PSX 2015: God of War Director Describes Game Development as Soul Crushing

Despite what we predicted, Sony Santa Monica didn't show its new God of War game at PlayStation Experience this weekend. While we know that the title is in development, the studio has remained schtum for another year, opting to keep the project a closely guarded secret. Cory Barlog, who previously worked on God of War II, did pop up during a storytelling panel, however, where he likened game development to hurting kittens.

"I read a quote from Sid Meyer the other day, somebody put it on my wall, that said that 'playing games is a series of interesting decisions, and making games is a series of heartbreaking compromises,' which I thought was fantastic, because that's so true," he said. "It's a wonderful, wonderful thing to make games, but it's also absolutely soul crushing to do it."

Barlog, evidently, was talking about the difficult decisions that developers have to make, such as cutting entire segments that talented people have spent months making. "You work on these things for so many years [that] you lose sight of what you're doing so often, and you have so many people who are so good at what they do wanting to take each piece and make it better… Sometimes it's like trying to hurt kittens, figuring out what piece is going to fit where."

It's a nice quote because it's a reminder that, while we all sit behind our computers waiting to complain about them, there are people out there making sacrifices to ensure that their games are as good as they possibly can be. Greg Miller's excellent speech at The Game Awards played into this a little bit, and while we're not saying that you shouldn't be critical of the titles that you play, perhaps it's worth remembering that real people make them.