God of War developer discusses PSP design and artwork

I received an email a few minutes ago from Sony containing some precious nuggets of information about God of War: Chains of Olympus. The company is planning to release a demo of the game to the public on September 7th, but in the meantime the developers plan to spam my email inbox with constant updates about the “making of…” process. This week, they are showing off some of the impressive art design that will be featured in the game. According to project director Ru Weerasuriya, the screenshots we have seen so far barely begin to capture the epic proportions of the experience they are planning on the PSP. News that Sony has finally unlocked the full (333 mhz) potential of the PSP leads us to believe that God of War will be one of the first titles to take advantage of this extra horsepower:

It’s no easy task bringing God of War to the PSP. Fans have come to expect these huge landscapes, complex gameplay, and visceral combat that God of War I and II gave them. To bring that same experience to the PSP, we are pushing the hardware further than ever before. We’re really pleased with what we have so far, but we’re not done yet. We still have a few tricks up our sleeve.

Justin Murray, concept and texture artist for the game seems to have an unhealthy fascination with trees. His description of the screenshot above leads us to believe that this tree will serve as more than just background eye-candy when the game ships. His description gives the impression that at some point, gamers will find themselves locked in epic combat with the olive tree from hell:

I based the design on an olive tree because I thought it had an interesting texture that worked well with the character of my concept. Giving the tree a tumor-like surface and distorting it’s massive form made it appear even more like a petrified monster. The scarred ground surrounding the base of this monstrosity was designed to look like it had punched itself up from the depths of the earth.

With the amount of enthusiasm and attention to detail these developers have expressed for the game, we are fairly certain this will be a highlight game on the PSP. It will definitely be a long wait for us until the demo finally arrives in September.