Jon Hickenbottom

Happy #Blocktober ! Today, sharing a look into the Level Design for Svartalfheim’s Nidavellir Port location in #GodOfWarRagnarok . This arena was a blast to design—collaborating with @DaNightTrain & seeing it come to life with the incredible work of everyone at @SonySantaMonica

Posting less here, but had a moment to update my website with all the work I’ve been fortunate to work on for God of War : Ragnarok. jonmichaelcreations.com/portfolio/god-…

@arnaldo42 Ya the Hue setup! Sometimes a little too much for shows and movies but loving it for games.

@jonmichael Thank you! Oh wow. Is that with the lights that sync with the TV?

Absolutely THRILLED to show what we’ve been working on!!! 🚀

@WrightDesign_ @thegameawards @TeamAsobi It was so great!

I’m so glad Astro Bot is Game of the year! 🏆 #Astrobot #PS5 #TheGameAwards  @thegameawards @TeamAsobi

😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

Happy #Blocktober folks! I got the amazing chance to work on water level mechanics in Svartalfheim in #GodOfWarRagnarok. Lets look at the Water Sluices! While we could have supported larger, baked sluice setups, we opted for a modular approach for each sluice piece that activated the water mechanics at runtime (shown below). This meant that the entire system’s feature set needed to be supported within the 3m piece! Even though Maintaining visual fidelity while making sure the pieces communicate effectively was a big challenge, This decision allowed quick iteration for our level design team who was allowed to move and tune sluice setups in real-time. Have to callout @jonmichael taking this head on and making and informing so many setups that fully realize the potential in the most fun development experience I have had

Building out this level was massive undertaking and collaboration—brought to life with the amazing work from the team at @SonySantaMonica I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to collaborate together on #GodOfWarRagnarok

Today, for #Blocktober , sharing a look into the Level Design for The Applecore location in #GodofWarRagnarok Special shout out to —incredible— work of @badboi3d, @PiEnvArt, Patrick Ward, Steven Mortensen, Will Petrosky, @ivannaliitt, @ChrisLloydVFX, @rubenvoorhees1, @Revan1322, @QuitevFX, @CptCinderpride, @leftie, Brandon Cha, @ketul1776, @JoshHammondDev, @chlolist, @dajoule, @_GlitterBooger, @DaNightTrain, Michael Cheng, Andrew Chrysafidis, Eric Williams, and everyone, past and present, on the Applecore Crew for the colossal amount of effort to bring this space to life...

@badboi3d —You— are the best! 💙 It was a highlight and a privilege to be able to work together on every nook and cranny. The colossal amount of work you all did is incredible.

A look at the dwarven mines before they were handed to me to art. Jon you are the best bro!

In the spirit of #Blocktober, I'm posting images of the design sheet I worked on alongside the wonderful art it was turned into by Sam Delfanti and Timo Pihlajamaki. This comes from a portion of the finale of God of War: Ragnarok, which involved many, many people so there are more to thank for these images, please comment below if you were also a part of bringing this to life! This sequence directly follows the moment Atreus and Sindri expose the flaw in Hrimthur's Wall, and was built to be a combat gauntlet, where Kratos and Atreus join forces with Thrud to take on Odin's army of Einherjar. The sequence was built to feel like a final stand, filled with back-to-back fights, an environment crumbling around you, and a constant downwards progression as you barrel towards an inevitable final battle. Special shoutouts to Andrew Chrysafidis and Eric Williams for allowing me the chance to build this special moment. Beyond honored to have contributed to the Ragnarok battle and feeling blessed to work with the incredibly talented people at Santa Monica Studio, please enjoy.

Check out some amazing work by @xylaei on Alfheim Deserts in #GodofWarRagnarok 🔥

This arena also served as our testing ground for proving out increased mobility in combat! Grapples, drop downs, gap jumps, and all the fun in between. Not to mention some funky ragdoll collision! Having an arena that pushes many systems early is very helpful in development 👌🏽

Special shout out to @badboi3d , @PiEnvArt , Patrick Ward, Steven Mortensen, Brandon Cha, Eric Williams, and the colossal amount of effort from every single person, from all departments to bring this space to life. I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to collaborate together.

Shout out to @dajoule for the Sluice System Designs and the opportunity to collaborate on the Sluice Intro Puzzle and Sluice Puzzles throughout the Svartalfheim Pitmine & Applecore.

Also today, sharing a look into the Level Design for Svartalfheim’s Pitmine location in #GodofWarRagnarok . This level was a lot of fun to help contribute to and an immense effort by everyone at @SonySantaMonica

Happy #Blocktober! Will be posting some gameplay and systems design from #GodOfWarRagnarok here! I got the amazing chance to work on so many little narrative moments across the game in #GodOfWarRagnarok. Lets look at the Train Align minigame moment today! @DaNightTrain , while working on the level wanted to invoke the feeling of someone spotting you when parallel parking (lol) and so we did! We had to make sure the player always had the choice to agree/disagree with Atreus’ directions, while still maintaining a max time for the minigame. This led us to design it so the train actually started and ended in the same location 😉 in order to guarantee the number of moves the player could do (hence the camera angle). While this limited the steps, we still had to have unique game states for each time you visited those alignment locations. Can’t end this post without calling out the months and months of back and forth and amazing animation and tech help from @Adams_Animator to accomplish so many interdependent syncs!