God of War | Raising Kratos | "Making Of" Documentary

Peggy 18 hmm what do I want to say with this story yeah what do you want to say with this story what do you think what do you what do you think about this story I think running away is what I want to say with this you know that change is possible [Music] me man I can see it in everybody's eyes that they were asleep and then everyone's still treating it like hmm you know what we'll just see and I'm like no like my mind again if I see what you guys are telling me I'm not gonna let myself believe the date No the gods of Olympus have abandoned [Music] God war revolutionized the gaming industry with its epic storytelling jaw-dropping action sequences not to mention a quick and brutal lesson on Greek mythology [Music] we're talking about one of the most iconic characters in the history of videogames yes it's it's an ass-kicking getting what it is so I don't know how many what the demographic is of women that play these games as opposed to men I'm guessing that the ratio is probably like 9 to 1 [Applause] what exactly does a game director do your carnage from start to finish very early on he or she has to be able to play the game from beginning to end in their hand people doing people around and like you get that sense of empowerment you know like nothing can stop you especially on the first god of war when nobody with the exception of a couple of us had any idea what it was switch me thought of war game is about the action it's about the rage how does a god and no getting and then I was put down and then I came back destroy everybody on God of War to he expanded the story of Kratos deepening the saga and turning it into a legend please welcome kori Varla a lot of the time we have no clue what we're talking about I mean there are a lot of leaps that you make in this job where you're like all right look I kind of know what I want but sometimes you're discovering as you go so how did you guys become game directors I pledged an oath in blood God were one about a guy who puts everything aside for work and he loses his wife and he loses his kid pain is all I have left few games embody the definition of epic quite like God of War so it's disappointing that the release of ascension brings with it with of a series that's treading water rather than so I guess killing people sauce problems is not really [Music] [Music] [Music] where am I sitting no no Cory with an e is sitting here Cory without an e isn't sitting at this table oh that is embarrassing that is embarrassing I am an 80s television star but that's alright we'll let this one slide maybe for me this was a very long journey we were in a tough time within the studio and there was a lot of emphasis that we as a team we're putting on rebooting this franchise and what does that mean and there's a lot of risk just in that one sort of concept reboot is as Cory and you guys know it's not as easy as it sounds ok first position playback action and then cut reset we'll do our thing and then go back into first position playback action does anybody want to write that down for me because I feel like I'm gonna mess it up before he came back to the studio I could tell he was a completely different person he had gotten married I was a father and he was telling a completely different story just you know as Cory bar log Shannon where did she get this wonderful lon turtle you still haven't cracked the mystery of nobody nobody's came out do you know what that means appearance of a turtle in your garden something interesting when I came back to Santa Monica we were we were trying to figure out what we wanted to do I know that what we wanted to do was not going to just be make another God of War game knowing that we knew that same old Kratos rage-filled crazy guy was not gonna work and I kind of started thinking about this idea that if Kratos never got a second chance you know this idea of like when I had a kid I feel like my perspective on everything changed hey all right come on we'll go over here can you say action Oh see he's learning success means the world to Santa Monica studio I mean this is something that hold on my tuckus buzzing yeah [Laughter] it was Shannon's idea to go find Cory again and bring him back as one of the original vision holders of the whole world that was God of War and give him time to really try to come up with how do we reinvent this franchise how can we just make it not just bigger and better and the same but bigger and better and different after ascension they did this thing to check well how the audience felt about God of War right the overwhelming vibe was that they were done with Kratos you know to go away or needed a fresh burst day back was at Penn Station in Santa Monica everybody was doing prototypes they were doing concept art and they had kind of a pitch for internal seventh the other game I was very excited partly because I had gone got over one two and three so I was ready for something new I was very excited that it was it was gonna be futuristic they're gonna have guns we're gonna do something completely different internal seven they were in pre-production for probably close to thirty six months shortly after that period they needed to inherit the ascension team and really put the pedal to the metal this is the yeah the first time was getting everybody up there while they were still working on the other project and I think it was a lot of people were wondering what we were doing because it was a small team and it was just high vision like what are we gonna do and really kind of just throwing a bunch up at the board leadership had made some decisions around the growth of the studio and and how we would remain competitive and one of those decisions was turning ourselves into what we called a 1.5 team and that would mean that you would have to larger IP development going on within the roof of Santa Monica studio and those teams would share resources back and forth and the theme of the day is trying to keep quiet during the tour lots of lots of reverb in there will be along this wall over on this side we're gonna have the focus test room right over here in Beijing we just walk through these the new incubation area your full-fledged recording studio setup [Music] boa like you did a boardroom or meetings as you're blinding you can look over the railing it's a really different perspective [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] thank you guys all for coming I think this is a crazy great opportunity I'm sure all you guys are totally overwhelmed like I am with how incredibly large this place is but I think it just shows that Sony has a really deep commitment to Santa Monica studios and you want this place to grow I want you guys to be someplace special opportunities like this don't come very often I'm very honored to be here today in Santa Monica Cheers you want me to talk about what it would be like if it failed because it's like yes what is part of the business and you know I if if any franchise were to fail on you know on an epic scale like just not deliver at all of course there'd be ramifications [Music] Damon here with IGN news layoffs unfortunately hit Sony Santa Monica studio today the Sony owned exclusive developer found him in 1999 is best known for its God of War Games the extent of the damage remains unclear though there are indications that one of the projects the studio was working on has been cancelled alongside this round of layoffs Sony has provided the following statement IGN as CEA can confirm that we have completed a reduction in work force at Santa Monica studio you know I think it and it ended up being a dream that died literally in that moment it's one of the hardest things you'll ever do in development is when you sink your heart and soul into something and you realize it's not coming together the way we wanted it to we need to shift gears and restart that was kind of the abyss for that team so that was I was pretty devastating in many ways you know one of the many big appeals coming here was work on a new IP on a small team so I actually joined that in 17 when it was about 20 people so that was a very very difficult time for me so yeah but for us we kind of had our heads down we were just like okay we had a timeline and that timeline felt pretty good that other game was going we were kind of like okay cool we'll kind of trail them draft no one we can get people on and then when things were not working out and kind of the big sort of halt happened on the project we had to suddenly say we're about to get 110 people I had to figure out how to keep them busy and to figure out now beyond just the concept of the game but how are we gonna what's the new pipeline what's the engine it was in a dire position right cuz you're in that state where you don't have anything to keep people busy but we were in no way ready for a hundred ten or hundred twenty people that we inherited we were just trying to like basically do mental push ups to be ready for the team and then all of a sudden I just got delivered on our doorstep about eight to nine months early and it was like whoa what are we gonna do now there's a scrambling you know and then there's a lot of mistrust right out of the gate cuz I like what you guys been doing over here you don't know what game were making really do you guys really early it was very difficult but we had to push on you know and I think we had to find the positivity out of it and figure out how we can kind of collect everybody again I think for me it was just that again perseverance of coming in here and putting one foot in front of the next to make sure that tomorrow is a good day for everyone foundation and we're building on that we are in a reset phase with the new studio this probably won't make the final cut but I like this location I prefer this the new this you know this will all be lovely but this is I'm fond of this place it's pretty bittersweet it's it's sad in some ways to be leave in the studio you know it's such a great place where so many great games are made this big open collaborative space we realize we couldn't keep it throughout the whole building and have that same feel so moving makes sense it feels like a new chapter we're making it you know and you start a game it's gonna be a good symbolic break and a new beginning new generation new facility new logo all coming together here now and it starts the future of the business that we so love [Music] [Music] the business is growing we feel face-to-face communication and dialogue is really critical to our collaborative nature well I mean definitely we'll miss some things about the old building moving through a lot there but I think this is a I feel reenergize you know to be honest I feel like you know I just feel pumped up for whatever's gonna be next the inspiration is definitely in the building now I mean we have to step up and make something fantastic because we're in a fantastic place for me I wasn't coming to work at Sonia was coming to work on that franchise I played God of War three I was so excited about it I just wanted to be part of that you know if you're making a fighting game or a sports game you build a team around what you need and we had a team of people who loved God Ahura and a team of people who want to build that kind of game [Music] [Music] you know honestly for me I totally thought that we had to throw it all out and we had to find a new hook for this game something that could anchor everything that we were doing but something that could also show that there's some change and I'm not as creative as I would love to believe so I always just pulled things directly for my life so I thought it was a totally clever idea to have Kratos be a dad and try to actually be a dad rather than use it as like a cutaway cinematic to describe whatever past he had it is such a departure for Kratos when the first thing you talk about is him being a dad right and his previous experience with being a dad was you know murdering his family and that definitely gives people pause I think the remainder or the rest of the studio the rest of the team we had really worked together this core group of like 11 people to find the best sort of version of what we were talking about [Music] initially it wasn't gonna be his kid I think the first pitch I gave was that we wouldn't even know what was happening so it was like Kratos walking through the desert because we were in my mind still doing Egypt initially we was sand blowing all over the places he's kind of crawling through and then kind of stands up and crests over a dune and checks out this really fantastic like this ancient city and then he kind of turned around and then says all right follow me and then we kind of reveal that there's a kid there hmm we have a long journey ahead I think it was very little it just at least got the spark and then that was though what you know you should do this we just try this we should do this [Music] I was all in on some of it but the Sun thing like not at first definitely not at first just mainly because like from my perspective it's like I'm trying to think of like combat well we can do next and then I see this tiny kid running around Kratos I'm like my god it's like he's gonna always gonna do is slow him down I was gonna do is make things hard and and nobody wants that in the game here first knife get in combat probably do some extra call myself I think you're also gonna jump off with a box into John's arms so we're we just need you to do a backflip can you do that yes really I'm really kidding you can do it back Wow when I first did the audition I thought it was a movie cuz it was just like some dialogue right there and I was like okay just like a movie and I we just did like a fire scene or something like that which I barely remember um no we didn't do history today yeah basically when we actually present the game to the executives this screen will be sitting on the television it'll just be a your face sitting with the fire looping and I'll be talking to them and then when we actually started the game we'll press a button and that's when you'll hear your dad call you so I'll press the button it'll be like boy so it'd be kind of cool and then I get the role and then I go to like San Diego or something like that and then all of that and I'm like wait what and it's like a game it's got a war and I'm like what and I'm like super excited but I was like really confused and there was just a bunch of emotions going through me doesn't go on Facebook or the what are you yes you're just gonna that's that's how you do it okay right into the belly yeah yeah yeah I actually did that yesterday or I'm supposed to get really mad at Kratos good yeah it's grim really love it's really funny okay so loo boy boy so remember did you just kill that thing it's not alive anymore if it's got kids they're all alone so think through that it sucks I know right use that use that okay I can't quite the vision for getting that kind of narrative tone no camera cuts like getting all that stuff up and running as especially as well with like a buddy AI with the son and having him lead the way properly having him kind of moved correctly and you know I mean the vision was so clear but it was also pretty ambitious and at that time we had we didn't really have a lot of that working it was bad this is the mess right it was like 12 different ideas you know all at once it was too much and nobody was really sort of giving an inch okay well now what does that mean well that means you go back to the drawing table and you do it again and you know we've had even I think a shoe visit a little while ago at March where second he left the room I was like that was not good there was something that I you know in his facial expression that is telling us there's there's an issue here and then you know Shannon calls a little while later say she had some note he wasn't that happy but I don't think I read exactly how unhappy he was I was not very perceptive on that one it was Carlo who ran into him and Shuhei starts telling him I was horrified horrified how bad it was I think the team you know rightfully so gets nervous when they hear like Oh shoes play through you know was not all positive right and people start saying well what does this mean what does this mean it means we gotta we gotta solve this problem right like we do every single day and like this is a really big guy Sony and he did not have a very good experience and I still was under the impression it was not a very good experience not horrified horrified how bad it was I think that he probably walked out in that room that first time going like what the hell did we do we just gave this guy a lot of money to make this game did we make a mistake runner run far away from me but you have changed you're not a monster the hunt for creatures was very difficult we were probably a month away from giving up we were like that close where everybody started having this pull me a side conversation and you start thinking about the reality of this like maybe this is not gonna happen maybe you're not gonna find the perfect person my agent called and and I wasn't really sold on all this thing for it I know it sounds silly now she's like look just read it just just read the sides and I read the sides mm-hmm and I called my agent back and I said I thought you said this was a video game you have seeing what I am and when you lose control and the rage takes you that is me in your blood eating away at any goodness your mother may have passed on to you it was literally like the test you do for a TV series of movie you have changed you're not a monster exactly and it just I couldn't wrap my head around how this would be in a video game this is not me leading right for the gecko you can see him it sunny had a really good chemistry and you know he's huge [Music] ultra violence in Sexy's in mascot war why are we doing that right people will say kratos can't grow he's just this like antihero who just kills things and bathes in their blood and I'm like you need to see a therapist but I think it was it was a necessity [Music] [Music] if I had my own instrument it's probably it's probably the accordion cuz it's weird and most people think it's lame but I think it's cool I remember meeting Corey and he told me this the story of the game I think we were there for like an hour an hour and a half and I felt like I was sitting around a campfire like I wanted to just like roast marshmallows and just like and then what happened it's the story that draws me musically that's where I get ideas and I realize like this game has a really well thought out story and character arc and I just thought I I have to be involved in this what is god of war he's great as the mascot wear his Greek mythology the mascot I was talking to several people from the European marketing groups because I think what they saw is like oh you're just gonna make another god of war with angry Kratos right and they're like that's just not a good idea and I I talked about you know potentially exploring other mythologies and one of the guys had said you know I just don't understand how that would work you know what it's great it's gonna pop on a backpack and just walk to Scandinavia you know that just seems weird and I was like oh right at that time I realized like I was like oh well he doesn't have a backpack but yeah and oh okay well there we go so they're gonna go out in the beginning of the game and fulfill the sort of dying wish of the mother the mother wanted her ashes she wanted to be burned and her ashes to be spread on the highest peak and all the realms so that's kind of the driving force throughout the entire story is that they are taking her ashes and heading to the highest peak the overall theme of this is that the kid is going to teach kratos how to be a human kratos is gonna teach the kid how to be a god right each of them has a piece of them missing and they kind of helped each other out on this buddy roadtrip movie we are in the middle of nowhere right now and we hear a hissing there's the culprit so another adventure yeah that was it was interesting a cross-section of people too because it was we sent programmers artists Shannon I think went as well this is this is serious I'm documenting cue the soundtrack well we made it to a New York so far we're halfway there you can see the people were much smaller back then Luke would have been a giant compared them that's the way we dress when going to Reykjavik smart and evident I'm gonna get run over [Music] so we're still here the tires won't come off so we called the farmer yeah this is where we live now just come find us there's so much life that's happening around you and you can feel it almost in the terrain there is a number of really special moments there for me because of how magical the landscape is in the way that it just captures your soul [Music] as I was looking around at the beauty of Iceland for the first time it really hit me that the path that we were on was the right path I could see the game for the first time truly in my heart [Music] [Music] [Music] yosh company are the Icelandic language today is the closest language to Old Norse what that means is acquire in Iceland would be able to read a phonetic spelling of Old Norse and do it correctly so immediately all eyes were on Iceland is a possible place to do choir [Music] [Music] I thought I was auditioning for Game of Thrones I'm gonna be honest I was pulling on a major Lady Stark moment with my monologue and I was like this is my moment it felt like a beautiful cinematic piece about father and son and mother and longing and relationships and with these gods and goddesses and it was really exciting so they're going to meet Freya in a meet-cute really she is going to give them a little bit more information on the world help guide them to where they need to go but also kind of start to create this relationship at both Kratos and the Sun that we kind of build throughout the entire game she will send him off towards the mountain and you get attacked like right away she's totally not trying to screw you over and just sending you into a really bad place it's just it's a very hostile world that you're in [Music] if the gunfire is very exciting so part of the experience so what we may know that I'm doing some of these exact things I think it's cool to kind of imagine a little bit of what it was like to live like a creepy camera guy whatever you do you have to make sure you get into it and then still close it up you know makers things that can fall and kill you [Music] [Applause] all right so I will call playback okay holy crap this is exciting this is our first day I have to really now do not make me pull this volume over I often make bad decisions to get myself in trouble so it'll be perfect I'll be like look what did you expect yeah I see it's all around TV action alright it's a big influencing factor and I think as I was growing up in the earlier games the family was sort of the individual extended family my family lived farther away from me so I was a lot more separated from them so the work family became the entire family now I have them intermixing like I had my daughter during production and just the the willingness to work around my schedule of having a newborn and you know I had to take maternity leave in the middle of production and well I know so I came back I have two daughters and four-year-old and six-year-old hi Sophia hi Odie BIA I'm expecting yes LLL ring he'll ring and then it's gonna be on the TV yes teeth even in the earlier games that's how I kind of rooted myself in the first story was writing the first few drafts with my dad and kind of finding the struggle of Kratos and Zeus the sort of father-son story but this father-son stories told from that different angle the son becoming the father so I am a little OCD so I'm going to take some of this oh you like that okay good oh that's fantastic I don't know why I'm taking a little bit of this not certain what I'm gonna do with it yet farting is allowed in the volume right [Laughter] if you need to fart go next door [Music] we are only here on one baby hold on one second everyone sorry I was playing around with just this melody and at the last minute I was like it's so simple that I almost wrote it by accident it was the last thing I did in sketching that theme but I mean I've come to really love it and it's I think its simplicity is what makes it so powerful and and it represents Kratos he's a man of few words his theme should be a theme a few notes [Music] crannis isn't the most verbal guy it's not that he's not intelligent because he was a general he was very intelligent but he's very efficient with what he says and and when he feels like something needs to be said and so create us it's like when a grunt can do that's that's kind of his wheelhouse is he can convey a lot of emotion from what is this one again III is a big opportunity for media to get a glimpse into what's going on with the various software as well as hardware it's bigger than Oscar night I mean it's huge it's a chance where you you get all these you get all developers you get all studios you everyone stuff I drove around for an hour looking for a parking space I'd forgotten how fantastic III is I'm looking forward to seeing people's responses back to this thing right now I haven't heard anything but seeing the crowds is definitely an inspiring thing hello this is the first of many diaries that I'm going to make during the soul-crushing process of making this game I haven't it's been three years on this project we are a month from our e3 demo alpha which is the first III demo we're ever gonna do the art director there's been on the project from the beginning I'm actually been at Sony for over 10 years is having his last day today which is the reason I'm probably starting to do these things so that I can out really seem like I'm totally fine with it but inwardly then I can be completely questioning what the is going to happen if you can we create this freedom when I know because don't scare me [Music] [Music] your mother's knife it belongs to you now what for addressed so of being like two weeks away from you three you know we haven't really talked about of showing anything about our game so like it's like a pressure cooker right now you know we're like old boiling with excitement the target immediately when we show the e3 demo you're gonna see a lot of introduction of story elements that weren't in these games before and I know that you know some fans may have liked the just pure lie just just kill kill kill fight fight fight yeah well I don't know how they will react but I'm excited about finding out [Music] like everybody's probably little tired and pulled stress a little freaked out you know that's the first time after very long time we're gonna show anything to the world so I hope people are just happy to see the change oh man so I and literally I think I've been rehearsing that demo for a month and it's just nine minutes but it's to me the most important nine minutes of this game because that's the one where either everybody's gonna go what the are you doing or what the are you doing that's awesome like I have no idea what answer it's gonna be either it truly is like the cat is alive and dead at the same time right now [Music] [Music] ah I like that no I'm gonna picture myself naked [Laughter] [Applause] do you wanna say bye-bye to Papa give a big hug yeah we've seen so much in the last 20 minutes and we haven't even started so many exclusives so much more to come I'm excited to be surprised I don't know what's gonna happen you never know what's gonna happen I would try not to screw up you know all right you have a good day opening and closing doors [Music] good afternoon in here fantastic [Music] hey my wife talks about she doesn't come home work being the stay-at-home parent and she's constantly immersed in work I kind of feel the same way and I should be able to separate from it but I have this like problem right well my brain will not disengage it was last night it was 3:00 in the morning and I'm like I really need to sleep I have to sleep and I just could not stop tossing and turning and going over both the positive and negative scenarios and one of them was trying to convince myself you know the positive scenario and the other one was just worming its way in like an ear worm you know like they're all gonna laugh at you maybe not bad exactly but I hate everyone oh my god thank you thank you that's so awesome when I saw it yesterday is with Korey and you me and Kevin I see you guys are just so close to this that you don't see how absolutely phenomenal it is and it's just mind-boggling they could very much say wow that's great this is a new direction you know gamers I feel have grown up the way that I have grown and the team has grown we've all kind of moved to this next phase of gaming you excited about today's press conference I have no idea how people are gonna respond [Music] anything that anybody could say on the Internet is still tame compared to what goes on inside here but I know there's so many more people that think it's a team I don't want to let them down [Music] I think there's nothing we can do now it's already done so my faith that people are going to enjoy this and then I won't have faith and I will have faith and I won't have faith I'll just [Music] it's yummy you should get footage of them Shannon and you me there you go get in there get up in there right in Yumi's face no one wants to watch you take them they want to look at you leave her here crazy day Corey Marlin on the big stage four years in the making [Music] so in terms of you mean once the camera see now I can leak something and it will be okay because today's the day that the leaks come you know I have no idea you could not wear anything that identifies you as Santa Monica studio you can't talk about the studio when we were there it was crazy oh oh good point and they really think of it that way yeah I'll put this on I have a hoodie I can go unabomber style I think this is more for me thinking that I mean one would know who and what a world we live in when I think that [Music] [Music] [Music] had Richard on one side ahead into some random stranger on the other side of me I wanna lean over and be like I knew it what I know what this is I knew it this is [Music] [Applause] that door my hammer doesn't scare me your mother's knife it belongs to you now what for a test she taught you to hurt yes yes sir then show me what you know [Applause] penis that was straight-up paralyzing I was literally paralyzed full chills tire body oh whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa [Music] [Applause] what no no oh I I literally got to like raise my arms and hear that sound he stepped out I get chills II it was truly a once-in-a-lifetime [Applause] [Applause] very rarely in life do you get you know feed us some more our friends are like yeah yeah but also kind of like jealous at the same time and then like so my friends are like really happy for me like bro like I saw you and like go to war trailer it was like so crazy boy I knew they're like freaking out and I was like yeah yeah holy No cradle zoom attacks no no no bar game play which was incredibly ambitious right Corey's gonna play the game while we perform the score live to the gameplay I'm not a pre-rendered video it was section to section like worrying to some degree about just how it will play already hidden well the Sun were the way we wanted to move it looks gorgeous looks amazing oh my god what is going on right now and we were literally going section to section like I'd be like I'm in and you're not that have ever been shown at e3 and that's just this little tiny piece of what this game is gonna be to you [Music] the team really got together it really delivered on something that is very hard to do this game is gonna be so good [Music] now you are ready for one a new beginning [Music] [Music] to the stage Shawn Layden good evening good evening everyone and welcome what a way to start the show huh the live demo of God of War [Music] as she's walking towards the office [Music] everybody's telling me my gut is telling me what we did on a three doesn't scale right we took so much time out of the project to make that awesome that doesn't scale to a full-sized game you know but scary thing was like we showed 10 minutes and 45 seconds or something and it took a year and a half to get there and now we have a year and a half left essentially and we have like 30 hours to make and you're kind of scratch your head like how is that humanly possible how do you give that all those different stages amazing bookmarks no it's called then you say yeah this is actually not correct anymore I believe oh no I can't anything we have to say we usually say it so I think that's what makes the team work you know you don't settle for crap that you see you if you see crap then you identify it and you say it right to the person's face hopefully with fists and bat in your hand to make sure that they change it yeah and and yeah man basically just talk it out and you just figure out like how to make it better cuz usually it gets better is this very good definitely make it disappear exact no I know where you can warp burn whether we can make it turn into a bird in gameplay yeah I have almost 30 people in my department and artists tend to be a little bit introverted dramatic read into things very sensitive because you know you're an artist that's that's natural it's all okay but every single person that I need to deal with needs to be dealt with in a different way okay if everything goes right then I feel that I can get all of the stuff in as you can see like I'll just show you stuff in two bunches we're gonna leave now because everything's going wrong for me at least I think a big part of it is is maintaining that focus with the team of our size the ideas are constantly flowing there's so much feedback there's so many things that need to be done sometimes you just want to you know get go to each individual person and say stop thinking just do this right like don't look at all these other things just look at this and do this and you can't do that because you know the other things are also pretty valuable which would simulate that if you come to it at exactly the wrong phase that's what would happen right so I'll try I'll try switching that's true and see if that fixes it in that case or see if it just hasn't like go straight in a lot yeah and if that's the case then check it in well let me know okay thanks but then the opposite is true as well right because I remember like you and I had many fights about how like the draaga reveal should work and eventually it just came down to like I have a plan for this leave me alone I've got an idea here go away it's a struggle to try to sort of unlock like this this understand the process and how all the pieces fit together and how the players are going to understand the final product that you're delivering probably the most challenging thing is just people love this character so much and and there is a lot of pressure to make sure that those people feel like we're doing that character who's so important to them justice while still evolving him because couldn't stay in the one place that he was and right now once you go in there and you have all the route the doors around you you don't know how the hell to get back out to the bridge right now the only doors that are in there lead to realms right oh my god you're yeah bro yes I had a firmware update sincerely like after a party that just appeared in your house cuz now I feel like I just want to show up everyone's long leave you new lawn ornaments oh I'm gonna do that that sounds fun they are a practical joking Bunch the managers weirdly that was the inspiration in Freya's house oh my god that's what it is is it friendly so this is gonna start filling in all the points in which we meet you and you're gonna be going with craters of the Sun to take them from the mountain all the way to all-time when you meet them in your house all the different circumstances throughout the game yeah where we need actually your voice versus my voice or Carlos voice you know where you have really bad stand-in dialogue so where we good so this glams kress so these first two lines here at this point now the player can still roam around your house oh right and I'm like come on get it already I also need lambs crests do you mind it's a white petal flower in my garden just a handful where you better work sighs lambs Chris God of War that's amazing I hope you guys keep that would you would you big time now save some of that money to Nicole Kidman cancer oh good so nobody bigger than me I mean good to see you have you missed me yes you have yes you have come on it's okay it's okay to love Dom no you know don't forget that it's okay to love love is first follow sleep I hate and divorce and alimony those are the things we teach kids on set yours oh yeah let's do this where that's awesome well I mean we can show you stuff without Jason yeah the truth do you know right how deep can your voice go you okay good you're playing Jason that's right planus I always have like the word ball Curry written behind her yes so you're clear yeah that's awesome that was your vision right it was I just didn't realize that you guys were able to really achieve it what are your thoughts on the the ball Creek I hear it's awesome hey that's pretty awesome I would not want to be the character following this meeting I don't want to be the next character oh boy the bar has been set now you got a top Valkyrie and final boss I'm actually the first so I've heard and the first woman in the comment design team at the studio ever in the history of the studio and when I heard that of it oh you know that's that's actually really cool that's that's not scary it's cool how do you want to hear it hear me you go paradise I think my generation there was definitely a lot less women in video games but when I see the younger generation there's a much larger portion of the people applying in that arena that looks looks good and these ways they're not gonna throw off comm medical apparently not so he will be meeting probably like a couple more times in terms of just brainstorming meeting character meetings they're trying to schedule something for half an hour and a half or four lunches okay so Shannon's gonna be organizing that you know it's a priority obviously it can't slip already project meeting yeah because we have oh okay yeah nice own board this came there is just no way that this type of activity happens from any type of the top-down endeavor it is every single person every day right kind of figuring it out and and it's like again like with your kids you kind of give them equip them in the best way that you can and then you sort of you gotta solve it yourself and for that freedom you'll be accountable to it my mother said everyone is smarter than you and something and if you don't figure out what it is and learn from it that's your fault you know she taught me that every person I meet will have worse and it's my duty to to be open to receiving what people have to offer you know don't discount anyone do we have information on all these playtesters they are giving us nothing on their faces what she's sort of I think in a resting happy face she just seemed happy the whole time but everyone else was like I thank God I'm getting 10 bucks I started in this industry always shudder when I say this buy started in 1989 as a game tester at Sega and when I finished school I had no idea that they paid people to test games Jason is gonna give you a presentation to break down all the combat and then we're going to let you play through oh well I said we are making incredible progress I am very surprised at how fast everybody seemed to pick up the controls like they seem to do suggestions very quickly what sorry this is my director she is actually through this view is like you're already four and a half minutes off circuit oh yeah it's amazing thank you that's true she could be smiling beneath the frame I'm gonna go with I believe she's smiling beneath the frame give me a larger monitor I'm not sure yeah this is little small this is not the executive monitor we we have slummin like the rest of us is he trying to hit the kid is he's trying to put he's good at killing what are your predictions do you think they're going to give it really good scores really bad scores with that the lack of facial expression I can't tell where any of them are at if they are enjoying it if they're bored I just see Derek there you just look so professional that's the old way where if you just keep doing the combo and they've chosen the block they will just do it until you stop there like that terminator blocks and I don't want to babysit someone that's the the whole fun of being Kratos is running through it and mercilessly murdering people with this weapons and hammers yeah we just have to make your work are we in agreement I don't know we never talk what do you think that sounds like basically not by it's not something I'm used to oh yeah turn it off my question why didn't the Sun ever get attacked there's so much it's kind of like hanging out here I'm like you're okey like freezer yeah Opie freezer yeah the is that here what is this what is this craziness so like it felt really like I didn't even have to pay attention to him and he was just kind of like a fairy sitting on my shoulder like shooting stunning arrows and it was really overpowered and it felt really cheap very cosmetic things I feel like you could have like this thing ability without the Sun even being there and so I feel like if like the Sun is supposed to be like an integral part of like the gay and then like she'd have a role in like the player should always be actively aware this is the all-or-nothing it's everything like we are literally all in on this game you have to get a hundred and fifty people who are very stubborn and passionate and creative to all see a similar picture that doesn't exist and doubt is the demon that lives in the ear of every person in this industry that is to me the biggest obstacle keeping everyone focused on the goal and not listening to that little demon in their ear that says they're all gonna laugh at you and it's not gonna work right and it's like I have the exact same thing in both ears constantly but I'm still trying to steer people back and you know you have to be able to trust each other that you can fail and openly fail together and still recover right otherwise everybody just starts protecting what they're doing and nobody wants to share anything a lot of what we're doing is not simply throwing every single thing out it's looking at the DNA and what God where is and finding out the mountain we had declined to kind of change this franchise this is the traditional sort of child coming of age but it's also creatives kind of coming of age the idea Kratos being a closet human being right somebody who hides his humanity somebody who is shunned and run away from it so we've always kind of kept it a little bit open just to allow people to freely play with it but now we're gonna start really honing in on forcing people to have to use the Sun to create opportunities it reads sacrifice their arms to the center of the water awaken again the cradle of the world what throw our weapons into the water and that is the lead into the whole world serpent coming out so that way at least it shows hey look he's saying be a warrior everyone's about a guy and then you meet this world serpent the thing in that hole is our warriors always would seem like the bad guy is the one thing that kid says hey this is actually did you I think everybody recognizes we get one shot we screw this up I don't see us making another one you know it's was a massive bet no pressure [Music] [Music] I think this interesting approach because in the last ones you know how he killed his family he's actually got something left so it might be interesting how they use him from Norway I don't know yet I haven't got any hands-on time so it looks nice but until I get to play it enough welcoming all of you guys to the God of War behind the curtain panel Corey bar log I'm the director of the game and I make their lives completely miserable on a daily basis that's really yet that's the best then you when you're tabbing yeah you could have fast right like yeah yeah it's what's happening on screen while I'm tabbing it's staying on the current screen until we make the selection and stop tapping and then what happens currently just by moving over to this that's there's no like confirming what to go to it so currently as you tab over you instantaneously bring this UI screen so when I yep not figured no you're just trying to trick me and then have me not see me they have a lot of questions going on you know this is a big reimagining of God of War so I think my first question really would user Shannon you guys were I guess the fairest way to say it is that out of crossroads a couple years ago for this you know as we were kind of at that crossroads it was really apparent to me that we needed to really look for a new beginning and someone that could tell that new beginning in a way that when I made the the first and second game I was a very different person than I am today I'm a bigger today people it's fantastic it helps to work with absolutely great people I am surrounded by people that are so much better than it would be nice to have this in fact it would be nice to have this workable it would be nice to have this and that and say it's been tough it's been tough the last you know few years it's never easy balancing all these personalities and all this talent okay every story that you tell and everything that you make you have to have some kind of personal connection to it some kind of truth that comes from your own life direction we've changed everything from the combat to the mechanics to including the Sun to the environment to everything is different new and fresh scary that's good I find myself as sometimes terrified decisions that we're making we made the choice we got to figure out to make that work you have something that fans really care about and players really care about but we still want to flip everything break it apart and then start putting it back together slowly you know we've all been together every once in a while sure but it's it's all for the good of the ultimate goal of greatness I'm so thankful every single day and they're the ones that have to do the hard work those guys are busting their ass but like we brought this dude on we passed on other people to bring that guy on so I don't any more excuses from that guy though and I just want to thank Corey Ariel G and Shannon for joining us today on the God of War be feeling this this whole time we were supposed to have you play the game will be great is if we boot this up and it doesn't work now I'm very excited I want to try that out 3:9 1.95 I have no idea what that means man I'll show you guys this today from McDonald's over to the up until this point I think a lot of it has been we have latitude and we have time and we have we have the ability to tune and think and and iterate in a way that allows lots of different perspectives and as that time starts wiggling down the number of touches you can get to do to validate the decision that you want to make starts sort of going down and down right it's risk versus reward right we're like well there's this issue at the end if we fix it and the payoff is huge but the risk is super high so what do you want to do you're walking to the trap and really start happy yesterday I was in the middle of taking a bunch of well that's awesome there's no reason at this phase that the log should just be walking on its own it's the magic law or great thing so currently we have about three thousand eight hundred and seventy total bugs in the database this is a perfect example of the bizarre happening that the kids face well you don't want to have triplicates of the same bug so you're going through and if anything is called out for your one of your rises brews just say oh we're already doing this this is a good example of like the average scenario that happens in the day [Music] seriously now I'm looking at the game as a whole going there's no way we're gonna stabilize this under many of you've been pushing really hard to been asking people to step off there how is that time spent in the studio a lot of people have met some compromises to make this work into to bring back the result of this chickening so to those of you who pushing hard towards these goals thank you so much every pretty girl yeah and I really did believe I think four weeks ago and we were on target we were absolutely no problem going to make the date now all right so terms of release date yes so I need to start to commit it to a genuine my sort of status on movies I don't know scary scary thing is I really really don't know which means pay for more time what do they say no [Music] you guys were first brought on this thing give me idea what to expect this scene it's the first time that the Sun kills the human being so pretty you know as a father of four children it's a interesting that this has been a man who has missed ten years of his child growing up and I really found some some parallels with my own life there because I was working on a show and I basically missed 10 years and my kids growing up so it's just it's an interesting dynamic for me you know it's uh it's you know close a little closer to home that I'd like it to be [Music] [Music] I am you know very fortunate in that in the sense that I have a home sort of you know network and a husband and parents and children that are very very supportive and very much you know alright as excited about what we're doing here is you know I think I am and I have a pretty good I feel very fortunate um I don't think I want to answer this right now [Music] [Music] what does this girl mean to you it's everything follow me why help us maybe I see more of myself in you that I'm willing to admit maybe maybe by helping you I'll make up for a lifetime of mistakes or maybe I just like you I mean there's lots of different methodologies on how to be vulnerable in a scene or how to be connected to an emotional scene where your son is basically saying you ruined my life I hate you I never want to see you again it was right around the time of I was going through a divorce so that wasn't difficult for me to be in a space that was vulnerable and fractured and confused like it wasn't supposed to turn out this way it's my job as an actress to keep myself in that space of like being permeable and being affected by what's happening in the moment and so if I can recall what those feelings were like with my ex-husband then I can understand some of the pain that Freya is going through with someone that she she loved and had the best intentions for but who it's it's just not it's not going the way that she had hoped if I had if it hadn't been that it could have been anything else in my life where there was a goodbye from someone that you know abandonment issues I mean we now come on we're human well we've all got our bag of pain oh that okay I'll use that one grow just one little marker who needs my pinkie Oh his pinkie too you know I think it's an actor you always want to feel safe you always want to because when you when you do choose to do that you can't bring yourself out of it it takes some decompression the scene when I go back and get the blades of chaos it was probably not real early on but early on in the filming and that's kind of what I was like do I want to go there because this this was mowin if I was gonna take the scab off it as a person as a human being this is where it is there's nowhere you can hide Spartan but as much distance between you and the truth as you want it changes nothing pretend to be everything you are not teacher husband father but there is one unavoidable truth you will never escape you cannot change monster I know a lot of this performance for me is a love letter to my kids it's and it's hence an apology yeah and that's all I'm gonna say [Laughter] me man I guess season everybody's honest that they were asleep and then everyone's still treating you like mmm you know what we'll just see and I'm like no like I my mind I get it I see what you guys are telling me I'm not gonna let myself believe make the date no no I'm just gonna try to adjust to the April I said that changes well that means you're not going to Europe next month no but February like yes it means next month is very hard but four years of a marathon you don't want to stop running in the last 200 feet [Music] you know for many years you don't see or at least I didn't see what a sacrifice was until you start sort of living the sacrifice you start feeling the sacrifice if that makes any sense we as working parents always wonder in question do we really spend enough time with our children I carry that with me every day and I never have the right answer I all I can do is be the best I can be in those moments that I do have my children and that I'm really able to engage and hopefully the stresses of the job I'll you know don't get in the way of me being the best parent that I can be right now the earliest the IQ folks and the sales people feel comfortable with is xx which is finding xx we can't go quite frankly we don't want earlier so at the end of that I don't keep saying this everyone is in your name that game comes out it's gonna be amazing it wasn't bananas and no one's gonna remember all them face you right we just have to actually make it through this period without going over the industry is incredibly demanding it is all about what you've done lately and you need to constantly move forward and do other things I've always described my career as typical in the industry of having two states you're either doing everything or you're doing nothing for me it's like what being normal is what I struggle with you know like taking time off like why don't we take a vacation or just like any of these things I just even saying them it's like what am I saying it's so alien to me and and I think it's you know I'm feeling it feeling it it's time to take the foot off the gas a little bit for all the hard work for sure we quality and excellence even with the entail personal sacrifice stay true to the vision even at points when people sculpted certain as a team we're on course to deliver something pretty magnificent and it's because each and every one of you and a passion we breathe every single day as huee CIMMYT has moved to march 9th and gold and release to manufacturing moves to March 15th which pushes the game's release from March 13th to April 20th everybody we would not be doing any of this profit would be me talking to myself in agreement so what we are going to end up with at the end of all this this amazing game is truly something that I will carry with me forever and I believe it is a first step a first step in many many games that are going to be that will I think really redefining with us if any of these I'm very proud to work with everybody here thank you again thank you for all your hard work I know we have still a push ahead of us let's go to m6 [Music] we are supposed to be going gold today so we're gonna go see if you me has any idea of whether or not we're making a disc today so we're at a point where QA is testing round the clock getting new issues coming in all the time you know everybody on the production side is constantly evaluating what new bugs come in hope being that once we end up at the end of the day we have a solid build that has zero critical issues you know that's the one that we're like yes we want this to be burnt on a disk I want to take a picture with it send it out [Music] this is it I mean this is still the for me officially the first game that uh you know I will ship and then here for five years and it's you know it's like a big legacy I was walking by someone's desk today and I saw something that had been updated like wow it looks amazing he's like yeah this just came in I was like dude we just have to finish this game if we finish this game it will be awesome there is so much good stuff oh she's not here you mean you were not here when I stopped by I am sad there you go that way she'll know that someone's looking for and they're sad all right this way well here she is Yuliang we found her we just left you a note that said I am lost without you me yang all right run wrap [Music] it's so exciting it feels like we're doing something oh my gosh I wanna press about once memorized how can I screw this up is this that's it the whole thing it just is right there it is stand here and watch a progress bar take a little little while like how long give me a nice man dude I'm not gonna stay in here for another that's crazy a lot of disagreements and a lot of passion went into making this blank disc for all of you watching this is how we used to play games back in the 90s this is a weird like retro experience - so whose analog yes it's beautiful [Music] oh this is wonderful okay let's actually join the tree Preservation Society super into trees now [Music] this tree is a metaphor for the franchise of God of War and at the very beginning of the franchise we chop that down so that we could chop it up and then carry it around then burn it for me what I would love to see that from this game well we're pushing is dramatic context you know reason the the concept of why why am I here why am i doing these things why do I care as a player like engaging people on a more emotionally visceral level than just revenge killing you know which is great combats fun it's the way you communicate with the environment in so many games I think it games that feel repetitive and boring because there's no strong sense of why you don't feel connected at all to the world Wilkin quiver will slow your draw pain we endure faulty weaponry we do not this will do for now good good we're on our way to France I think that what makes a great strong character is absolutely what makes a great strong human because when you're embodying a character you're embodying the life of a human that is of some parts of many things within the mind of the writer and they pulled from some person that they know in their life and so it is a living breathing thing [Music] city in Berlin for day two of our this is a very big sort of change yeah there were times when my wife was holding the camera and facetiming of basketball games where I could watch it while I was at some corporate off-site meeting or something like that you just do what you have to do you know we all as a family had to balance and were there where their struggles were their tears of course there was but that's life you get through it and we're all still around and and everyone kind of grew from those moments but was the last never think about working but what's exactly the nature of [Music] it's an interesting universality to it as well the idea of even if we don't have kids we were kids ourselves at one point Oh God where do they go to me so this game got more this iteration is probably the most personal project I think I've worked on to my entire career [Applause] that is the true challenge of parenting is not to sit there and hide the world from them but to prepare them you know go through the bank yeah check out through the pain I do a home you are free attorney I think as a writer the most interesting challenge is to take a character that you have made intentionally an antihero and actually turn them around [Music] I think a difficult thing for anybody is the time you put into the end of the day we're gonna spend nearly four and a half almost five years on this day five years five years on it at the end you have one thing and then one day it's out there and either everybody loves it or everyone hates it or even worse they're indifferent and it's just crickets right and that's it like it's such feast or famine we have great jobs or not complained but there is a sacrifice you know and you know we wouldn't question like is this is this worth it I'm excited I'm not sure how he goes from Greek mythology to the north pathology but I'm interested to see what happens normally we know him as an angry aggressive person but I mean it's it looks I think the change is good sometimes in a sense you know I wasn't okay with it until my kid said dad we know we know why Lord we know why eat this stuff yeah I was never okay to [Music] smaller so this right here represents five years worth of work going gold the incredible team that I worked with so many people and the human yang the most important person for my sanity throughout this entire crazy journey by now I had read through this remarkable adventure and the one thing I got on there was just characters love first son retweeted PlayStation retweeted Oh seriously that's us the first time we met the world Serban but how art reflects life reflects art reflects life and that's why we have it so we don't feel so alone so we see these stories whether they're folklore and mythology made-up or real is because this thing called life is is interesting and confusing and it's wonderful and it's horrible and it's all these things and here we are from the beginning it was you know we have the potential to make a defining game and now to this day I say we have the potential to make a defining game all these drawings [Music] this is our story [Music] okay I stalled enough I'm gonna I'm hitting enter now and thank God it's not on the front page so I could stall just a little bit more information is not there on the front page of what god of war is yet I'm clicking on games now holy [Music] success is not guaranteed you don't get it just because you are who you are it's get it because you work really crazy hard and sacrifice for something else you know it's just kind of I guess like a parent you're gonna sacrifice work really hard and then they're gonna hate you in 15 years and not talk to you for 10 years and then they're gonna be like hey I remember why you were pretty good [Music] [Music] [Applause] this game is big this is a big big special drinking gotough war is back on ps4 this game changes the franchise and it Network you twits it's a bold and risky move one that paid off in space is one of the greatest games of all time God of War is a masterful composition of exceptional interlocking parts Santa Monica studio is taking us all to Valhalla there was a lot of doubt on this project but it's you people every day coming in and doing what you do that made this reality the game is a masterpiece the most well thought out and well paced games in quite a long time hands down game of the year what I want to take away to beings like wow this was necessary this was interesting this was a different this was engaging this game is incredible Donna Ford doesn't just feel like the next step for the franchise but the entire video game industry Corey of course is the creative director of God work to follow the song dynamic he's obviously yeah that's the be Singha of the game I wouldn't say I had any doubts about if we could do it because the talent at the studio is absolutely there are people here that won't let this game fail I consider myself one of those I do this because I want to make something beautiful and I want I want everyone to see it [Music] great so do the back alright and the game award for game of the year goes to God of War [Applause] [Music] [Applause] everybody I want to thank my children and all of the families throughout the God of War team and you guys the fans around the world together we all dream big dreams thank you everyone [Applause] [Music] you so the amazing thing is for everybody at home this is how easy it is to make games just walk around the studio you hit a button once and the game is finished it's like that that scene in space balls instant video cassettes they're out in stores before the movie is finished

Channel: PlayStation Europe

Views: 2,213,355

Rating: 4.9541206 out of 5

Keywords: playstation europe, god of war bts, playstation eu, god of war behind the scenes, ps4, god of war documentary, behind the scenes, raising kratos, god of war 4, playstation, pseu22072019tag, documentary, god of war, bts, making of, god of war making of, kratos, playstation 4, atreus, 4k

Id: ra_R-K_IoUc

Length: 114min 59sec (6899 seconds)

Published: Fri May 10 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/YOUREABOT]

Finally got the time to watch this *oh Sunny Sultic, My sweet summer boi"