The Horizon Zero Dunn, launched by Guerrilla Games in 2017, attracted attention by showing a unique setting of humanity that returned to highly developed animal-type machines and primitive tribal societies. In addition to interesting materials, it was well received by melting the material in various gameplay. In the process of facing various animal-type machines, the main character, Ale Roy, made a variety of tools that were mixed with advanced and primitive feelings, and then I could feel different hands, and in the process of solving a lot of mystery around me, mythical elements, primitive society, and over technology This is because it mixed with a unique atmosphere.

And Horizon Forbidden West, which was released in February 2022, portrayed the story six months later. Although different from the previous work and the newly added parts were released through several interviews and gameplay, after the quest of ‘Death’s Gate’ quest, the user has become significantly different from its predecessor.

If you want to design a quest that is the starting point of changing this work, there are many times when you can’t get caught what to do. If it is too different from the previous work, the continuity will be lowered, and if it is too similar to the previous work, it is criticized for not developing. In addition, in the new design process, the reaction of users may be too different from the development team’s expectations. Blake Lebuzhen’s chief quest designer of Guerrilla Games presented the ‘Death Gate’ quest and the design process of underground bunkers on how to balance the balance in Forbidden West.

** ※ This lecture includes Horizons Forbidon West’s Death Quest and later Quests.

Lebuzhen’s senior quest designer has designed seven quests in Horizon Forbidden West, and has worked with other designers in other quests. The reason why he brought the door quest of death and underground bunkers in the lecture was simple. The underground bunker was planned as a space that contains abundant stories from the planning stage, and in conjunction with him, it was caught as a point to implement new exploration, puzzles and environmental puzzle elements. The reason for this was that he made a new point to show the harmony between Horizon Forbidden’s art and lighting.

He explained that he worked with the paper quests from the paper work to the skeleton quest, and worked on the death quest of death before the launch. Of course, he did not only proceed, but also other quests, but he emphasized that this part contains the important core of Povies.

As with the first paper work stage in the game development process, it was a top priority to capture the beginning of the story and the summary of narratives. This was also a story about Poviden West’s first start, as well as underground bunkers. When I came to the underground bunker after thinking about how long after the zero, I needed to make a summary of the story that would be experienced there. This process was discussed not only by the scenario lighter but also for the quest designers.

After the story of the story, the prototyping was carried out with paper. In addition to the grid species, the map is simply designed, and various elements that will be entered into the map, and at this stage, the large number of puzzle gimmicks and energy locks of underground bunkers have already been determined.

The next skeleton quest is literally equipped with the skeleton of the quest. It is a process of actually confirming the prototype on the paper in the simplest stage. At this stage, objects have built a simple form as possible, but the important sections such as swimming and passing sections have been verified by quests in some completed.

At this stage, the verification was whether the energy lock was loosened, swimming, passing the laps, to enjoy the exploration. One of the new features in Forbidon West was swimming, especially diving, so I thought it was necessary to appeal to users while emphasizing it.

It was also important and judged that the process of experiencing the user experienced what could be done in the submarine situation and what could not be d1. For example, because the box was designed so that it would not be opened when it was submerged in the water, the user was also concerned about how to unlock the puzzle after removing the water in the space.

At this stage, the interactive object is applied to the mechanism properly and the connection is well connected to each other, so the objects are as bright as possible. In addition, the cutscene is output or the story progresses, and the summary is displayed on the screen. The spider boss of the underground bunker was set up at that stage, so it was built as a toppol Logi instead of detailed design. However, after defeating the spider, the structure that the floor collapsed and went to the boiler room where the old secret hidden and the specter appeared were already equipped.

After a big frame with a skeleton quest, he entered the first playable build construction stage that sets the base of the gameplay. At this stage, the cinematic and stories treated with text boxes should be implemented in accordance with the actual play, and it was necessary to test the quest route that was roughly scattered as it was prepared to conduct external tests for users.

As mentioned earlier, the underground bunker was planned as a place to test a new puzzle element as mentioned earlier, so after entering the first underground bunker, the three consoles were operated to open the door and opened the door and pulled the box. I added such gimmicks. In addition, the lab and residential area implemented the feeling of diving caves, and intended to deepen the fun of the ‘diving’ function newly prepared in Forbidden West. In fact, at that time, the plan was to rely on the lights that Ailoy was holding and to make the unknown feel, which was flooded and penetrated through the waterway of the cancer.

In addition to spiders, the boss ‘Eric’ was inserted at this stage and tested, but the testers did not see Eric and caught the spider. Of course, the boss name was not confirmed at the time, and the gimmick was set up in a large framework, but it was wrong with the first planning of falling into the spider by caring for the boss.

When the actual test was conducted, he explained that in addition to the boss part, there were several feedbacks in the early part. First of all, after charging the energy, it showed a gimmick that discharged energy when it touched the water. In addition, feedback has come and go in the swimming section. Therefore, the overall process was deepened, and in this area, the art team intervened to reinstall the feeling.

Normally, when the art team is designed from the beginning, the play experience tends to be somewhat distracted, but most of the points were related to the atmosphere, so this time the art team intervened. In fact, as the art team intervened in the stage design, the laboratory ceiling was higher than 20m, but users did not care about such factors.

Ignoring the boss and hitting the spider activated the ‘shield’ gimmick to the boss and connected the weakness of the spider to this gimmick. The connection of the spider’s legs and the walls is usually hard, but if Ailoy attacks the boss and the energy shield occurs once, the connection area is weakened in the aftermath.

In the midst of the work, the situation changed rapidly as the corona 19 pandemic occurred. After the change in the work system with Corona 19, the number of team members who saw the composition of the bunker again suggested that the design should be changed.

Mostly, feedback was to design in the bunker to design it in the direction of using the newly added functions in the forbidon West, and to give a stronger feeling of moving to the final goal. Not only the planning team but also the art team and the development team agreed, so many elements were added. In the process of inserting and condensing various systems, the experience of ‘diving’ was appealed to some extent in the previous quest.

In the boss battle, not only made the weakness more visible, but also eliminated the operation of the spider’s console. Instead, after dividing the phase, the cinematics also added to increase the tension and emphasized the feeling that Ailoy was looking for a solution in the crisis. Later, the pipeline connected to the body of the spider was cut off one by one to the flow of targeting the large pipeline of the body.

In response to this trend, a new paper was rebuilt, and after modifying the map and gimmick and returning the past process, the design of ‘Specter’, another major object of underground bunkers, was also reconsidered. At first, the beam was designed in the form of a beam out of the face, but there was a feedback that it was difficult to give a sense of urgency. So he has been in the present after several design modifications, and the motion change added that it was possible to modify it as soon as possible because of the help of the AI team as well as the animation team.

After catching such a big, we focused on the test and reflect the results several times, focusing on how the user will actually play in the last modification stage. Of course, the first impression when the user saw the space called the underground bunker was also important, so the art was also very important, but it was an indispensable point in the user experience.

Lebuzhe’s chief designer is actually more extensively tester.