Level Design in God of War (Part 1)

Becoming the God of War

God of War is one of the most-critically acclaimed franchises to ever hit the Playstation market. In this pipeline deconstruction, I will refer to elements of the series as a whole.

Dominus the main character in concept, needed to be summed up in a single word -- wrath. Covered in the ash of his wife and child, the character is a demigod who seeks revenge on the gods who betrayed him. Once the artists stripped away his armor and shield, the character’s true raw, animalistic side was exposed.

Tall with upper-body musculature, covered in ashes and hunched over with his signature Blades of Chaos, Dominus was a force to be reckoned with. Dominus set the stage for the today’s Playstation mascot -- Kratos.

Level Design

Mood and exploration is a staple part of level design in God of War. Areas that are more open are also relatively barren; while many objects are placed around smaller areas like rooms. I think this encourages the player’s sense of exploration.

The level designers of the game wanted the player to feel as if they stepped into Ancient Greece itself -- enshrouded in the darker side of mythology, where the protagonist was at war with the gods themselves.

God of War tends to use two main colors for its level ambience -- blue for darker, colder areas and tinges of orange for brighter regions that manage to be just as imposing.

Players can search for collectible items such as chests that contain orbs, commonly found in rooms behind gates. The level designers wanted to allow the player to feel as though they "want to get out" of one area, and push to see what can be found in other sections of the level.

Once the designers receive the concepts from the 2D artists, they block out the level and set up the colliders for the environment artists to lay down the geometry. Establishing the sheet collision is an essential part of the level design process, as it’s precisely what Kratos’ mesh makes contact with in-game.

If the mesh colliders aren’t properly set-up with the correct surfaces, Kratos’ feet will sink into areas of the floor -- or worse he’ll fall right through the geometry. In the vast expanse of the world of God of War, the collision sheet confines the structure of the level.

In God of War II, later in the development cycle level designers added in pillars and divots with with colliders attached so that Kratos didn’t get stuck inside (or walk through) objects. The levels themselves are built very cleanly for the environment artists to easily 'destroy' it by adding in dirt passes, surface erosion and completed assets.

The models are built in Maya and high-poly assets are detailed in Z Brush. Detail down to the blood splatter effects had to look practically perfect in-game; during the production of God of War, the developers obsessed over the animations and particles effects that were involved in the action of ripping Medusa’s head off.

God of War: Ascension offered players more challenging ways of traversing the level by introducing the mechanic of sliding down walls and avoiding obstacles in Kratos' path.