Sony recently announced on the new podcast miniseries titled Worlds Collide. The podcast will bring together the developers of the critically acclaimed God of War. Its first episode is already released on the official PlayStation Soundcloud account.
Design Flexibility and Synergy
"Fitting A Side Quest in Anywhere" is the title of the first episode, which focuses on the side quest Witch Bones. Developers from Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) and Santa Monica studio were asked to share their experience in designing the quest. The podcast took the topic apart in three key design elements: the level design, system design, and narrative design.
As what can already be gathered from the episode's title, it focuses on how they designed Witch Bonessuch that it can be played at any point in the game. Various factors had to be considered, including the player's progress in the main story (and what it entails on the quest's own story), the player's current skill level and progression, and how design elements figure into the current skillset and knowledge the player knows about the game.
Future episodes of Worlds Collide will focus on other aspects of the game's development, roping in different key figures on each of the studio's various development teams.
Fitting Follow-Up to Raising Kratos
Worlds Collide succeeds after the documentary series Raising Kratos, which followed SIE Santa Monica's journey in reinventing the God of War franchise. The studio had been responsible for all mainline titles of the God of War franchise, and it took them considerable effort to give the series a fresh coat of paint and a new set of gameplay ideas.
Currently available at 4K resolution on Youtube, the documentary series celebrated God of War's 20th anniversary. It tackles the whole five-year development period of the game, and how rebooting the franchise affected the whole Santa Monica team.
God of War was a massive hit when it arrived at the PS4 in 2018, earning it The Game Awards' 2018 Game of the Year title, along with the awards Best Game Direction and Best Action/Adventure Game.
Also, in celebration of the studio's 20th anniversary, all of the studio's PlayStation titles are currently showcased at the PlayStation Store. The showcase also includes ten games that the developers took inspiration from throughout the years
Game of the Year Successor-Hopefuls
God of War is considered to be one of the best games released not only in this generation but throughout gaming's history as a whole. It's hard to top that accolade, but it will at least pass on the torch for The Game Awards Game of the Year this 2019.
This year's nominees include 505 Games' Remedy, Hideo Kojima's Death Stranding, Capcom's Resident Evil 2, FromSoftware's Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, Nintendo's Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and Obsidian Entertainment's The Outer Worlds.
Other SIE games nominated for awards are Pixelpous' Concrete Genie for Games for Impact award; SIE London's Blood & Truth for Best VR/AR Game, and Kojima Production's Death Stranding for Best Game Direction, Best Narrative, Best Art Direction, Best Score/Music, Best Audio Design, and Best Action/Adventure Game.
God of War is currently 50% off at $9.99 during the PlayStation Store's Santa Monica Showcase. The promotion will run until Dec. 4.
