Santa Monica Studio
Company
22 documents in the library are about Santa Monica Studio, from writers such as Game Developers Conference, DiGRA and Press Start. Each has a summary and key insights with the page they come from.
Connections
Each row is a game or company named alongside Santa Monica Studio, each column a document, oldest first. A mark means that document names it. Select a row to see those documents.
Documents about Santa Monica Studio
Mythic Alternatives: Mythological Mechanics Beyond Violence
The document, "Mythic Alternatives: Mythological Mechanics Beyond Violence," explores how mythological video games can incorporate non-violent mechanics to represent mythic narratives, challenging the prevalent reliance on combat in the genre.
- Violence is the default mechanic in mythological video games, a pattern the authors tie both to mainstream gaming trends and to the violent episodes found in many myths themselves.
- The paper argues that games can move beyond combat by translating mythic motifs into core mechanics, and it surveys five categories: metamorphosis, heroism, extraordinary movement, dying and rising, and interactions between gods and mortals.
- Heroism is modeled through systems such as the kleos meter in Warriors: Legends of Troy and the aristeiai in A Total War Saga: Troy, which represent the exceptional, exemplary hero.
September's Packed Schedule
September's game release calendar is becoming unusually crowded, a trend made clear by Sony's latest PlayStation showcase.
- The U.S. gaming market grew to 212.3 million players in 2026, an increase from 205.1 million the previous year.
- September features a highly competitive release calendar, with major titles like Marvel’s Wolverine (Sept 15), Dune Awakening (Sept 22), and a cluster of releases on Sept 24, including Silent Hill Townfall and Dragon Quest XI S, strategically scheduled to avoid the November launch of Grand Theft Auto VI.
- The Tokyo Game Show (Sept 17–22) is driving a surge in Japanese software releases, with multiple titles from publishers like Konami, Capcom, and Square Enix launching immediately following the event.
Greek Game Developers' Opinions on the Representation and Reception of (Ancient) Greece in Games: An Exploratory Interview Pilot Study
This exploratory pilot study investigates Greek game developers' perceptions of the representation and reception of (ancient) Greece in video games, aiming to bridge classical reception studies with regional game studies.
- The study is an exploratory pilot based on twelve semi-structured interviews with Greek game developers (eleven video game, one analog game) conducted in autumn 2023, averaging about 49 minutes each.
- It addresses a gap in scholarship by combining classical reception studies with regional game studies, since prior work has focused mainly on North American and Western European games.
- Participants included staff at Greek studios, freelancers, and Greek nationals in senior creative roles at non-Greek companies, and interviews covered motivations, historical accuracy, personal affinity with Greek history, and who should create such games.
Making the Grade: First Batch of Quarterly Earnings Yield Mixed Results
The document analyzes the mixed results from the first batch of quarterly earnings reports in the video game industry, highlighting a period of decline despite some individual title successes.
- Sony achieved a 53% year-over-year increase in gaming revenue to $9.7 billion, fueled by an 82% surge in PlayStation 5 hardware sales.
- The industry is undergoing a post-pandemic correction characterized by widespread restructuring, including layoffs at Microsoft and Hasbro and project cancellations at Electronic Arts.
- Microsoft reported a 13% decline in gaming revenue, while Electronic Arts missed earnings expectations due to mobile segment struggles and title delays.
'God of War Ragnarök': Building the UI for a AAA Sequel
The development of the user interface for God of War Ragnarök centered on balancing high-fidelity aesthetic goals with the rigorous technical constraints of a AAA sequel.
- To ensure accessibility and readability, the UI team established a minimum body font size of 24 points and implemented comprehensive text scaling options, which were highly utilized by players.
- The UI team utilized a dynamic layout system from the start of production to prevent localization issues, ensuring that text elements could adapt to different languages without requiring manual fixes or overlapping.
- When faced with memory constraints regarding 4K video streaming, the team used a 720p video asset stretched to fill the screen, leveraging a 'campfire' visual aesthetic to mask the lower resolution.
Museums of Myth and Mechanics: Mythography in Mythological Video Games
This analysis explores how mythological video games function as transmedial equivalents of literary mythography, akin to digital museums for ancient myths.
- The paper frames mythological video games as "museums of myth," comparing them to ancient and modern mythography, the handbook tradition that systematized Greco-Roman myth into coherent retellings.
- Analysis of seven high-profile titles (including Age of Mythology, Smite, Immortals Fenyx Rising, God of War, God of War: Ragnarök, Apotheon, and Hades) identifies five recurring mechanics: voice-over mythic backstory, myth-retelling quests, in-game codices and lore texts, interactive objects revealing ancient literature fragments, and supplementary lore books.
- These techniques fall into two modes: environmental mythography, where retellings are embedded in the game world as environmental storytelling, and actorial mythography, where mythological characters narrate their own myths.
Improving Digital Accessibility Through Audio-Game Co-Design
The paper by Zach Mason, David Philip Green, Joseph Lindley and Paul Coulton of Lancaster University, published in the DiGRA 2023 proceedings, reports a co-design workshop with blind and visually impaired people developing a new audio-only maze game built on spatial sound and generic low-end hardware.
- Twelve of the fifteen levels were beaten by workshop participants, with most players reaching around level 8. The authors take this as evidence that the game was appropriately difficult and learnable without sight.
- Heat-map data suggested that navigation was bound to trial and error, with wall collisions at corners and frequent enemy hits. The authors propose a haptic mini-map as one possible remedy.
- Participants said that if haptics were included, they should be optional rather than required for gameplay, in line with how sound is often treated in visual games.
Breaking Barriers: Combat Accessibility in 'God of War Ragnarök'
The development of God of War Ragnarök prioritized the removal of unintentional barriers for players with motor and sensory disabilities, establishing a framework where accessibility features enhance rather than diminish the core combat experience.
- Accessibility features should be implemented by focusing on low-conflict, high-value tasks first, such as expanded control remapping and automating contextual traversal, to build internal confidence and demonstrate player value.
- Designers should avoid building overly specific 'assists' based on assumptions of player intent, opting instead for generic models that allow players to maintain agency, such as sub-target aim flicking that functions regardless of lock-on status.
- Accessibility features can conflict with intended design, such as mini-boss checkpoints that inadvertently trivialize combat; these should be placed in dedicated accessibility menus to ensure they are used by players who truly need them rather than those simply seeking an easier experience.
2023 Game Developers Choice Awards (GDCA)
The 23rd annual Game Developers Choice Awards served as a comprehensive celebration of both contemporary industry achievements and the historical foundations of interactive entertainment.
- Elden Ring dominated the 23rd annual Game Developers Choice Awards, winning Game of the Year, Best Design, and Best Visual Art.
- God of War Ragnarök secured three major awards, specifically for Best Audio, Best Technology, and the Audience Award.
- The industry recognized historical contributions by awarding the Lifetime Achievement Award to John Romero for his work in the first-person shooter genre.
Monthly Game Industry Report: February - March 2023
The document is a monthly mobile game industry report covering February and March 2023, compiling games and apps news, investments, market research, and financial reports from across the video game sector.
- Ampere Analysis reports the 2022 global console gaming market declined 7.8% to $56.2 billion from $60.9 billion in 2021. Sony held a 45% share of the total.
- According to Ampere Analysis, PlayStation 5 outsold Microsoft's Xbox X and S series by almost 11.5 million units in 2022.
- Endnight Games announced that Sons of the Forest sold 2 million copies in its first 24 hours of early access.
Playtesting 'God of War'
The development of God of War (2018) serves as a case study for integrating rigorous user research into the creative process to overcome significant design uncertainty.
- Establish a consistent playtesting schedule and stick to it, as frequent cancellations create instability and undermine team confidence in the process.
- Categorize playtests into two distinct types: usability tests to validate mechanical function and unguided playthroughs to validate the intended emotional fantasy or player experience.
- Use a combination of undirected feedback (interviews and observations) and directed feedback (explicit questions) to extract actionable data, ensuring the team considers the entire player perspective rather than isolated comments.
Composing the Hero: Musical Gender Construction of Fantasy RPG Heroes
Katherine Owens of Baylor University examines how music in fantasy RPGs communicates gendered heroism, using case studies of Kratos from God of War (Santa Monica Studio, 2018) and Aloy from Horizon: Zero Dawn (Guerrilla Games, 2017).
- The author argues that Kratos's theme is intentionally masculine, with McCreary describing it as built on assertive brass, pounding percussion and deep male vocals.
- The original sketch of Kratos's theme was abandoned and reused for a character the player never sees, Kratos's deceased wife, labelled "Memories of Mother".
- The author states that the player hears Kratos's theme during combat the player initiates, which the author links to a kinesonic connection between sound and action.
