 After the success of their first game Kinetica ( 2001 ) , SIE Santa Monica Studio began development of God of War in 2002 , and unveiled it two years later at SCEA Santa Monica Gamers ' Day 2004 . Game director and creator David Jaffe said that although the idea for God of War was his own , the concept owed a debt to Capcom because he had played Onimusha and said " let 's do that with Greek Mythology " . He was inspired in part by the 1981 feature film , Clash of the Titans , saying , " the real high concept for me was ... merging it with Heavy Metal magazine " . He said he liked both " the kids stuff ... with Greek Mythology " and the idea of adding more adult themes such as sex and violence . He was also inspired by the 1981 film Raiders of the Lost Ark . Although the game is based on Greek mythology , the development team gave themselves " lots of freedom " to modify the myths , and Jaffe said they took the " coolest aspects of the subject " and created art and story using those elements . Director of visual development and lead concept artist , Charlie Wen , drew inspiration from these films as well as more contemporary films such as Gladiator ( 2000 ) for tonal inspiration to lead the visual design of Kratos , other characters , and the world of God of War . GameSpot said the developers described the gameplay " as merging the action of Devil May Cry with the puzzle @-@ solving of Ico " and noted that players would be able to " sunder enemies with a single move , such as by ripping them in half " . The game uses Santa Monica 's Kinetica engine , which they developed for Kinetica . 
