Horizon Zero Dawn Devs Discuss the Game's Development, "We Were Pretty Scared"

Horizon Zero Dawn is a thrilling title that enraptured the hearts of gamers everywhere with its strong narrative, unique characters, and powerful protagonist. The journey for Aloy in-game was one built on determination, strife, and world-changing revelations, and it was far from easy. Turns out, making the game itself was a similar experience.

Guerrilla Games, the team behind the incredible RPG experience, went into the development apprehensive. Rightfully so, given that their claim to fame was first person shooters, not third person role playing titles. But they pulled it off in a stunning fashion, winning an amazing amount of awards and accolades. The team recently opened up about the journey and how it was scary for them as a whole diving in.

The company's technical director, Michiel van der Leeuw opened up about the wild ride to the magazine EDGE for their May issue. "We were pretty scared," Leeuw admitted, "but it was even more scary to do a generation switch and a genre switch at the same time."

The title was so different from their Killzone series in pretty much every stretch of the imagination, and that difference appeared daunting at times. Leeuw added, "We were mainly just afraid of what was going to happen next."

The technical director added "Open world streaming was much more challenging than the linear things we were used to, even though we experimented with non-linearity in Shadow Fall. We had no idea how to script an open world. In non linear worlds, you can pick up a quest and wander off and do something else, and we had no idea how the scripting would deal with the complexities of the logic that required."

It's no secret that open-world games present a unique challenge, especially one done with the Decima Engine. Pair that with the RPG mechanics that they weren't intimately familiar with, and it was a project that if not handled with care could have ended terribly. As it were, Guerrilla Games' risk was well worth it and Horizon Zero Dawn was a resounding success. The PlayStation 4 exclusive broke records, bewitched fans, and gave single-player story lovers something to treasure for a lifetime.