Making Horizon: Zero Dawn suitable for eight-year-olds

gamesindustry.biz:

The expansion of the Horizon video game series into a mass media IP took an interesting turn at Summer Games Fest last month.

The series has already been adapted into a comic series, a VR game and a board game. There have been toys, and lead character Aloy has made guest appearances in other hit titles including Monster Hunter, Fortnite and Genshin Impact. There also might be (hopefully) a TV show somewhere down the line.

Then just last month, Guerrilla Games announced that it would be creating – alongside UK developer Studio Gobo - a Lego Horizon game, which will be coming to multiple platforms including Nintendo Switch. It is the first PlayStation-owned IP to arrive on a Nintendo platform in over 25 years.

"Guerrilla has tonnes of Lego fans in the studio," explains James Windeler, narrative director at Guerrilla Games. "We have people with entire rooms devoted to Lego. There are stories about how we prototyped the first machines in Horizon: Zero Dawn out of Duplo. So there is a connection with Lego.

"Also, some of the devs have been working on Horizon for the better part of a decade, and they've had kids in that time and they're looking for the opportunity to do something a little lighter in tone that their kids can play.

"But on the other side, Lego saw us as good partners because of the bright colours of our world, the optimism of the themes that come through in the storytelling. But also, elements of the world just naturally translate. The machines, for example, are just a very good fit for construction. Through organic conversations with them, it just seemed like the perfect fit."

I played the Lego Horizon Adventures at Summer Games Fest and was suitably impressed with it. And for those familiar with Lego films and games, this very much fits into that mould. The game looks like a Lego movie, with every single asset in the game made from Lego bricks. But it also feels like a Lego movie in terms of its self-referential humour.

"We are very careful about the projects