Cory Barlog Reveals That He Wanted to ‘Give up Many Times’ During God of War’s Development

God of War has been a smashing success for Sony Santa Monica and Cory Barlog is visibly content with the project, but its development hit some “dark, dark points,” according to the director.

At Devcom 2018 (via Games Industry), Barlog reflected upon the production process, highlighting the need for developers to “process” and “feel” their doubts before moving on. He said that he wanted to “give up many times” throughout God of War‘s development but executive producer Yuni Yang and general manager Shannon Studstill talked him out of it.

“The reason I ended up succeeding is because of this team, because of these people who cared so much about the individual aspect of the game that was theirs,” said Barlog. “They took ownership, and they pushed themselves farther beyond than they ever thought they would to get there.”

Barlog revealed that Kratos’ son Atreus was almost cut from the game several times because the executives felt that the concept was too ambitious. However, Barlog stuck to his guns.

“The concept of Atreus scared a lot of people,” he explained. “It scared everyone on the team, it scared the executives because I didn’t want to do just an additional character delivering narrative.” At one point, Yang asked him to design the game without Atreus.

“I was very childish, and designed the most expensive arthouse game you’ve ever seen, which had Kratos saying three words throughout all of it,” admitted Barlog. “She [Yang] realized what I was doing and said, ‘fine, fine, keep him.'”

God of War released in April 2018. It was one of July’s best-selling PlayStation 4 games in the US, according to NPD.

[Source: Games Industry]