The weird influence of H.G. Wells on Guerrilla Games’ Horizon franchise

destructoid.com:

Artificial intelligence has become an unavoidable trend, and with that comes an explosion of possibilities and fears. Though A.I. promises to free the masses from the suffering of alienated labor, it also threatens to render many redundant. In some sense, the blessing and curse of A.I. is that it may become too good, painfully exposing just how inadequate our biological modes of being are.

In Guerrilla Games’ Horizon franchise, A.I. appears as both the villain and the hero, illustrating the dual nature of technology. Interestingly, the studio’s science fiction vision appears to borrow heavily from H.G. Wells. Although it may seem counterintuitive at first, upon closer analysis, it becomes apparent that Guerrilla Games and Wells may have been trying to convey very similar messages through their art.

The story behind Horizon Zero Dawn‘s conception has been retold aplenty in the gaming community, as it demonstrates how creativity can be maximally harnessed with good leadership. After years of working on the Killzone franchise, Guerrilla Games realized that being a one-trick pony would not be a sustainable long-term strategy. Hermen Hulst, who was the studio head at the time, had the team pitch ideas about what games they’d like to work on. Out of that, the Horizon franchise was born.

During the pitching process, the team toyed with the idea of making a game based on H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine, first published in 1895. The sci-fi novel is set in the distant year 802701, and at first, it appears that the perfect utopia has been achieved. However, upon closer inspection, readers discover that the class differences have been so exaggerated that humans have split into two races, and the rich and poor appear to be two separate