god of war: ascension
AAA 1st Party game Sony Playstation
GOD OF WAR ASCENSION :
AAA 1st Party SONY Game
AAA Game:
Character Development, Animation, World Building, Marketing
VENDOR:
Internal AAA Studio
PROJECT CHALLENGE: Sony Santa Monica had established itself as a top tier story and art driven AAA game studio. The development of GOW: Ascension demanded the same level of craft and excellence.
Izzy served for years as a concept artist with the team and this project took him up the pipeline to lead artist and intermittent art director guiding several teams through production.
The following is a deep dive into some of the many contributions at each level that Izzy delivered throughout the entire production; each spotlighting the unique challenges and solutions brought to bear.
FRANCHISE:
76.5m+ Units
$2.5b+
MEGAERA: THE JEALOUS ONE
God of War is famous for showstopping introductory sequences packed with action and spectacle.
Izzy was responsible for developing the cast for this sequence in GOW:A. He pitched and developed the intro antagonist and the environment she controlled with her dark magic.
This involved creating and guiding multiple iterations and explorations of both the Fury Megaera and the giant corpse of the Hecatonchires Aegaeon (which had been appropriated to create the Furies’ prison), as well as the many smaller grunts and mutated antagonists that populated the prison.
Izzy created the characters and developed the original and horrifying parasitic magic that allowed Megaera to puppet the Hecatonchires, as well as the monstrous mutations resulting from this infection.
God of War: Ascension
Unchained: Hecatonchires-
In Megaera's Grasp
They are the keepers of Oaths and punishers of those that would foolishly renege on a contract. Learn about the design of the Megaera encounter, one of three Fury sisters, as she torments Kratos all over Hecatonchires.
Rated Mature: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Nudity, and Sexual Content
BOSS : The fury Megaera
This bosses of GOW:A were inspired by the Greek goddesses of vengeance; the Furies.
Izzy was tasked with guiding the Fury Megaera through the GOW aesthetic. The Furies were divided into seperate representational domains, physical, mental, and spiritual. Megaera’s vengeance was in the physical domain.
Izzy pitched creating a character of profound violence, steeped in discomfort, revulsion, horror, and power.
Izzy explored several variations to define both the magic at work and the character design to support it.
Finally settling on an imposing and fearsome foe empowered by a parasitic infection, he found the primal mix that supplied the instant visual narrative they needed.
Megaera became a brute of body horror that could reanimate the dead with a swarm of her flesh burrowing parasites.
Aegaeon the hecatonchires :
the giant that became a city
This game’s version of the mythic hundred-handed character Aegaeon became the first Oathbreaker and victim of the Furies. The titan’s petrified body was then carved into a prison for all oathbreakers.
This creature/ environment was developed alongside Megaera with the plan that his architecturally modified corpse would be animated and become the big spectacle boss of the first act in the game.
Continuing the body horror concept, Izzy guided aesthetics that were lead by a reasoned anatomy and mutated through the parasitic infection. Working alongside the environment design team, the two disciplines came together to push a final design capturing the monstrosity in multiple layers.
Izzy explored the hecatonchires from three different directions at the same time.
what he looked like before death, after centuries as a dead prison, and finally as a reanimated corpse infected by megaera’s parasitic swarm.
Aegaeon the hecatonchires :
the city that became a monster
After Megaera unleashes her parasites to infect the colossus, there was a need to have smaller enemies for Kratos to face before the climax of the premier boss battle with the Fury and the giant’s reanimated head.
Izzy created several creatures composed from the Hecatonchires’ body and denizens trapped in his prison walls. The primary monster mutations would be the many hands of the giant, that would split and sprout horrors from the webbing between his fingers. The animals and prisoners would also be infected by the parasites tranforming their bodies into bleating monsters.
God of War: Ascension - Unchained - Hecatonchires: Prison of the Damned
Perhaps the most gargantuan location in God of War history, Hecatonchires is the very core of Ascension, and like every God of War game, it's where your journey begins in epic fashion. Did we mention it is a living, breathing, "monster of a prison", and an impossible design task?
Rated Mature: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Nudity, and Sexual Content
Hecatonchires : Head mutation
As a main battle arena, the head, headpiece, and collar needed to have a unique and monstrous design. Izzy applied the Megaera infection aesthetic, leading to some hideous options.
Playing the tragic frozen figure against the face bursting claws and crab legs is a prime example of Izzy’s love of dichotomy in narratively driven emotional design.
Infected Creatures
Megeara’s parasites don’t discriminate. In the game they also found and possessed street dogs and Kratos’ fellow prisoners, considering the camera distance common in this game, Izzy pushed for the clarity of the insect parasite mutating its victim.
Izzy was tasked to create a variation on the classic minotaur brute for the GOW franchise. he dug deep into greek myth and history to deliver the Juggernaut.
God of War: Ascension - Unchained - Death of a Juggernaut
Is it a Minotaur meets a Troll with a twist of Cerberus? Here's a deeper look at the creation of the Juggernaut, or as we call him internally, "The Elphantaur".
Rated Mature: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Nudity, and Sexual Content
God of War: Ascension - Unchained - The Empusa's Lure
Sadistic, twisted, pure evil incarnate, an enemy in Ascension that will torment and abuse you with her curvaceous, razor sharp spikes. Sounds just like everyone's God of War fantasy. Here's a deeper look at the creation of Empusa. You can try saying that 10 times fast.
Rated Mature: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Nudity, and Sexual Content
God of War: Ascension - Unchained - The Manticore takes flight
You will encounter epic, unfathomable, mythical beasts in the God of War: Ascension single-player campaign. Here's a deeper look at the Manticore. What you're about to see is the inception of an idea, all the way through to the final, epic God of War: Ascension game.
Rated Mature: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Nudity, and Sexual Content
Artemis: The huntress
Originally intended to be a second playable character in early tests of cooperative multiplayer for Ascension, Artemis was quickly cut as the studio toward a PVP multiplayer experience. Izzy had volunteered to do the dynamic exploration with the essential concept, pushing her storytelling through movement and key frame poses.
God of War: Ascension - Unchained - The Desert of Lost Souls Part 1
What you're about to see is the inception of an idea, all the way through to the final, epic God of War: Ascension game. Watch the second episode of our new Behind the Scenes series, Unchained.
Rated Mature: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Nudity, and Sexual Content
marketing and Concept sketches
Izzy created hundreds of paintings and sketches for the multiple years this project required. The following are just a few select images showcasing the thought process of design, and mastery of light, color, and form. He was responsible for developing characters and full illustrations; all while managing a large team of artists, scheduling tasks, and refining and maintaining concept art pipelines.
