Senior Level Designer @SonySantaMonica
Santa Monica
Joined July 2008
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Jon Hickenbottom retweeted
God of War Laufey is the next mainline chapter in Santa Monica Studio's series.
First gameplay and story details of the newly announced PS5 action adventure: play.st/4fn8ZIW
Jon Hickenbottom retweeted
Happy #Blocktober folks! I got the amazing chance to work on water level mechanics in Svartalfheim in #GodOfWarRagnarok. Lets look at the Water Sluices!
While we could have supported larger, baked sluice setups, we opted for a modular approach for each sluice piece that activated the water mechanics at runtime (shown below). This meant that the entire system’s feature set needed to be supported within the 3m piece! Even though Maintaining visual fidelity while making sure the pieces communicate effectively was a big challenge, This decision allowed quick iteration for our level design team who was allowed to move and tune sluice setups in real-time. Have to callout @jonmichael taking this head on and making and informing so many setups that fully realize the potential in the most fun development experience I have had
Jon Hickenbottom retweeted
In the spirit of #Blocktober, I'm posting images of the design sheet I worked on alongside the wonderful art it was turned into by Sam Delfanti and Timo Pihlajamaki. This comes from a portion of the finale of God of War: Ragnarok, which involved many, many people so there are more to thank for these images, please comment below if you were also a part of bringing this to life!
This sequence directly follows the moment Atreus and Sindri expose the flaw in Hrimthur's Wall, and was built to be a combat gauntlet, where Kratos and Atreus join forces with Thrud to take on Odin's army of Einherjar. The sequence was built to feel like a final stand, filled with back-to-back fights, an environment crumbling around you, and a constant downwards progression as you barrel towards an inevitable final battle.
Special shoutouts to Andrew Chrysafidis and Eric Williams for allowing me the chance to build this special moment. Beyond honored to have contributed to the Ragnarok battle and feeling blessed to work with the incredibly talented people at Santa Monica Studio, please enjoy.
Jon Hickenbottom retweeted
This arena also served as our testing ground for proving out increased mobility in combat! Grapples, drop downs, gap jumps, and all the fun in between. Not to mention some funky ragdoll collision! Having an arena that pushes many systems early is very helpful in development 👌🏽
Happy #Blocktober ! Today, sharing a look into the Level Design for Svartalfheim’s Nidavellir Port location in #GodOfWarRagnarok . This arena was a blast to design—collaborating with @DaNightTrain & seeing it come to life with the incredible work of everyone at @SonySantaMonica
Jon Hickenbottom retweeted
Happy #Blocktober! Will be posting some gameplay and systems design from #GodOfWarRagnarok here!
I got the amazing chance to work on so many little narrative moments across the game in #GodOfWarRagnarok. Lets look at the Train Align minigame moment today!
@DaNightTrain , while working on the level wanted to invoke the feeling of someone spotting you when parallel parking (lol) and so we did!
We had to make sure the player always had the choice to agree/disagree with Atreus’ directions, while still maintaining a max time for the minigame. This led us to design it so the train actually started and ended in the same location 😉 in order to guarantee the number of moves the player could do (hence the camera angle). While this limited the steps, we still had to have unique game states for each time you visited those alignment locations.
Can’t end this post without calling out the months and months of back and forth and amazing animation and tech help from @Adams_Animator to accomplish so many interdependent syncs!
Jon Hickenbottom retweeted
🖥️ God of War Ragnarök is now available to play on PC! Thank you for all your support!
Jon Hickenbottom retweeted
BOY?? Today it is BOT! 🤖
Congratulations to everyone at @teamasobi for the release of ASTRO BOT, a game worthy of the gods! We can't wait to venture further into your incredible world 💫
Artwork by @dlongfish
ALT An illustration featuring Astro Bot shaking the hand of Kratos with Mimir at his side, while Atreus look on.
Jon Hickenbottom retweeted
"Master thyself."
#GodOfWarRagnarokValhalla
ALT Kratos throws a Blade of Chaos at a Draugr. Another approaches from a wooden platform above him.
Jon Hickenbottom retweeted
Kratos returns.
God of War Ragnarök: Valhalla is a free roguelite-inspired DLC epilogue and launches December 12.
First details: play.st/3GyIi1h
Jon Hickenbottom retweeted
#GodOfWarRagnarok New Game+ is out NOW!
Download the latest patch and jump back into the Nine Realms with a raised level cap, new equipment, and more!
To see what's new in NG+, check out the article on @PlayStation 👉 bit.ly/3Ml4dNA
Jon Hickenbottom retweeted
Another brilliant #GDC2023 talk by Victoria Smith from @SonySantaMonica hugely valuable for all designers, especially level designers. Really goes into the reality of actual level design work, the hard decisions, the expert workarounds. One of the best talks I’ve seen at GDC.
Jon Hickenbottom retweeted
The #GodOfWarRagnarok team is at @Official_GDC all week!
Learn about the game's animation, design, programming, and more from a group of our amazing Santa Monica Studio developers!
#GoWR session times at #GDC2023 👇
Jon Hickenbottom retweeted
Beauty can be found everywhere in the Nine Realms, from the snowy grounds of Midgard to the mines of Svartalfheim.
More wonderful work from the #GodofWarRagnarok Lighting Artists below!
🔦 bit.ly/3JQsUjO
Jon Hickenbottom retweeted
Is out now! God of War Art blast, this project was immensively insane to work on. I couldnt have done it alone! Thank you to all the amazing people that hands on my area. And all those who made had my back along the way. artstation.com/artwork/qQ85x…
Jon Hickenbottom retweeted
Congratulations to @iamchrisjudge for his Best Performance win for God of War Ragnarök! 🏆#TheGameAwards
Jon Hickenbottom retweeted
There's something in God of War Ragnarok which is the most special to me. I got to pitch it and the team made it into everything I could have hoped.
I had hoped to wait for some time to talk about it but want to share it now, just in case.
It's the Ballad of Jari and Somr.
Jon Hickenbottom retweeted
Really enjoyed writing some music for this project and working with the wonderful @BearMcCreary in bringing Blood Upon The Snow to life.
Thank you to @SonySantaMonica and the God of War family for inviting me in. Much love and happy god-slapping.
🖤 consequence.net/2022/11/hozi…