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

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 that we take on and we're very guarded about the Horizon franchise and protective of it," Windeler says. "But at the same time, we saw this as an opportunity to break our own rules. It's a chance for us to have a lot of fun with elements of the franchise that we love, so we can poke fun and really shake things up.

"It is inspired by Horizon: Zero Dawn. You will notice iconic scenes from the first game, and Aloy's search for her mother is the heart of story that evolves into an adventure with higher stakes. But it isn't a one-to-one mapping of the first game. It draws from it. It's not a re-telling. It's not a parody. There are lots of nods and references to Horizon, but you don't have to be a Horizon fan for the humour to hit. It's meant to be much broader than that."

The game is aimed at a wider audience than the more heavy-going Horizon main series. It's a co-op title that wants to appeal to eight-year-olds as much as existing fans.

"We wanted it to appeal to a younger audience with silliness and slapstick and more visual comedy, with dressing up as bananas and that sort-of thing," Windeler adds. "But then, there is also the more sophisticated self-referential humour that is characteristic of the Lego movies where it makes fun of itself and the storytelling conventions in general."

The broader nature, plus the decision to put this game on Switch, makes Lego Horizon Adventures a potential entry point for the series overall.

"It definitely isn't our primary goal to make this an entry point for younger people into Horizon," insists Windeler. "But it is definitely part of what we are trying to do.

"We want to appeal to that broader group. But we also want the mums and dads playing with their kids to be having a good time, and a good chuckle, with it appealing to them on a different level."

"We saw this as an opportunity to break our own rules. It's a chance for us to have a lot of fun with elements of the franchise"

The game is being developed in partnership with UK developer Studio Gobo, with Guerrilla taking the lead in terms of story.

"It is our IP and we are far more immersed in it," Windeler explains of the collaboration. "The way that it works is that we have a very core dedicated group of Guerrillas who work very closely with the development team at Studio Gobo. We help oversee the project, and with the narrative we are more embedded in that regard. It is me, and we have another contractor on it who we hired because he's funny and he has a long track record of writing for this target market. He's called Mark Llabres Hill and has worked on Fable and Sackboy."

The original Horizon: Zero Dawn can be heavy-going in parts, especially in terms of the destruction of humanity. It's certainly not the sort-of material that translates naturally to a younger audience. Windeler didn't want to spoil the game, but he's confident that the team have been able to strike the right balance.

"We have tried to keep as much of the story as possible," Windeler says. "A lot of what happens in the world, like the destruction of the old world… that's a pretty heavy theme for an eight-year-old. So we needed to find ways to keep that present in the story, because it is essential to Horizon. But it is also not something we leaned on. You won't find some of those devastating reveals from the first game, like those corporate masterminds dead around the table or anything like that.

"There are moments from the first game that packs a really heavy emotional punch, that we've found, I think, a very good way to represent faithfully, but undercut them with comedy that keeps things light-hearted. This stuff is present, but it's certainly not surface. This is a much simpler version, but it has a lot of echoes from the original."

Ultimately, although the game is sillier and less intense than the main Horizon game series, it is still part of the same franchise, and Lego Horizon Adventures will be respectful of that.

"It has still got to feel like Horizon," concludes Windeler. "We have definitely bent the rules a lot. But the characters remain core to who they are. I think we've found a really good balance with it. We have a lot of help. Ashley Burch is back as the voice of Aloy, and JB Blanc (as Rost). And you would have heard the exuberance to their performances. It is different to what the other games are, but they're still recognisable. They're part of it and they bought into it, and that's been a huge boon to us."