For many years prior to its announcement, rumors abounded about whether a new God of War game was in development. Now, speaking in a recent interview with Kotaku, Cory Barlog, God of War’s director, has explained why the game took so long to make. He also explained why fans shouldn’t have to wait so long for the next game.
The God of War series began in 2005, with the release of “God of War”. God of War II followed in 2007, and God of War III was released in 2010. Those titles were followed by God of War: Ascension in 2013. While a remastered version of God of War III was released in 2015, no new titles were released between 2013 and the release of 2018’s God of War.
Starting From Scratch
Revealed by Cory Barlog, it appears that the reason God of War spent five years in development was because SIE did not build upon previous game engines. “A big portion of the five years was, we had to start from scratch,” said Barlog “Everything really needed to be redone, because we just had torn the engine apart in so many different ways that when we finally brought the team together, everyone realized, ‘OK, this is not where it needs to be.‘”
“So even when you see E3 2016, the rendering engine wasn’t there, the lighting engine was half-there, the atmospheric engine was half-there. The core mechanics were there, but a lot of the way we were streaming and loading everything was still getting worked out, and figuring out how we were going to get it logistically to work. We knew what we wanted, we just didn’t know technologically how we were going to get it in the right order.”
It seems that by starting from scratch, the studio also faced numerous halts. Bottlenecks caused by building from the ground up plagued the development team; departments were unable to work on certain things because the mechanics needed had yet to be programmed or created. According to Barlog, God of War’s menus weren’t fully implemented until just eight weeks prior to release. “It is the adage of any creative thing; it looks terrible, it is an ugly baby, until the very last second,” he said.
The Future of God of War
Barlog also stated that he had very clear plans for the series going forward. Giving the game’s recent sales success, this is hardly surprising. However, not only is he already planning a sequel, but he is apparently already planning a further five installments for the series. “I love the sort of Lord of the Rings concept of, when you finish Fellowship [of the Ring], you’re getting ushered into Two Towers.” he said, “I think, for me, that is continued engagement. There is the end of the credits scene that teases something.”
Now, the engine is built and the pipeline for work is in place. As a result, those planned sequels should be in development for far less time. It certainly sounds as though God of War fans have lots to look forward to.