(Pandora level in Demo)
The stable performance of "God of War II"
"We hope to expand on the basis of the previous game and add more epics level scene, I chose PS2 so that 100 million players can play it.”
——Cory Barlog, producer of “God of War II”
Unfavorable start
"Cory, what the hell are you doing? It's a piece of shit!" David pointed at Cory's nose at the meeting and cursed with a red face, "You have to start over, no one will play with this trash."
Seeing the frenzy caused by the first-generation "God of War" among the player community, Sony certainly hoped that Santa Monica could strike while the iron was hot and launch a sequel. However, it was just before the change of console generation, and the PS3 console was about to be released. The team was facing a critical moment. The important choice is to launch guaranteed sales on the PS2 platform with an extremely large user base? Or continue the legend on the PS3 with greatly improved performance?
As mentioned above, Cory gave the answer, which is also reflected on the cover of the game. They hope to avoid the "number 2" as much as possible to make players think that this is a sequel to the previous game.
After the development platform was decided, the next step was intensive preparations. David, the producer of the previous game, decided to take a back seat and serve as the creative director to assist in the development work. The post of producer was taken over by Cory Barlog, the chief animator of the previous game. Serve.
("God of War II" is a work based on the secondary development of the previous game)
Compared with David, who looks very arrogant, Cory is much calmer and low-key, and his tone of voice Also more subdued. He served as the lead animator on "Backyard Wrestling: Don't Try This at Home" and "X-Men: Next Dimension" at Paradox Studios, and joined Santa Monica Studio in 2003. He inherited the qualifications of his father J.M. Barlog, a fantasy novel writer. , very good at writing grand fantasy stories. The story of "God of War II" and the story of the spin-off "Ghost of Sparta" were both written by him. David admired his ability very much until an evaluation meeting a few months later. A scene happened.
Since "God of War II" is Cory's first time as a producer, and the achievements of the previous "God of War" were daunting, he was eager to prove his abilities in the early planning. Too many game systems have been added. The Wings of Icarus abandoned in the previous game, more BOSS battles, more magnificent scenes, more animations, etc. Although the team size has expanded, it still cannot cover everything. After several months of development, what is presented to the core team is a defective product with a crude system and frequent bugs. This makes David feel extremely angry. After all, to put it bluntly, , "God of War II" is just a product of secondary development based on "God of War", and it should not perform worse than the previous game both emotionally and rationally.
Although David is no longer a producer, the prestige he established in the team is still there. In desperation, the team had no choice but to overturn the project and start over. David left in 2007 on the eve of the completion of "God of War II" Santa Monica Studio.
A Village with Dark Flowers
Due to the failure of early preparations, the team's construction period was further shortened. While Cory argued with his father about the structure of the script, he also had to deal with the development issues of the team. If there was any flaw in any link, he, as the producer, would need to go and review it. There were also a series of meetings, large and small, which once overwhelmed Cory.
Fortunately, the team has an extremely solid foundation built from the previous game. Cory does not need to worry too much about the basic design of combat. He only needs to add some cooler ideas.
("God of War II" has better action performance than its predecessor)
At the 2006 GDC, Santa Monica officially announced "God of War II", and Cory In an interview with the media, he revealed a large number of game-related details, including script direction and gameplay design. He said that “it is necessary to write a story that not only fits Kratos’ character setting but also satisfies players.” “The battle system will add more There is a lot of magic, but there will be no change in style compared to the previous work, but more epic scenes will be added."
In fact, compared to the actual work encountered during the development process. Pressure, the mental pressure brought to Cory by the previous game "God of War" is even more serious. "What should I do to surpass such an outstanding work?" has always troubled Cory. PS2 has entered the end of its life, and the technology-related breakthrough team has already achieved it in the previous game. At the limit, it is already difficult to impress people in terms of picture performance.
The team's lead artist, Stig Asmussen, gave a different solution. If it is not technically feasible, then we will improve the quality of art.
(Stig, the main artist of "God of War II")
I mentioned in the previous article that the first generation of "God of War" did not have an overall art team, resulting in extremely inefficient art-related work. low. In order to make up for this, Stig Asmussen, the environment artist in the previous game, was promoted to the main artist of the studio, responsible for leading the work of the entire art team. Charlie, who performed well in the previous game, also has a concept art team to share his opinions on the game.
Stig’s image is completely opposite to people’s stereotype of art workers. With his big bald head, he looks like a silent killer who is ruthless and doesn’t talk much, and his attitude towards work is also the same. in this way. Before he wants the team to do something, he will do part of it himself and then let the team start working accordingly. For him, works are obviously more convincing than words.
Stig’s point of view enlightened Cory. Although the art styles in the previous games were diverse, they did compromise on accuracy. Many of the concept arts designed by the team in the early stages were not adopted. At this time, isn’t it “waste recycling”? "The perfect time?"
In 2007, "God of War II" was officially released. Players praised this game for retaining the essence of the previous game, improving the pain points of the previous game and adding more playable content. In just three months, It sold 1 million copies and was unanimously considered by the media as "PS2's best finale."
*Note: "God of War: Chains of Olympus" and "God of War: Ghost of Sparta" on PSP are outsourced works developed by ReadyatDawn Studio and will not appear in this article.
The perfect ending to "God of War III"
"This will be the last work in the "God of War" series. We hope to use this work to define what a PS3 game is."
——Stig Asmussen, producer of "God of War III"
Waving goodbye
On November 6, 2007, there was a difference in the Santa Monica studio It was unusually quiet. All the employees gathered in the hall, but did not speak. Only Allan Becker from the product department stood in the middle of the hall. His deep voice echoed in the vast office, penetrating the hearts of every employee.
“Our long-time friend, Cory, will be leaving Santa Monica Studios in two weeks.
"
Cory was also sitting in the crowd. He thought that other colleagues would be shocked and cursed, but that didn't happen. Dead silence ran through the entire studio, with only the sound of "bang bang bang" heartbeats. Cory’s ears are buzzing.
“I thought Cory would be the last person to leave Santa Monica, and he played a vital role in the development of God of War II. "Chief film animator Mehdi Yssef said, this sentence also expresses the voice of the vast majority of employees in Santa Monica. After David left, it was Cory who led the team to successfully make "God of War II" continue its glory. Without him, it would not be possible. "God of War II", and now, after half a year as the producer of "God of War III", he is leaving.
No matter how reluctant the studio was to leave, Cory had already made up his mind to leave. Seeking new opportunities, of course, the story between him and Santa Monica is not over yet, so we won’t mention it here for now.
After Cory leaves, the first question he faces is, who will be the producer?
Two weeks later, Allan announced the answer. Another veteran of the team, Stig Asmussen, the lead artist of the previous game, would take over Cory's position as producer, although Stig did not spend much time with the team. Cory is so old (one year shorter), but his enthusiasm for work and superb ability still impress most members of the team. Although he looks tall and powerful, he is quite intimidating, but in reality, he is a mess. A passionate and enthusiastic colleague.
In this way, amidst the laughter of Halloween, the "God of War" series once again welcomed a new leader.
New technology, new technology. Appearance, New Difficulties
Four months before the release of "God of War II", Sony launched the next-generation console PS3, which achieved a huge performance leap compared to the PS2 as a first-party work under Sony. Studio, and it was a Santa Monica studio that had just made a hit like "God of War". In fact, it had obtained a development prototype of PS3 very early, but at that time, due to the construction period and user volume, the team did not choose to develop on the new platform. Make games.
Now, it’s time.
Team main programmer and “three-dynasty veteran” Tim Moss is both excited and worried about the new technology and performance that can be achieved. There are too many functions that could not be implemented before. I am worried that the original engine has become outdated, and new technologies are bound to be accompanied by a lot of learning costs.
(The next-generation console has brought huge development costs to the team. Pressure)
Not only the program, although the technical improvements have benefited players a lot, it also means a far greater workload than before for developers. “In the past, it only took a lot to make a character model. 5 days, now it takes me 8 weeks. "The team modeler said that the improvement of picture expression means the improvement of model accuracy. Now they need to spend more time polishing the details.
The same is true for animators, high-precision pictures Performance means more detailed action performance. The original wide-open and wide-open action design requires more details to make players feel the progress of the times. Every team member must learn new things.
Although there are many difficulties, what Santa Monica Studio is best at is facing difficulties with a smile, especially under the leadership of Stig. He used to be the main artist, he understands both technology and art, and can work well as a team at the same time. As a bridge of communication, and he is a generalist, he will help wherever there are difficulties.
In this way, the team got out of the fire step by step. The programming team spent several months to put the original work together. The engine has been remade based on the new platform, but the interaction logic remains the same as before, which greatly improves the development efficiency of the game. The animation team began to use motion capture technology to obtain unprecedented high-quality animation through the performance of real actors. Everything is going on in an orderly manner.
("God of War III" has achieved a leap forward in graphics)
Everyone adds fuel to the flames
As a producer, Stig naturally has to take into account both the game and the game. In all aspects, but as a series that already has two previous games, how to continue the story has always troubled Stig. Fortunately, Cory left a plot outline before leaving, and has been cooperating with Stig to improve the story line since then. This allowed Stig to "God of War III" perfectly continues the style of the previous game.
Another old friend, David, the original producer of "God of War", will also come to the studio from time to time. Stig is also very happy to chat with the "Father of God of War" about game design-related issues. The latter also put forward many constructive opinions, which helped Stig avoid many detours.
(So happy to be fuzzy.jpg)
With the concerted efforts of the team, the development work of "God of War III" is getting smoother and smoother, and the quality displayed is getting better and better. , this also made Stig feel confident, and finally decided to release the actual demonstration of "God of War III" to the media for the first time on May 10, 2009.
Although Stig seemed restless before the start of the media day, when it was all over his face was filled with a satisfied smile. The revolutionary visual leap, rich action design and original violent experience have won praises from various media. The same will be true at E3 a few months later. The trial area of ??"God of War III" was crowded with players. Many players would rather wait in line all afternoon to play it. They all showed amazing performance in the game. I'm so impressed that I can't wait to play with it at home all day.
(The performance of "God of War III" at E3 was widely praised by players)
The high reputation from the media and players made the development team breathe a heavy sigh of relief. It is physically and mentally exhausting to carry out development work silently for several years in a closed environment. The lack of player feedback means that the development team has no idea what fate their work will face. Now, they can perfect it with confidence and boldness.
On March 16, 2010, "God of War III" was released as scheduled. It sold 1.1 million copies in just two weeks, becoming the fastest-selling series in history. The average media distribution was basically the same as the previous game. This final film for Kratos is perfectly executed.
After experiencing the baptism of the trilogy, although Kratos has temporarily left the story stage, the long-standing problems in the series are about to explode. Where does the God of War series go next? What secrets are hidden behind the reboot? We’ll talk about it in the next article.