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easier by the strong vision we had for Aloy and
the world in which she lived in – everyone was
really excited to get their ideas into motion.”
Having worked on the space sequences
and cityscapes synonymous with the Killzone
franchise, the enveloping wilderness of HZD
was relatively new territory for the studio.
“Some of the first challenges were the
technological ones – going from a linear world
to an open world meant we had to expand the
engine capabilities, especially in order to show
settlements and Machines
that might be kilometres
away. There was a really big
drive to show nature taking
over the world 1,000 years in
the future. Rendering organic
models like trees and foliage
and everything is a lot more
difficult and expensive than
buildings and things like
that, so we had to come up
with technology that could
procedurally-generate those
kinds of things.
We came up with some really clever ways to
generate areas and climates, where the engine
would look at stuff like what would the climate
of the world be like, what would the height be
like, what kind of animals would live here, what
kind of plants would grow here, what would
the water flow be like? All those kinds of things
were taken into account, and that allowed us
to build a game that was huge, without having
to have actual hands touching every corner of
the map.”
Freedom of exploration was also an
important foundation that Eschler made sure
the team built upon.
“We had to hire a whole new team of
writers to craft this open world, and to make
it interesting and interactive. With first-person
shooters or more linear games, you can predict
where the player will go, and you know that
when a player goes around this corner, there’s
got to be this explosion. With HZD, players can
go everywhere, you can do anything; you can
decide to go down any particular skill tree with
Aloy, so we really had to try to think outside of
the box. We had to make sure no matter which
path they chose to go down with Aloy, that
it was fun and that the robots interact
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FEATURE
GAMES
with the right things in the
right locations. There were
loads of new challenges,
but it was a real testament
to the team to see how
well they took it in their
stride and took control of
everything.”
The world that Guerrilla
have so lovingly crafted has
a mysterious past – what
caused the apocalypse
to begin with? – and
protagonist Aloy is equally as
intriguing. The stories of what happened to each
are intentionally interwoven.
“There’s two stories; our lead writer joined
a little bit after the main game had started
development, so there’s the background lore of
this world – what happened, who these tribes
are – that we built up beforehand.”
Eschler also notes that Aloy has troubles of
her own. “You start off playing Aloy as a child,
and you discover she is an outcast from her
tribe. Pretty early on you
discover why that is; early
sections of the game are her
trying to work out why she’s
an outcast in the first place,
what the politics of the tribe
are, and her trying to prove
that she’s worthy to explore.
In the beginning it’s really
about Aloy trying to discover
who she is, and once the
game opens up a little and
you get to explore this big
open world, there’s a kind of parallel between
Aloy discovering her capabilities and what she
can do in the world, while there’s the player
discovering what they can do and how they fit
into the world at the same time. I think we did
a really good job at creating the same sense of
discovery between both Aloy and the player.”
Now that the game is in the hands of the
players, its reception will determine where the
studio takes its new IP. The senior producer has
high hopes for the future of
Horizon Zero Dawn
.
“A lot of effort went into the world-building
and the concept art for HZD, that didn’t even
make it into the final game – especially for the
tribes and some of their stories that just didn’t
make sense once we put the finishing touches
on. We really hope this resonates with people,
because I certainly think there are a lot of
stories left to tell.”
In the beginning it's
really about Aloy
trying to discover
who she is
Ganondorf
Link’s primary foe in most of the Legend
of Zelda games, Ganondorf isn’t one to be
trifled with – don’t get between him and
the Tri-Force.
Dr. Robotnik
Evidently Sonic devs have a soft spot for
redheads. Doctor Ivo “Eggman” Robotnik is
best known for his rad ‘stache.
•
Xxxxxx
is out xxxx
Knuckles
The most Australian of
Sonic’s gang, Knuckles
the Echidna’s trademark
red hair/spines give
him a fiery, short-
tempered attitude.
HZD's Aloy is one in
a long line of badass
gaming redheads...
•
Horizon
Zero Dawn
is out on
Mar 1
Gaming’s
redheads