Few games were as widely loved as Horizon Zero Dawn was when it was released during the last generation of gaming. It came out of the box with an exceptionally well-crafted story, great new characters a person could relate to, and some of the tightest combat in recent memory. It quickly became a fan-favorite.
Since the game was good enough to bring on the also-highly-praised sequel, Horizon Forbidden West, it can be concluded that the development woes and challenges were all worth it. The process of making any game can be full of surprises and include fun milestones along the way. This time was no different for Guerrilla Games.
10 A Very Poor Initial Reaction From Playtesters
Horizon Zero Dawn was the first new IP for developer Guerilla Games after they shipped the well-reviewed Killzone 3 in 2011. The pitch was said to be risky for the company, since they were coming from the development of multiple first-person shooters prior. During the initial playtesting, the game was not received well. “There’s really nothing like playtesters writing, in all caps, that your game is BEYOND DISAPPOINTING,” said Eric Boltjes of Guerrilla Games at the Game Developers Conference.
This began the process of redemption. It seems like it was a risk worth taking, as when the game was released in 2017 it was beloved by players and critics alike. Not only that, but Horizon Zero Dawn quickly became a new gold standard for open-world games to come.
9 Worries Over The Hero Being A Young Woman
Aloy is now iconic as the main protagonist of Horizon Zero Dawn’s story. Sony was initially worried about this, however. Shuhei Yoshida, head of Sony Computer Entertainment, explained this in an interview: “She’s a female lead character,” he said. “That has always been the vision by the team, but we had a discussion. Is it risky to do a female character?” Aloy was created with the world’s traversal mechanics in mind, and the introduction to the game showcased her ability to learn and adapt to these core skill requirements.
Not just anybody could evade the dangerous machines and traverse the overgrown environments of this world. She had to be someone who endured hardships and had the momentum to push forward and inspire. She grew through that hardship as an outcast on the periphary of the game’s tribes. She experienced her whole childhood under the care of Rost, who shaped her to become who she needed to be when her curiosity grew out of control. There were still questions about where she came from, though, and that lead to one of the core stories of the game. Ultimately, she was a perfect fit.
8 A Large Development Team
Guerilla Games eventually had 250 developers working on the project at its highest point of production in 2017. For comparison, the company reportedly aimed to have 400 members staffed for future projects in 2018. Development teams for AAA games can be truly vast in size.
These teams consist of game designers, project managers, software engineers, UX designers, and sound engineers, just to name a few of the many crucial roles. Gaming has been a growing industry since its inception, and the kind of cinematic experiences that are released to gamers today prove how far it’s come. It would never have happened without the invaluable contributions of experts in a wide range of fields.
7 Development Wasn’t As Expensive As You Might Think
Video games can cost a lot of money to develop and ship these days. However, the final price tag for Horizon Zero Dawn was not as large as that of other big releases of the time. People are generally surprised by this fact, due to the final product’s amazing amount of polish, beauty, and overall lovingly-created and vast world.
The reported budget was around $47 million, which seems on the lower end when compared to the $265 million development price tag of Grand Theft Auto V by the time Rockstar Games had it shipped. The latter was released in 2013. Some titles, like the inimitable Cyberpunk 2077, had even larger budgets.
6 Co-Op Or Not?
Horizon Zero Dawn almost included a co-op experience within the game. It’s difficult to say if fans would have had as much fun as the single-player experience that was delivered. The expansive nature of the campaign may have had to be toned down to allow for such a thing, but co-op machine hunting would have been a joy to behold.
The idea was ultimately decided against as the game design didn’t mesh well with what would need to be done to create those experiences. This ended up working out just fine as the praised title quickly became a staple favorite for open-world adventurers, among the best PlayStation 4 titles ever released.
Guerrilla Games stated that changing genres was an enormous challenge. The system that was used for the development of their previous games no longer worked adequately. Their framework was fragmented and had multiple coding languages, the net result of which made things very inefficient and hampered the speed at which the team could work.
These issues were fixed during the production of Horizon Zero Dawn. This was another risky decision, as it is no easy task to revamp a development system that was familiar in such a big way. The game certainly wouldn’t have been the triumph it was without this work, though.
4 The Scavenger Machine
There is a fairly simple crafting mechanic in the final version of the game, which ensures Aloy’s pack is stocked with her weapon of choice for your next encounter. In the original concepts for the game, developers talked about including a feature that would allow Aloy to signal for help when she had slain a machine.
The purpose of this was to have the machine be sent elsewhere in the world, so parts could be scavenged and sold at a specific place when Aloy needed resources. The idea ended up becoming too complicated, and even though it was created, it was a streamlined system that made it into the final product.
3 Machines And Humans
Horizon Zero Dawn wasn’t originally going to include any human enemies or antagonists. After the internal review of an earlier version of the game, the developers and playtesters decided it was too repetitive for every single encounter to consist of a blockbuster battle with a towering machine.
They wanted to split up the action and allow players more variety in their combat gameplay, so they ultimately decided to include human enemies for Aloy to cross paths with during her adventure (as well as help the story). This proved to be exciting when you would come across a hidden bandit camp blocking your path to that grandiose viewpoint you just had to climb to.
2 A Big Wide World
The game world of Horizon Zero Dawn was originally going to be much bigger. Developers changed their minds as the breadth of everything else they were doing was so expansive, it felt adequate to create the size of the world that fans ultimately received.
Something many people aren’t aware of is that the game world actually takes place in parts of the modern globe, those being Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and Montana. The game ended up looking and feeling so beautiful that many fans created works of art depicting the game as a sort of canvas.
1 Hunting For Aloy
It was explained earlier that Aloy was developed to be a character who could really stand out and excel, due to her growing pains as an orphaned leader-to-be. The developers searched hard to find the perfect fit for Aloy’s personality, and they found it in BAFTA and Emmy nominated actress, Ashly Burch.
“First is her incredible toughness and grit … then there’s an intelligence and articulate wit that’s realized in Ashly’s voice,” said Lead Narrative Designer, John Gonzales. Aloy’s journey isn’t just a grand, combat-filled adventure. It’s also a journey of personal growth and emotion. Burch personified all of this.
