Warning : mature

Over six years, Izzy contributed to the God of War franchise for Sony Santa Monica. Starting as a staff concept artist until finally rising to lead concept artist with major art direction responsibilities, this work was a real labor of love. Collected here are some of the designs created for the series on God of War: Ascension.

Megaera : The Jealous One

Concept Process

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 early exploration for the bosses of GOW:A were built around the Greek myths of the Furies, the goddesses of vengeance. As the Fates had already been adapted, we were aiming to hit that same mark in terms of the ‘God of War approach’. The first villain the players would face would be Megaera, the ‘physical fury’. Her domain would be direct vengeance and inflicting of pain on her victims. Starting out as a brute, she evolved through the design to be a distance based warrior with a secret weapon.

The final design

Working with the team we established a strong and fearsome foe for Kratos. An eerie mix of strength, body horror, and potential for violence. This was purposefully baked in as a visual narrative as we meet her right away and backstory would have to come later.

Megaera : parasites

Concept Process

hecatonchires : the undead prison

Concept Process

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 : The city that became a monster

In our version of the mythic character Hecatonchires became the first Oathbreaker and victim of the Furies. The titan’s petrified body became the prison of all oathbreakers.

In the opening of our story, Megaera brings the creature back to life using her infection parasites in order to battle Kratos.

The sketches in this section will show the progression from the very earliest ideation to the final design.

Hecatonchires : Multi-arm single torso lock

Once we had a direction of multiple branching arms for the titan, we began to lock down the overall design. This was a challenge because I needed to design the creature as a petrified environment, and then later redesign the same monster as reanimated menace.

Hecatonchires : INFECTED

After Megaera unleashes her parasites to infect the colossus, we needed to have elements of the Hecatonchires become individual monsters. These are the designs for “Heca-hand” and “Heca-head”.

Hecatonchires : Head

As a main battle arena, the head, headpiece, and collar needed to have a unique and monstrous design. Both for the infection and for showing the tragic situation Hecatonchires had found himself in.

Infected Creatures

Megeara’s parasites don’t discriminate. In the game they also found and possessed street dogs and Kratos’ fellow prisoners

juggernaut : The Elephantuar

Concept Process

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

Empusa : killer contortionist

Concept Process

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

Manticore : The Flying Boss

Concept Process

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

Manticore Kitten

We kept the tradition of having large quadruped monsters create copies of themselves by vomiting up babies that left unattended become full grown copies of the parent.

Artemis : The Cut Queen

Concept Process

Artemis

Originally intended to be a second playable character in early tests of cooperative multiplayer for Ascension, Artemis was quickly cut as we changed direction on the MP experience. As well, the six limb long body made for very difficult terrain interaction and combat animation that made her all but impossible at the time.

She is a beloved design, though, and was a joy to explore.

Young Kratos

Exploration

Satyrs

Concept Process

Civilian Famine

Polyphemus : Big Daddy Cyclops

Concept Process

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