God of War III: Graphics and Tech Interview

If there was one title at this year's E3 that got the Sony fanboys all riled up like free candy at a diet camp, it was God of War III. SCE Santa Monica has been hard at work crafting a compelling and truly grandiose setting for Kratos' final adventure, and we've played it and can happily report that it's going to deliver the goods.

But who cares about gameplay, right? We all want to know about one thing and one thing only – the graphics. How's this sucker going to look? Is the jump from PS2 to PS3 really going to blow you way, alter your life, bring about world peace and change the course of history forever?

Read on for our interview with God of War III's lead designer, Todd Papy, for his thoughts on making this final chapter the best action game on the PS3 – as well as one of the best looking – and what it's like to work around the corner from some of the industry's best development talent and being part of that knowledge share.

IGN AU: So tell me a little bit about the development of the engine. It's a marked jump from the PS2 versions – but one thing that I find really amazing is how Sony has been encouraging a knowledge share between studios.

Todd Papy: Uh-huh, absolutely. Well, we're in LA, so there are a lot of game developers in the area. On top of that, there are a lot of Sony-specific game developers like Naughty Dog (Uncharted); they're within an five minute walk of our studio. Insomniac is just down the road in Burbank – so we have that luxury of being in amongst Sony developers out there – and they're always in our office and we're in their office!

IGN AU: Do you have open forums like designer lunches or roundtables? How does this work?

Todd Papy: I'm sure that there are; I've never been involved with them, on the art side, but we talk to them and we see them; we go out to lunch to our local shop and I see the Naughty Dog guys there and we say hello.

IGN AU: So back to God of War III – which effects are you most proud of at this stage? Were there any last-minute inclusions and improvements for the E3 build?

Todd Papy: Well, just working on the visuals on PS3 hardware, making that jump from PS2 to PS3 was a huge challenge. We're still learning new technologies and new tools and we're very, very happy with the outcome of the demo.

I'm really happy that we made the decision to zoom the camera in cinematically and show Kratos the way we have. Plus, we're adding the battle blood – you know, when Kratos disembowels the centaur for example, and he gets the blood and guts on him. It's not just blood and guts for blood and guts' sake – it fits with the character of Kratos; he's a very visceral character.

In terms of most recent graphical additions, we were working on optimising literally everything. Now – the last thing to get in? Let me think about that for a second. Mmmm, we were working on the skybox right at the end, pretty much all of the art at the end; effects-wise we were just tweaking. We had all the effects in, so we were pretty much alpha on the demo – but then we continued to tweak and polish.

IGN AU: It seems like the latest buzzword at E3 this year was 'seamless'. GOWIII is another example of a seamless world. How much of a technical challenge did this present?

Todd Papy: Streaming is a big technological challenge that we've got in here. Our framerate is variable between 30 and 60 [frames per second] and so far the reaction on the framerate from players has been that it looks really good and plays really good. That's been a challenge too.

IGN AU: Framerate is one of those things that's always divided players as much as developers. Do you think it's better to aim for a lower framerate, but greater environmental detail, or the other way around?

Todd Papy: Well, we want to achieve a balance of the two, right? We want the game to look amazing and play amazing!

IGN AU: It seems like a lot of developers that aren't Sony-exclusive or strongly focussed on the PS3 are coming up against Cell processor development issues. Have you come across any bottlenecks this far in?

Todd Papy: I think it comes down to smart design. When we lay out our levels, we add a hallway, for example, to load the next section and drop the last section we just came from. So it's very, very smart design in the way we lay it out so we can have that seamless gameplay.

IGN AU: So it's a bit of sleight-of-hand programming?

Todd Papy: Exactly.

IGN AU: And how do you keep a hallway interesting?

Todd Papy: [laughs] Ah, enemies, chests – in the demo, you're barrelling over like 20 enemies at once in that hallway!

IGN AU: It's got to be hard to innovate within the platform-action genre. Do you feel like the gameplay has made as big a jump as the graphics?

Todd Papy: Yeah – well, coming from the art side, I kinda always wanna show off the art, but from the design side, there are new items, new weapons – and for the blades, there are all kinds of new moves. But the graphical effects play to this as well; when you're playing through something and you're like "oh, I've seen this before," we'll add all kinds of new effects and animations to them. They feel new again.

IGN AU: Is there a single stand-out environment that is your favourite by far? Can you tell us a little bit about it?

Todd Papy: I think the centrepiece is definitely the Titans –and I know Stig from the studio's already been talking about this, so it isn't new information or anything, but it really is the Titans. Dude, they're huge. That's it – you'll love it.

IGN AU: How many Titans are we looking at here?

Todd Papy: There'll be a few…

IGN AU: Well, are we talking three or four? Or Shadow of the Colossus here?

Todd Papy: No, well – we have background Titans that play cinematically in the background when you're on the main Titans…

IGN AU: Oooh! Well cool – I think it's safe to say the fanboys are ravenous right about now, so best of luck with the rest of the game!

Todd Papy: Cool! Thanks a lot. Hope you enjoy it.

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