(Alert for photosensitive viewers: Cory's presentation includes white flashes on slide transitions. The first one occurs approximately 6 minutes into this talk. Please be aware when watching.)

Sony Santa Monica's God of War was a departure from previous entries in the series, both in tone and world. But change on any level is never a simple or straightforward thing, especially in game development.

In this talk from GDC 2019, creative director Cory Barlog discusses the journey the team at Sony Santa Monica took to reinvent God of War and the special honor and responsibility that creating a different, better, and truly more memorable experience brought with it. 

He walks through the development of the game, starting from those earliest moments when the realization struck that changes had to be made to every aspect of the latest game in the long-running series, and through the countless gut-wrenching failures and joyfully sweet successes experienced on the road to release.

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