Guerrilla Games has been making a name for itself for years now because of the greatest of the Horizon franchise. Not only did they create a compelling new world full of characters and stories that fans have enjoyed, but how they’ve rendered that world has been just as majestic. Whether it was on the PS4 with the original title, the sequel on the PS5, or the upcoming expansion on the PS5, they’ve pushed the technical bounds of the machines to the limit to deliver a breathtaking expanse. When Horizon Burning Shores arrive on PS5, you’ll see that even more, especially as you fly through the clouds.
The team at Guerrilla Games gave their take on things on the PlayStation Blog, and they made it clear that it wasn’t simply about making the game prettier but delivering a fun experience to players so that they wanted to check out everything in the world:
“When we think of a horizon, we imagine vast expanses like the open ocean and how the clouds and the sun arc down to touch them at some immeasurable distance,” noted Andrew Schneider, Principal FX Artist. “Open-world games present developers with metaphorically similar challenges. How do we push the experience so that the player feels that they are in an environment that could be endless?”
So how does this apply to clouds? You might think clouds are one of the easiest things to make in the video game space, but you’d be wrong. They are very layered entities; if you design them wrong, they can kill a vibe you’re going for or stick out like a sore thumb amongst the rest of the environment.
That’s why, over the years, Guerrilla Games worked hard to make a cloud system within the game engines they worked on to render the clouds perfectly and deliver the look and feeling they wanted.
It took quite a while, and they had to make compromises along the way. But eventually, thanks in part to improved technologies, they could make what they wanted. That’s why Horizon Burning Shores will be such a unique expansion. It’ll have the results of their hard labor, and it’ll allow Aloy to do more than ever before with exploring:
“It was important to us to make the experience fun and joyful on its own outside of the main gameplay. The clouds are not simply immersive scenery but an explorable landscape in themselves. Among the clouds, players will be able to explore tunnels, caves, and other surprises that make for fun flying.”
