Santa Monica Studio

Credits

Compiled by
Camenati

Video captures courtesy of
MartinIgna SalasV, ENunn, GameTrusTv, and Broken Saw

Background

Santa Monica Studio is a video game developer founded in 1999 by Allan Becker who left Sony Computer Entertainment (now Sony Interactive Entertainment) to "break out of the corporate Foster City group". They are best known for the highly successful God of War franchise as well as several Twisted Metal games and the PixelJunk and Fat Princess franchises. The company is comprised of two departments: the internal development team and the external development group. The latter serves as not only a game developer like the internal team but also a business incubator that helps smaller companies with indie games as well as their business.

1st Logo (November 11, 2006-March 11, 2010)

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Visuals: This is simply "Santa Monica Studio p r o d u c t i o n" on a black background.

Technique: A still, digital graphic.

Audio: None.

Availability: First appeared on Blast Factor and can be seen on Flow, Flower, the demo of Fat Princess as well as its PSP port, Fat Princess: Fistful of Cake, among others.

2nd Logo (July 30, 2009-November 20, 2012)

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  Normal
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  PSP
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  PixelJunk Racers 2nd Lap
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  Carnival Island
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  PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale
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  Fat Princess

Visuals: On a sand-colored background with a vignette, there are multiple small red particles forming and merging into a red stream. The stream would sometimes have less particles inside where there are some black outlines of crosses, triangles, squares, and circles. The stream is then seen gaining more red particles before the screen glitches a few times and cuts to the company's logo on a black background. This logo consists of "SANTA MONICA" with "studio" underneath over a dark red and twisted text of the company's name.

Trivia: The black shapes in the animated version are a reference to the PlayStation controller buttons.

Variants:

• There is a still version (seen on most games containing this logo) that has simply the last bit of the animated variant.
• The PSP version of this logo has the background logo in a brighter shade of red and the company's name in a relatively normal font is slightly thicker.
• On Carnival Island, the background is white, the text is maroon, and the background logo is gray.
• On PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, the stylized "SANTA MONICA" in the background is grey as well with a trademark symbol next to the company's full name.
• On PixelJunk Racers 2nd Lap, the text has a black stroke to it and the background logo is brighter.

Technique: Cool 2D animation.

Audio:

• For the animated variant, there is deep ambience sounds alongside heartbeats and water flowing. Glitching is heard when the logo transitions to the company logo.
• None for the still variant.

Availability: First appeared on Fat Princess as a custom variant and can be seen on titles from this period such as God of War: Ghost of Sparta, PixelJunk Racers 2nd Lap, Escape Plan, and PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale. The animated variant was only seen on God of War III.

3rd Logo (August 7, 2012-)

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  Sound Shapes
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  The Unfinished Swan
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  Hohokum
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  Everybody's Gone to the Rapture
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  Fat Princess: Piece of Cake
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  Fat Princess Adventures
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  Bound
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  Journey
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  God of War (2018)
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  Flower (PC)

Visuals: On a white or black background, there are five copies of a round diagonal corner square with the third one overlapping all of them. The color of the shapes may vary on the game. Underneath is the company's logo in either a dark or white color.

Variants: All of the games that use this logo have a different look than one another, especially with the color of the five squares.

• Sound Shapes: There is a warm hue throughout the logo as well as a vignette. The squares are colored (in order): black, red, blue, lime green, and orange.
• The Unfinished Swan: The first, third, and fifth squares are black and the rest are uncolored.
• Hohokum: The squares are colored blue, dark blue, dark magenta, fluorescent magenta, and orange.
• Fat Princess: Piece of Cake and Fat Princess Adventures: The square are in yellow, red, pink, blue, and green.
• Everybody's Gone to the Rapture: The logo is on a worn-out background and the shapes are in a rather washed-out color palette consisting of dark purple, blue, green, pink, and yellow.
• Journey: The colors for the squares are dark red, ochre, mellow apricot, buff, and blonde.
• Bound: The colors are light blue, teal, dark and light magenta, and yellow.
• God of War (2018): On a black background, all of the shapes are white except for the fourth one, which is dark red.
• Flower (PC): The text is gray, the color of the shapes are green, light green, gold, light blue, and blue, and the whole logo is to the right of "Originally Released on PlayStation.

Technique: A still, digital graphic.

Audio: None or the opening of the game.

Availability: It debuted on Sound Shapes and can be seen on many titles such as God of War (2018), Hohokum, The Unfinished Swan, Bound, etc.