This is actually a brilliant little video: Sony put Guerrilla Games' managing director Hermen Hulst and Naughty Dog's creative director Neil Druckmann in an up-market coffee shop and filmed them chatting for 25 minutes. The conversation mostly centres around Horizon: Zero Dawn, but it does deviate to other topics like Uncharted: The Lost Legacy and The Last of Us: Part II.
In the clip, the uber-talented twosome talk about how Guerrilla Games settled upon the concept of Horizon: Zero Dawn, the decision to run with a female lead, and much more. The pair also chat about the challenges of prolonged development cycles, dealing with difficult feedback on forums such as NeoGAF, and much more.
It's a really honest chat that doesn't really have any structure but is both extremely informative and, in some ways, quite inspiring. The industry icons are clearly both extremely intelligent, and there's a mutual respect that underlines the conversation without being overbearing. It's well worth watching in its entirety, as videos like this don't really pop up very often.
[source youtube.com]
Comments 17
Loved this video.
I did too - hence I posted it in the Horizon OT Thread in the Forums about 10mins or so before this article LOL
Its great that two of the industry greats get to chat together and that its shared with us. It also had a lot of interesting info and shows that Horizon started development 2yrs before the PS4 released and of course Killzone SF released too.
@BAMozzy Haha, you beat me!
@get2sammyb Only Just... I didn't have to write an article to go with it and upload to the website though...
@b1ackjack_ps I'd love to see Sony do more of these. I guess the challenge is getting the people together, as they're obviously very busy. But if they could try to organise these when they can, I'd certainly watch whatever they put out.
Great stuff. I'm so glad they left guns out of Horizon. The combat felt refreshing.
This was great! I always like hearing about early concepts for games and movies and how things change over time and how the first ideas always seem so bad or ridiculous but eventually turn into something great. I also love Neil's thoughts on people who think they must identify with a character because it really bugs me when other men complain about having to play as a female.
I just got an impromptu day off, so I'll check this out. I enjoy watching dev talks on occasion.
Really interesting and insightful video. Seems like Sony are cementing GG's place within the top positions in their studios.
Will watch after I finish horizon.
@adf86 Its not surprising really. Guerilla Games, like Naughty Dog had to earn that position. Yes we know ND had made some good games before Uncharted but it was Uncharted that made people around the world really sit up and take notice, really impress on the quality of the developer. Games like Crash and Jak and Daxter were not exactly that groundbreaking, good as they were and its not like we didn't have 'alternatives' that offered 'something similar.
Uncharted though was. I know from a game-play perspective it wasn't 'that' unique. The concept too wasn't either but what it did, was give us 'characters' that were as believable as the movies. Beating games like Tomb Raider at its own concept. It was the best of its type and raised the bar.
Guerrilla Games, with the Killzone Series always made great looking games but compared to other FPS games, they never really stood out as being something 'special'. Not saying they weren't 'good' but nothing that you couldn't get elsewhere to a degree. However Horizon:ZD is something 'special'. It too has raised the bar.
These games are games that put the Playstation at the top. You couldn't get an Uncharted game, one with that depth of character unless you bought a PS3. It took years before Tomb Raider reboot gave Lara a similar depth and humanistic feel to Nathan Drake for example.
In the case of Killzone, MS had Halo - not saying one was better than the other but saying that either console had a sci-fi shooter, killzone also had Resistance to compete with as well as the number of 3rd Party shooters on the market, so it wasn't necessarily something you had to buy a Playstation for. Horizon though is. There isn't really anything like it.
These are games that raised the bar. These are developers that really show what the console can do, games that are unrivalled (or were at time of release). Uncharted 4, the last ND game to date, is a technical marvel as well as being one of the best games this generation. Facial animations are going to be compared to that game for a long time - well maybe until the Last of Us 2...
@wiiware As long as you have played more than the first 5-10hrs, there is literally NO spoilers at all. Neil Druckman has only played around 15hrs, and a lot of that was not 'Story' based - Helman assumed it was around 5-8hrs in so nothing beyond that point was spoilt and only 1 aspect, that happens in the prologue, is actually discussed regarding Aloy and connecting with the character.
I would say its 'Safe to watch' regardless of whether you have finished the game, half way through or even considering playing it. Even if you have no interest in the game itself, its still worth watching. @get2sammyb it may well be worth mentioning that its 'safe to watch' or contains no spoilers. Much of it focuses on how the game came together, its development, how they came up with the idea, how Aloy evolved and gained personality etc rather than the Story etc. It may actually give you a deeper appreciation whilst you are playing the game...
@BAMozzy - I added this to my watch list after you posted in the forum. Will watch tonight. I love things like this, makes me want to be part of the games industry. Until you realise that damn those guys work really hard.
Watched this last night, very cool video. Would love to see more like this.
@BAMozzy Ok I'll watch it tonight then, thanks for the info
I'm still playing nier automata, about 14 hour and still haven't reach the first ending although I play the game normally and not playing around to level up. I try to finish all the side mission though.
@wiiware As long as you have passed the prologue, nothing is spoiled. Even then the only thing mentioned is about a certain 'choice', which Druckman made, but that was more in relation to Aloy and trying to develop characters in general. Most of this is more in relation to the development prior to release, crafting games, characters etc more than any focus on the game itself, the story and quests. Its a great insight on how the game came about and the development process - including Aloy as a character, how the game evolved from a pitch to the release but no spoilers at all and even the one point that is 'mentioned' in the prologue isn't really a spoiler either.
That's cool. Sony should make a series of this where their first party studios interview each other.
Could do with another where Herman interviews Neil a bit more too...
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