God of War Ragnarok

Description: God of War Ragnarok is latest installment in the award-winning, mythology-based action series.

Team: Sony Santa Monica Studio

Type: Professional Project

Role: Level Designer

Core Responsibilities:

-Served as co-owner of the first major exploration hub area found in the game, Svartalfheim’s Bay of Bounty

-Owned the bay’s In Service of Asgard quest from a level design perspective in which the player is tasked with finding and completing 3 gameplay pockets featuring combat, puzzles, and traversal

-Owned postgame content from a level design perspective, this includes the Aesir Prison Wreckage dungeon as well as 8 Einherjar combat arenas and the Valkyrie queen arena.

- Numerous misc. tasks including companion AI scripting throughout Midgard’s Lake of Nine exploration hub, The critical path sequences directly before and after Ragnarok, all scripting tasks associated with the Berserker Soul encounters, loot placement, wildlife placement and scripting, collision modeling in various areas

-Created 2D maps to convey level layouts, gameplay beats, and pacing

-Constructed playable 3D level blockouts with Maya and proprietary tools

-Various level scripting responsibilities (puzzle functionality, AI behavior, checkpoints, narrative implementation, and VFX implementation for numerous areas)

-Collaborated with departments across SMS and partner studios to ensure all departments were aligned with my areas level design goals

Tools: Maya, Adobe suite, proprietary studio tools

Available for purchase here

In Service of Asgard

I owned the In Service of Asgard quest from a level design perspective for the final 3 years of Ragnarok’s development. This is the first optional quest the player will receive and is meant to entice them to visit the Bay of Bounty, the first large area that is not part of the critical path.

The bay is a open space traversed by boat. We created POIs (points of interest) to catch the player’s attention and direct them to the major pieces of content in this region. The main goal of the In Service of Asgard quest is to shut down 3 dwarven mining rigs. We used the rigs’ smoke stacks and the large smoke plumes that they emit as landmarks to draw the player in and orient themselves while traveling across the bay. Ideally, the player is drawn into the bay by the mining rigs, at which point they will then explore the surrounding area and discover other content.

Video of Full Quest Playthrough

Mining Rigs Breakdown

Althjof’s Rig

Althjof’s Rig is the puzzle-focused rig and was also created to showcase Krato’s new traversal abilities that allow him to swing across gaps and ascend to high ledges using his Blades of Chaos. The puzzle revolves around aligning an elevator platform that Kratos can stand on and a gantry that he can use to swing in order to reach each of the 3 vertical levels of the rig structure.

The a-ha moment of the puzzle is when the player realizes that they must progress down to the lowest of the 3 levels in order to manipulate the elevator platform from the Blade latch point on the platform’s bottom in order to use it as a platform to reach their goal of the highest of the 3 levels.

The rig also features 2 optional treasure chests that can be obtained by players who demonstrate mastery over the puzzle mechanics.

Video Playthrough

Radsvinn’s Rig

Radsvinn’s Rig is focused on combat. The rig features an arena where the player must contend with an intense, multi-wave encounter. This combat space is what was internally referred to as an “enhanced mobility arena” meaning it featured traversal options like jumps, blade grapples and launches. The enemies featured in this arena, the reptile-like Grims, can also use these traversal option as well as cling to designated walls and poles from which they can launch ranged attacks at the player.

The goal of this area was to use enemy waves to continuous apply pressure to the player, but also afford them numerous movement options at any given time.

This rig also features an optional Nornir chest. Our goal with this chest was to introduce players to the concept of the Runic Torches, which the player must light using their fiery Blades of Chaos (or other means) to cause the chest to open. The player must use their newly unlocked Sonic Arrows to create access to one of the torches, and think outside the box, using their axe to destroy an explosive pot to light another of the torches.

Video Playthrough

Modvitnir’s Rig

If Althjof’s Rig is puzzle focused and Radsvinn’s Rig is combat focused, Modvitnir’s Rig was meant to be a little bit of column A and a little bit of column B. The space requires the players to use Krato’s axe to manipulate the position of a large crane arm, moving a hook that can be used to swing across to various ledges as they climb their way to the upper rig platform. This puzzle is less difficult than Althjof’s Rig, but moving the giant crane provides a nice spectacle moment that showcases Kratos’ physical strength and blunt-force problem solving style. The upper crane platform features a difficult combat encounter against a singular enemy, the Bergsra, oppoosed to Radsvinn’s Rig’s wave based encounter.

Video Playthrough

Aesir Prison Wreckage

I owned God of War Ragnarok’s postgame content from a level design perspective. Our game director wanted the game to have a significant amount of postgame content that demonstrated Kratos’ desire to fix the damage done to the 9 realms after Ragnarok.

The most significant postgame area in terms of scope is the Aesir Prison Wreckage dungeon in the Nifelheim Raven Tree area. Here, Kratos, Mimir, and Freya discover and free the real Tyr who Odin imprisoned prior to the events of the games story. This dungeon features a central puzzle where the player uses their Draupnir Spear’s ability to create traversal points in conjunction with cranks that to raise and lower the wooden beams the spear traversal points are attached to in order to progress deeper into the multi-tiered prison. Our goal was to create a sense of anticipation as the player progresses toward the bottom.

The puzzle’s a-ha moment occurs when the player realizes that can lower the initial spear point that was used to travel from floor 1 to 2 to bypass a barrier on floor 3, allowing them to reach the bottom level (floor 4) of the prison.

From a combat perspective, the prison features an Einherjar encounter on each floor, which become progressively more challenging as the player moves from floor to lower floor, as well as several optional encounters behind prison cells that the player can choose to opt into in order to obtain additional loot.