Want to party with a couple God of War 3 developers like it’s 1999 B.C.? Kotaku has two tickets each for the 15 people who can think of the best interview questions for these two gents, who hail from a game design/animation background. Click through for details.
It’s your chance to rub shoulders with game dev land’s elite, on Sony’s dime. These are the lads that perfected the art of the quick-time event, and have yet to be dethroned in the action genre. The debate still rages today as to whether swords on chains is a cooler combo than chocolate and peanut butter. There won’t be any goats sacrificed, but there may be a goblet or two shared about.
When: Thursday, March 25th, from 6:30pm to 9:30pm
Where: Sydney CBD
Age: 18+
Dress: Animal skins/bronze armour not recommended
We’ll have more details on this community event for you tomorrow, but you can start leaving your interview questions in the comments below.
Cypher
Thursday, March 18, 2010 at 11:23 PMSo now that you guys have finished *raised eyebrow* the God of War series, what do you have in mind for the next big project? Any hints of ideas you’ve been tossing around? Great game by the way, cheers *glass clinks*
Finlay Downes
Thursday, March 18, 2010 at 11:24 PMHmm… Unfortunately I have non-stop tutorials from 11 to 7 on Thursday, and I’m not sure if there’s a chance I could step out a early.
I guess if I had a question it’d be: what is the research process behind developing a history/mythology-inspired game like? GoW has obviously taken a few liberties with the original text(s), but what about visuals or even gameplay?
Troy
Thursday, March 18, 2010 at 11:36 PMHow do you go about getting reference material for animating a character as heavily bicep’d as Kratos?
Peter
Thursday, March 18, 2010 at 11:59 PMDuring development did you ever have to stop and cut out something that even you guys thought was too “over the top” ?
Robert Yule
Friday, March 19, 2010 at 12:09 AMQ1: The textures in god of war 3 are extremely detailed, but did the team take any steps to add effects on the model through textures?
Q2: the animation cycles are very smooth, what type of approaches did the animation department take to ensure a constant level of quality through the game?
Q3: What was the general approach to lighting?
Q4: having played through some of the game, i noticed the sheer attention to detail even on a massive creature like Gaia. Did many scaling issues occur when making and importing assets?
Q5: What sculpting programs did you use? e.g maya, 3ds max, mudbox, Zbrush etc
Q6: What was the general approach on reusing assets? did it happen on a truly massive scale, or did you put the assets department into overdrive?
Q7: In the cinematics, what was the overrall direction going in terms of cinematogrophy?
Gavin Kelly
Friday, March 19, 2010 at 12:39 AMQ1: How come Kratos never has a shirt on?
Q2: Whose idea was it to have lionfists?; and, may I shake his non-lionfisted hands?
Q3:Does this look infected to you? (points at toe wound)
oggob
Friday, March 19, 2010 at 11:10 AMQ1. Which Characters were ultimately cut from any of the games that SMS wished they could get in somewhere.
Q2. Mainly targeted at the above… Kratos’ Brother… where is he now?
Aulden
Friday, March 19, 2010 at 12:15 PMHave you during the game development ever dreamt of having your head ripped off by Kratos and awoken to find yourself screaming?
Dean Longmore
Friday, March 19, 2010 at 4:51 PMThis is a very specific question, but after failing x number of times, God of War gives the option to switch to Easy mode.
Is there any reasoning behind not giving the player the option to jump to Normal (if they’re playing in Hard)?
Personally, it serves to keep me pushing on in Hard, because there is no way I’m going to drop down to Easy, while still giving players who need it, an out.
Cypher
Friday, March 19, 2010 at 5:41 PMHey Dave, I’m just wondering why none of my comments are making it onto the site?
Cypher
Friday, March 19, 2010 at 5:43 PMSorry ignore that.
Greg Louden
Saturday, March 20, 2010 at 9:05 AMThe God of War games are extremely successful in the hardcore community, however they don’t have the accessibility to become more mainstream. As in reach the sales or exposure of “Call of Duty” or “Halo”.
As game designers and artists, what is your mindset to change this and bring your games to a broader audience?
Wahzam
Saturday, March 20, 2010 at 5:46 PMQ1. What’s next for you.
Q2. Do you think you’ll be as successful as your GoW series, if so how would would you makes something better and yet make it feel different.
Owen W
Saturday, March 20, 2010 at 5:46 PMHow did the original idea of the sex mini-game come about? Was it during an extremely hectic part of development where you couldn’t leave the office to see your partners? Sexual tensions built up and had to be released. Bam. The infamous God Of War sex mini-game was born.
Kyou
Sunday, March 21, 2010 at 11:30 PM1. Back in November of last year it was noted that the most difficult aspect of God of War 3 was the “complexity of everything”. What specifically was the most difficult aspect of achieving the high level quality with the graphics and the mechanics of the game?
2. The God of War series contains some of the most compelling and evocative music and settings in games currently. When designing the soundtrack and environment for the series was there a particular ambience or sense that you were aiming to evoke with the players?
Aidan
Monday, March 22, 2010 at 6:01 PMThis question that has been bugging me for years:
What is the significance of the “red line/ tattoo” marked on the body and face of Kratos?
Alex Walker
Tuesday, March 23, 2010 at 9:39 AMAs developers who have spent most of their time on AAA-titles, how do you feel the current trend in social gaming will impact the industry?
And do they believe that social websites like Facebook and Myspace will ever play a more integral part in AAA-titles in the future beyond simple status updates?
Jon Polti
Tuesday, March 23, 2010 at 11:40 AMQ: How difficult was the original pitch for GoW, seeing as how it’s adult nature relies on a purely adult audience?
Q: Do you dream in Quick-time Events after having built and played the GoW series for so long?
Q: For GoW3 being the end of the story arc, do you feel you’ve used up Kratos as a character, or are there concepts floating around for Kratos to expand into other realms?
Q: Who would you most like to see Kratos fight one on one in the Video Game world?
(I’d kinda like to see Kratos v Skarin from Viking: Battle for Asgard.)
Those are my questions! Hope i can get in!
Christian
Tuesday, March 23, 2010 at 9:54 PMQuestion: Was it difficult for you to release the GOW trilogy on PS3? Surely if you can do it, other companies can release their own past PS2 game on PS3.