Mark Norris, Executive Producer on Horizon Zero Dawn, spoke with IGN Latino America recently about Guerrilla Games’ newest project. The interview covers how the studio wants to subvert player expectations of traditional post-apocalyptic games to its lack of multiplayer.
Norris started off talking about how the studio transitioned from making FPS games to a third-person, open-world action RPG. He also discussed the game’s democratic origins, and the nature of collaborative creation overall.
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What we did was launch a call for everyone in Guerrilla. One thing they have is that the Dutch are incredibly democratic, they want to make you feel like everyone has a voice, and they value the opinion of each person. Then each person, from secretaries and new staff to producers and directors, anyone could submit an idea for a game. And it was not that everyone wanted to make a game in the third person, that everyone wanted an open world or a racing game. We accepted all the ideas that came and when we saw Horizon Zero Dawn, we knew that this was the one. It was so obvious to us that it had the potential to be amazing and astonishing, and it was the one we had to choose.
The call ​​was not to have an individual who had a brilliant idea, because that's not the way a video game is creatively made; it is made creatively by a team. Just like in the movies, where they put an actor, a producer and a director and say, look, this film has been realized by these three people, but there actually are hundreds of names on the credits that are responsible for the entire film, Horizon Zero Dawn is in the same way. It's not like there is only a single person responsible for having that idea. The idea evolved over time, through art directors, studio managers, producers, directors game and then went through development leaders and other members of the study. Everyone contributed to the game in some way. I would not say that this game was made ​​by this person or this idea was carried out by this other person, because those don’t represent Guerilla’s vision.
When asked why the game is labeled as “post-post-apocalyptic,” Norris pointed to the game’s world, and how that informs the characters and cultures players will encounter in the game.
“Our game is different because it's set thousands of years after the collapse of civilization. That’s what separates us immediately, because usually in other games with similar themes we see the world immediately after an apocalyptic event, but how the world looks and how people behave while in our game, people no longer remember how it was before the world, has no memory of it… and there is a specific reason for that. We have this juxtaposition of having this beautiful world where the depressing colors of typical post-apocalyptic games are replaced with the greens and blues of a new hope, a new growth, and new life horizons.”
Finally, he explained why the game won’t feature multiplayer, and promised that the game’s world would be dense with activities to do and interesting places to explore.
“The reality is that we are putting together a new IP, are making a new franchise for the first time in 10 years and what we really want to do is improve the experience for the player. When you get to face these machines as Eloy, with this great character who is the real star of the story and everything that happens, you have this connection with her. But what happens when you take the elements of multiplayer, you play as Eloy? You play as a supporting character? How does that work? And of course, we played other games and we really liked that. The Witcher 3, which has an iconic character and is fantastic… does not have multiplayer. It is an action RPG with a single player experience that not apologizing for anything. I think we’re similar in that way, we want this to be the story of Eloy. Although a multiplayer mode is great and maybe we’ll think of something for the future, we want Horizon Zero Dawn’s story to have Eloy as the center and when you play it, have that be fantastic.”
We are really seeing the quality of the content that will be on the map, the number of secondary missions, how we want to shape the main story over the world map and feel full. We do not have a size that we can give, but I can say that we have done an analysis of other games and I think we have achieved something that will be good for Horizon.”
This interview is certainly getting us more excited for the game. We’ve already listed it as one of the top 10 new PS4 games of 2016. Are you excited for Horizon Zero Dawn? Do you like the direction Guerilla is going with their new IP? Let us know in the comments.
