We found it genuinely enlightening, especially when animation takes such a prominent role in God of War.
This is a game as much about its sumptuous presentation as it is the moment-to-moment playing.
Eurogamer: I’ve played for a few hours and I’m enjoying what I’ve played so far.
You hear about artists sketching everything that they see in their head as they’re walking around.
Do you animate people or a bus that’s going by - are you doing that all the time?
You do catch yourself.
So absolutely, all the time.
OK, nice - I was curious about that.
So Atreus would bounce on his toes while he’s idling, that sort of thing.
Have there been more opportunities to work those in?
Bruno Velazquez:Yeah.
Because we have a bigger cast, that means a bigger contrast between personalities.
It was fun to bring that in, for sure.
Bruno Velazquez:I’m pretty happy with a lot of the new characters that we introduced.
We definitely didn’t add that part for sure!
But yeah, I do enjoy that bit of Atreus.
That’s really cool.
I can already see that in him just after a couple hours.
Is it quite hard to work bits of realistic animation in when you’re working around those prompts?
Bruno Velazquez:It is quite difficult.
But we do have a philosophy in the team that we believe gameplay is first.
And from a feel and gameplay standpoint, that’s not going to feel right.
And then the whole move, the recovery, should be done by frame sixty."
So we’re given some sort of goalpost.
That’s really interesting.
So it starts with a combat person giving you parameters?
Bruno Velazquez: Yeah.
Does animation factor into that sort of philosophy as well?
Are you going, “We want higher-fidelity animations because it’s more about being this cinematic thing?”
Bruno Velazquez:Yeah.
So once again it goes back to the gameplay philosophy, because God of War is more about… We have a go at strike a balance between the two.
So because of that, all that dictates how much we can add as far as animation is concerned.
It’s super interesting.
Bruno Velazquez:Yeah, absolutely.
As soon as the pandemic hit, we had to hit full stop.
We had to stop shooting.
The biggest part was the cinematics - we still had a lot of cinematics left to shoot.
So unfortunately, we had to stop.
We took a lot of precautions to ensure that eventually we were able to get back to the stage.
We didn’t compromise on any of the scenes.
We went through and executed everything that we had planned.
But one of the biggest things that we did is we figured out how to shoot remotely as well.
We were able to continue to shoot even when we shifted to work from home.
That’s really cool.
You mentioned support from Sony - is there a kind friendly rivalry with Naughty Dog?
Is there any of that going on?
Bruno Velazquez:I mean, absolutely.
So yes of course we want to push each other to make better games.
And of course it’s a little bit of friendly competition.
And Sucker Punch, the stuff they did in Ghost [of Tsushima], it’s really amazing.
Is there anything that you wish you could explain, or want to set the record straight on?
Like, this is how it’s done when you work on a series of games.
Can you maybe explain that for people who might be thinking along those lines?
Bruno Velazquez:Yeah.
And also, as far as bosses and mini-bosses, they would have loved to have more variety.
And then one of my biggest pet-peeves personally was the finishing moves.
And then we have more mini-bosses, we have more boss encounters throughout this game.
Let me see what the axe…" So we were able to accomplish that.
But now, finally, we were able to achieve that.
So to me, not redoing everything allows us to do a lot more.
One of the other things that always comes up is the conversation about sort frame-rates and fidelity versus performance.
Where’s your position on that?
Obviously, you have the choice between the two modes in God of War.
Do you have a preference between the two?
Our goal was to surpass God of War 2018 in every way possible.
Having the PS5 version, that’s just icing on the cake.
PS5, it’s just like haptic feedback, 3D audio, higher frame-rate and better graphics and textures.
That’s just like the icing on the cake.
Is there a sense that you feel a little bit restrained by working with the older console?
So all the things that we set out to do, we were able to achieve on the PS4.
And like I mentioned before, the PS5 basically just made the game that much better.
You mentioned some of the new characters.
I am a big fan of your take on Thor - I think he’s really fun.
I love the strong man idea.
Genuinely a stroke of genius to work him in like that.
So what’s that been like and what have you generally aimed to achieve with it?
We always wanted to see how we could add our own twist to it.
So of course it applies to Thor.
But we wanted to add a little bit more of a dimensionality to him.
Because in the end, this game is all about family relationships.
So you’re going to see all these relationships develop.
And not everything in our game is black and white.
Concept art has been the main point of discussion recently.
So definitely I’m looking forward to exploring those things in the future.
That’s pretty cool.
Bruno Velazquez:Oh wow that’s a loaded question [laughs].
It’s always a pleasure to work with stunt performers and actors.
That’s it for me so a big thank you.
It’s been really interesting.
