Horizon Zero Dawn is an incredibly beautiful game which features beautiful environments that range from deserts, forests, and mountains. Karakter is a German studio that has done a lot of work on Game Of Thrones and this is the same studio that has done some work on Horizon Zero Dawn.
However, Karakter did not conceptualize the entire game but the studio did help “develop much of the ‘how’ and ‘why’ behind its human cultures”.
Over the course of three years, we helped Guerrilla to create the visual design of the Nora as well as the rationale behind it. Led by our intrinsic ideation process, the goal was to create a culture with a clear identity, unlike any other ever seen before.
Guerrilla Games asked Karakter to imagine how the US landscapes and towns would look like 1000 years in the future and the studio’s research showed that there were only a few that would survive 900 years.
Our research informed us that only few of the products we surround ourselves with today would actually survive 900 years of decay and sanding-up. Realism had to be counter-balanced with recognizability, if our designs were to evoke the desired emotional response.
The studio also helped Guerrilla Games about conceptualizing Horizon Zero Dawn human enemies, the Bandits.
To prevent our heroine Aloy to come off as a soulless serial manslayer, the Bandits had to be painted in sinister, truly evil colors. In spite of this one-dimensional characterization, we took great care that even these baddies received a meaningful design treatment that makes them an integral part of the Horizon world.
In related news, Guerrilla Games is currently working on the expansion for the game, however, the studio did not reveal any details about it.
Horizon Zero Dawn is an open-world action adventure game developed by Guerrilla Games exclusively for PlayStation 4.
Source: Kotaku
