So, I build it all out structurally in Excel. I have all these documents that are like broken down by the beats of the little things you would see in a level. I write it out like, they come out of the gate, walk forward a little bit, talk about some stuff, Atreus finds the boat, Atreus undoes the boat, the little guys come out, you beat them up, you get on the boat, sail out a little bit, Atreus starts talking, Kratos says focus on the water, you pick up the loot…

What he just described is a tedious, linear experience, put together in a mechanical process involving a spreadsheet. 

It's a slow crawl through everything to get incremental doses of plot and gameplay. I've never played other more modern "narrative-based" games such as Death Stranding or The Last of Us, but if they're anything like God of War: Ragnarok, I don't want to.