Engine: Custom
Role: Senior Combat Technical Designer
I joined Sony, Santa Monica Studios right at the ship of God Of War 2018. In my time there as a Senior Technical Designer on Combat, I worked on a bunch of different systems with AI/Companion and even some work on the Player portions of the game.
But I think my biggest contribution to the franchise was to help build a scalable Companion architecture system to help deliver on characters like Atreus, Freya, Angrboda, Ingrid, Brok, Sindri, Thor and Thrud. I worked on their design and implementation from concept to getting them ready to ship.
Here are some of my best work on the project:
Atreus – I worked on the older version of Atreus from the last game. This meant showing him as a more experienced fighter who was now a skilled agile archer. I also worked on how we showed his progression in combat with his father who he has been training with for awhile. I learned how to do companions right by learning from my mentor Hayato Yoshidome and it helped me grow into the combat designer I now am.
[TODO – Add Companion Focused Video]
Freya – This character was probably the companion I spent the most time working on in the project. She was a full featured character with many moves/movesets, skill trees, player focused elements etc. In took a ton of prototyping/exploration to get her to where she ended up as one of the main characters of the game.
Angrboda – By far one my favorite character I have every designed in a video game
Ingrid – Can’t go wrong with a floating sword, inspired by Castlevania
Brok – This chunky dwarf character was really fun to bring to life
Thrud – Thor’s daughter was a fan favorite
Thor – Finally the big guy himself