{"id":13483,"date":"2022-02-15T14:13:18","date_gmt":"2022-02-15T14:13:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2022\/02\/15\/before-horizon-forbidden-west-inside-the-origins-of-aloy-and-the-horizon-series\/"},"modified":"2022-02-15T14:13:18","modified_gmt":"2022-02-15T14:13:18","slug":"before-horizon-forbidden-west-inside-the-origins-of-aloy-and-the-horizon-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2022\/02\/15\/before-horizon-forbidden-west-inside-the-origins-of-aloy-and-the-horizon-series\/","title":{"rendered":"Before \u2018Horizon Forbidden West\u2019: Inside the origins of Aloy and the Horizon series"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\u201cWhat if they make something exuberantly beautiful?\u201d van Beek said, summarizing a recurring message of these critiques. \u201cThat inspired the studio to stretch our creative muscle, to extend our thinking in new ways again.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In 2010, van Beek began developing a concept for a beautiful but recovering post-apocalyptic Earth, in which the ferocity of nature was made manifest in the form of large robotic beasts, hunted by a scarlet-haired woman. That idea was thrown into a studio-wide pitch process for Guerrilla\u2019s next game \u2014 finally, a break from the Killzone series. This pitch process included game concepts in a wide variety of genres, including linear adventure games, puzzle games and even a football game.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Guerrilla Games Director Mathijs de Jonge said the studio began to unite around van Beek\u2019s idea. But confidence in the concept was shaken a bit when \u201cEnslaved: Odyssey to the West\u201d released in October 2010. That title, by British developer Ninja Theory, featured a similar aesthetic and world concept, and also starred a redheaded, female protagonist.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cThat\u2019s our whole list of ingredients,\u201d van Beek said. \u201cIf they were going to hit it out of the ballpark, we shouldn\u2019t follow them and maybe we should start looking at something else.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The studio went back to another pitch process, only for Hermen Hulst, the studio\u2019s co-founder and now head of PlayStation Studios, to suggest they return to the Horizon concept. They found that the whole studio had a lot of affection for Aloy, the scarlet-haired hunter, and her journey. Moreover, Guerrilla staff believed they could build a fantastic open-world game \u2014 the kind of experience they would be excited to play.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cThere was quite a big draw toward Horizon because of all the challenges that it brought,\u201d de Jonge said. \u201cLet\u2019s do an action role-playing game! We love to play those kind of games.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Settling on van Beek\u2019s concept meant staffing up with a narrative director, programmers and other talent skilled in the open-world and action role-playing genres. Released in 2017, \u201cHorizon Zero Dawn\u201d became the studio\u2019s first attempt at a game telling a narrative over a large map, where there was a chance players could miss substantial parts of the world \u2014 or, even worse, get bored during exploration.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cOne of the initial things we discovered was pacing,\u201d de Jonge said. \u201cBy building prototypes, we discovered we wanted something to happen every 50 meters or every 100 meters or so. \u2026 We designed \u2018Horizon [Zero Dawn]\u2019 on paper basically with that pacing in mind, and it\u2019s something we are still using today.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The game was always envisioned to take place in a wild, overgrown and lush American landscape, even though the team briefly discussed staying in Europe or the Netherlands. North America\u2019s geographic diversity and iconic locations (such as San Francisco and other cities in the 2022 sequel, \u201cHorizon Forbidden West\u201d) make for easy-to-recognize landmarks in gameplay, as well as a compelling stage for a science-fiction future where humanity lacks any knowledge of human achievement from most of their history.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Aloy was also always meant to be a woman. Like with the series\u2019s themes of restorative beauty, centering femininity in its heroism was an element of the studio recoiling from the loud masculinity of the Killzone games, de Jonge said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cOne thing we were also a little bit frustrated during the Killzone days was on our box cover, we had the enemy. We had the Helghast,\u201d de Jonge said, referring to the iconic, red-eyed Nazi-like soldiers of Killzone. \u201cWe didn\u2019t have a hero character. So this was a counter reaction. Let\u2019s do a female protagonist, and put her on the box cover.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The striking red hair, too, was planned from the beginning, said van Beek; it was meant to catch the eye, like the hair of a Disney princess. While various different concepts of Aloy were focus tested, the scarlet design always won out.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cWe had all sorts of Aloys there \u2026 we already knew which one we gravitated toward, and that was the same one as the focus tests,\u201d de Jonge said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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But while the Horizon story features a diverse cast with many different ethnicities represented, Aloy as a character does evoke the narrative trope of the \u201cwhite savior,\u201d in which a white character rescues non-White people from their misfortunes. The franchise\u2019s costume design and aesthetic is inspired by Native American imagery and the image of the classic American frontiersman; van Beek described Aloy\u2019s story as \u201csort of like a Western story, with a girl riding on horseback traveling over the Great Plains.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The first game\u2019s script generated controversy by using certain words to describe warriors that was seen as insensitive to Native Americans. The game\u2019s narrative director, John Gonzales, said the studio didn\u2019t mean to offend, and that the art was inspired by cultures from all over the world. Sure enough, prominent characters like Aloy\u2019s friend Erend seem inspired by the Vikings.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Because the burden of saving humanity\u2019s chance for a future lies on Aloy, it was important to the team that she and the characters around her seemed believable and relatable, reacting how actual people might when they discover San Francisco as ancient ruins of their ancestors, whom players can imagine as our near future selves, destroyed by their own technology. Aloy and humanity\u2019s relationship with their past and present is further elevated in \u201cForbidden West.\u201d It\u2019s a result of the studio doubling down on what made the first game\u2019s story so memorable to its fans: the idea of \u201cfuturist archaeology.\u201d In \u201cForbidden West,\u201d for example, the recipe and cooking method for pizza is a new and intensely intriguing concept for humans a thousand years in the future who have lost touch with their history.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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While the franchise\u2019s first chapter answered many questions about how Aloy\u2019s world came to be, the studio was challenged to sustain that mystery through a sequel. Judging from largely positive reviews of the latest game \u2014 including our own<\/a> \u2014 it seems the studio met that objective.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cYou don\u2019t ever want to get to the stage where we have no more surprises, no more mysteries to speak of,\u201d van Beek said. \u201cPeople now know the universe, so it\u2019s one of those things we keep looking for, what else can we pull out of the rabbit\u2019s hat.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n