Santa Monica Studio
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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
