God of War’s take on Norse mythology was defined by a single piece of concept art

PS4's God of War is taking the series in a new direction and in more ways than one. This new focus on Norse mythology was long rumored and in a new post on the PlayStation Blog reveals that its style was defined by a single piece of concept art from Jose Peña.

Here is the piece:

Creative Director Cory Barlog sat down with Peña, who was new to the team, to discuss the vision of God of War and remarks that in a Skype call with the artist, that all he could provide were "buzzwords" and some generals on mood and tone. "Because of the new direction, we weren’t able to provide him with exact ideas,” Barlog said.

At the conclusion of the Skype call, Peña got to work, and in a few weeks delivered several pieces of concept art, one of which (embedded above) ended up being the point of reference for everything the art team did going forward. "The way Jose was able to capture exactly what we were looking for was astounding," said Barlog. He continued, "there was so much humanity on top of the mythology and to capture it the first time out was ridiculous."

"This artwork truly became the beacon and lit the path for us. Everything we did – we referred back to this piece."

Sony Santa Monica is going all-in on cinematic expression, and a more personal touch as the game will feature absolutely no camera cuts. God of War also got an epic trailer during E3 2017 and is due to release sometime in 2018.

Source: [PlayStation Blog]