So why did the developers implement such a frustrating and tedious obstacle for the grand finale of a flagship game? Were they making a statement about the futility of killing a god? The impotence of rage? Just having a go at Sisyphus?
None of the above! They flat-out didn't bother testing it. Nowadays, God Of War is one of Sony's premier franchises, but right up until the day it came out, the developers thought it would flop, so they got lazy with testing. According to one of the level designers, players were only supposed get "knocked down the spikes a little bit," not thrown to the ground. But as series director David Jaffe explained:
"We had focus-tested the shit out of that game, and it's a linear process, so by the time we got to focus-testing [that section] we were just like 'Nah, we got it, we're good.' It was literally the last level of the game so we didn't focus test that one, and that was the one that bit us in the ass."
Sony Interactive EntertainmentAnd yet the franchise went on to sell 20 millions copies. So ... no lesson learned!
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