Designing Horizon Zero Dawn - Mathijs De Jonge Interview

[@NoclipDocs]

The spoilers in this video are very light, but we thought it best to mention them anyway. We'll have one or two more of these extended interviews coming later this month, but we're hard at work on two new projects you'll be seeing on this channel. Can't wait to share more about them soon.

[@davidwhistler1977]

I have to ask when the the camera was turned off did you ask what would be in the sequel just for personal knowledge? have to ask because i would be begging them for info lol

[@illegal_Leonard]

I’m so glad you ventured out to create NoClip and produce this content. It’s a joy to watch! Thank you thank you! PS: EFMS4life!

[@gucciman9458]

Noclip great video 👍

[@vincevirtua]

Bar none the best game commentary/doc's I've seen on KZbin. Thanks for producing these.

[@senior_9984]

"Players hate being into tutorials, but you need to fucking teach them" That was gold xD

[@kerema.5566]

It's kinda sad that he will never be able to experience a game like Horizon Zero Dawn as a gamer himself. It's a big sacrifice and I appriciate it. Same thing applies to all game developers out there. This was a great interview. Thanks

[@ranguy1379]

he doesn't have the time?

[@kevinros11]

​@@ranguy1379 he can't enjoy it the way all of us did. We discovered everything by playing: the story, combats, weapons, map, etc...while the devs already know of that. The only thing they don't know about their own game is the issues that might appear, like bugs, that's why it's the only thing they can think of. Im sure many players were amazed when they discovered what Project Zero dawn was, but the devs already knew what the whole story was about. And specially a game director, that covers all areas of development, it's very few room for surprise in itsown creation.

[@Ursa_Polaris]

*spoilers* about the taking away of the interface. when in the story Aloys focus got destroyed I had a gut wrenching feeling and my only thought was: " no, that's important!" It really felt like something was taken away from me and it drew me into the moment. That was a very strong connection I had with Aloy in a moment of panic in losing the focus.

[@robertdegroot8302]

Regarding what Matthijs says at 26:00 about the amount of camp fires in the game being disputed by developers who like the game very hard, this is a great example of how you should not be guided by a principle. It depends on the circumstances if a difficulty increasing element is beneficial or not. Most people loved the fact that this game was very HARD when it came to combat, but EASY when it came to crafting, resource collection and saving. I guess a loose principle could be: players like difficult games, as long as the increased difficulty leads to players having to do more of a fun thing instead of a tedious thing. And people also don't like losing achievements (especially if they had to work hard for it), so decreasing save options is double the wrong strategy to make the game harder. And of course with combat, players had the option to make it harder or easier in the settings menu, but regarding save options there would be no variation at all.

[@CodingWithUnity]

I think an important thing to remember is hard does not mean tedious. Hard crafting ends up just being hard because its a tedious grind to get the required level/resource and not because crafting is actually hard. If thats how combat worked then it would be hard to get the equipment and all fights would be executed with the same difficulty.

[@delchavez]

Cool interview. It just amazes me how talented and smart some people are. Horizon Zero Dawn forever.

[@dukeman8481]

I'm just starting to play this game for the first time on PC thanks to the Christmas sale and I can already tell it's going to be one of my favorite game ever.

[@schizogony]

I like the slider idea. Also, the sine wave method is a smart way to explain the game design process: make big moves left and right at first -- just go all over the place -- then gradually hone it in, cutting everything except what's absolutely necessary, until you find that perfect straight line to run with until launch. And De Jonge is a good question-answerer. Of course, it helps that O'Dwyer's a good asker.

[@Noname304y2u2]

How is this guy not waaaaaay more famous. He is leading one of the biggest media projects ever in the Netherlands.

[@rameshbakshi198]

this guy made horizon forbidden west which i am playing right now. AMAZING GAME

[@platonicdescartes]

More Horizon Zero Dawn? An automatic like even before pressing the play button.

[@JorRaptor]

This is going to be good!

[@hyunjinniesenglish3348]

JorRaptor I finished the game 3 times and never got bored of it The story is amazing And a clever

[@aparkc]

I'm really loving these deep dives into one of my favourite games of 2017 (and all time)! Thank you Noclip and Guerilla!

[@nathanokun8801]

The Focus being a direct neurological interface device as a super-Smart Phone extrapolation was inspired. In fact, I can see them as a goal for future human-electronic interfaces. Great!

[@nathanokun8801]

This game organization is a real genius-level group. They ended up with a game that was not perfect, but the hierarchy of perfect to needs-work parallels the importance of that thing to the game. The main things were close to perfect and only the rather minor things have had much grumbling (inventory management being one of the main irritations). For a first-time open world design, this is well-nigh unbelievable, but they did it. A HUGO-award-level story, great and unique music, superb graphics, amazing robot antagonists, great game-play mechanics for the player to handle (even the somewhat odd things like crafting more ammunition "on the fly", were done to speed up the game by eliminating frequent trips to crafting places and making the game feel better and did not really mess up the game functions), and interesting history and non-player characters that make exploration desirable.

[@1voice1man]

I am not always interested in the interview but I click on it because it's Noclip and end up loving it. The production quality and questions asked are so good!! I can't wait to see which studio you guys visit next! Well done.

[@NathanOkun]

The "Focus". The direct-mental-interface replacement for the Smart phone. A truly inspired thing; something that real-life developers should strive for. My hat is off to you concerning this superb bit of future-tech. Bravo!

[@FirefoxisredExplorerisblueGoog]

Don't have a PS4 but played this game at a mate for like 3 hours and I instantly knew that this was something I was sadly going to miss out on as a PC gamer. Anyway, saw a lot of the developers at a Game Soundtrack Orchestra at the Tivoli Theatre in Utrecht (NL). Unfortunately, me and my mate didn't have time to chat with any of the devs because we had to catch our train back home but it seemed like they were super enthusiastic and down-to-earth. Great interview as always; seems like you were able to catch Mathijs in the same "natural" or down-to-earth vibe that I saw the devs in after the orchestra.

[@pahlevymu]

well it's going to be released on PC

[@Hawk7886]

@@pahlevymu it's super awesome on pc. They nailed the optimization, making it super attainable to hit 4k and 60fps with even older hardware.

[@AutomaticSnake]

This guy is beast. Killzone 2 and Horizon ZD wow. I put him up there with the Kojimas and Shinjis.

[@johnnyfreetanga5506]

Kojima knows that. Decima is just an excuse to know that team of beasts.

[@tiggalily2623]

This game is completly worth it, I played through the whole game many times and currently finishing up the DLC I am very sad that the story line ended :( I wish for more DLCs or a second Horizon Zero Dawn ☺❤

[@kpag3030]

Tigga Lily Yes. Lots of replay value. I have well over 200hrs into this game. I have 2 complete playthroughs. One on hard and one on normal. DLC was awesome and weaves into the story perfectly. Even changes things in the main quest when you complete it. Still haven’t found all the data nodes. So many of them and they add such deep lore and history to the world. You feel like you were there at the end with all of the stories and data.

[@absence9443]

Horizon Forbidden West will make the sun light your way.

[@thehunter7422]

Love when we get to see a whole bunch behind the scenes stuff with the director's on games. Can't believe how many things they're in charge of lol so hyped for Forbidden West. First Horizon was amazing. Especially the huge change they went from linear to open world, huge task to go upon for sure. They succeeded for sure. Guerrilla have some very talented people there that's for sure .

[@NathanOkun]

The original map was 50 times as big? That would be most of the midwest of the US and/or parts of south-central Canada. Wow.

[@jacobaldrich8604]

I think it's more a matter of scale. So same geographical location but scaled up so its more detailed and expansive.

[@casuallyblue3570]

@@jacobaldrich8604 Well, to necro a necropost, its more of the opposite, the geographical biomes and locations in the game were more scaled down than a geographical location being scaled up.

[@Hawk7886]

@@casuallyblue3570 I love this thread just for the time dilation effect

[@Mindseas]

Thank you, again, for a wonderful extended interview Noclip! So wonderful to hear Mathijs De Jonge share his thoughts. I look forward to every video you make!

[@arenkai]

23:54 Horizon 2 basically confirmed people !

[@JorRaptor]

Haha not a surprise but still fun to hear!

[@Red_Lanterns_Rage]

game is a big hit and by the end cutscene it's obvious there's more story to tell and with even Frozen Wilds being a hit it's clear they'll be doing more in this series.... HZD is one of PS4's biggest success stories and one of 2017's biggest successes, they'd be mad not to do a sequel...

[@AutomaticSnake]

arenkai old news but first KZ5

[@Radioactive_exe]

AutomaticSnake they've been said they're done with killzone

[@AutomaticSnake]

SpaceCadetAtom nope.

[@alextownley9388]

It’s an absolutely incredibly achievement that they made the game in only 2 years!!!

[@liamboehning4398]

*7 years At least that's the time from initial conceptualization to release.

[@alextownley9388]

Liam Boehning I know, but he said himself that actually building the world, the quests, etc. all was done only in 2 years!

[@liamboehning4398]

Oh snap I missed that line. Yeah that's a pretty ridiculous timeline for how dense everything is.

[@alextownley9388]

Liam Boehning right and how polished the game is!! I think it further proves just how talented Guerrilla truly is. It’s amazing.

[@liamboehning4398]

Alex Townley They really are an incredible studio. I haven't played the Killzone games and hadn't really heard of them prior to HZD, and now I really need to go back. Super excited to see what Guerilla has for us down the road.

[@cooperm211]

Thanks so much for posting this, Danny!! Fantastic insight into how to nail down design with a larger team.

[@thehunter7422]

You got a new sub here. Just finished watching it and man after watching this and the Demons Souls one that came out few months ago , I'll be looking for more of these now to binge lol love these documentaries on these huge awesome games

[@alexmadsen21]

Absolutely love your work Danny. Thank you for all you do.

[@saktiawansee]

Man hzd is amazing game buy this 2 days ago. Bam its amazing with graphic, story and mechanism You are all guys awesome 😆 Waiting for hzd 2 6 years from now 😆🙄

[@thehunter7422]

Bet you didn't expect a pandemic to hit lol but even then though you were pretty close lol 5 years you have to wait for it 😁 Horizon Forbidden West is gonna be hype . 4 months left 🤟 Edit : unless you meant 6 years from 2018 then never mind it would be 4 years you had to wait lol

[@CoBoL09]

Great interview. Looking forward to the next videos. Hoping there's some about the music?

[@liamboehning4398]

Can't wait for some Frozen Wilds Behind the scenes!

[@TheLegoJungle]

I like that the fastest answer he gave all interview was to the question of whether he was sick of making an open world game :D

[@Inogat]

in monster hunter you start feeling bad for the monsters quite early on, and I think it's a good thing, it adds emotion to the hunt, and a bit of regret. I don't think it's a bad thing, it's part of the experience in my opinion and sends quite a strong message.

[@Dethikah]

Thank you for all your hard work and for sharing this, HZD is amazing😍

[@Protonwar]

Thanks guys! :D

[@TheMightyPipe]

Great stuff Danny. I know you've got a lot on your plate but can we please see the extended CDPR interviews? I'm getting the feeling they may never come out.

[@renegorjup]

Hope I will be able to play it in the future.

[@reykennedy5716]

No wonder this guy sounds like Jean Claude van Damme. He's only a few hours from where Van Damme is from. Love his accent

[@bunnybreaker]

Great interview.Really wish I could play this game, but no PS4 alas.

[@NathanOkun]

Having a general sidekick for Aloy in a multiplayer or single-player Batman/Robin version of this game would require more HZD characters who had an experience like Aloy in finding a Focus and who also were as smart as she was (she was designed by Gaia to be the smartest and, by the DNA modifications from her "mother" (that roughly 0.5% DNA difference is enormous and thus has to be on purpose, because otherwise, such a huge change would almost always kill the fetus in the womb or just after birth), the strongest physical specimen (both in strength and endurance but also in response to healing potions and the like (she responds to them faster and better than other characters do)) - Batman and Einstein mixed. That is very unlikely. If the sidekick was a "normal" HZD non-player character, then most of the time that character would be in a most compromised situation due to only Aloy, through her smarts and the Focus, being able to sort out what is going on. Only in some very special situations, as in those actually in the game, does a sidekick work for a very specific limited goal. Even Sylens, with all of his smarts and knowledge, would not really be able to keep up with Aloy as a co-equal character in this game (she is smarter, has a much better attitude about things in general and other characters in particular, and is more generally physically capable than he is).

[@delchavez]

In my opinion, Aloy is so synonimous with the "Horizon" brand, that it is hard to imagine her sharing the spotlight. It would have to be a character with strong physical traits and an interesting background, but also someone that we can connect with emotionally and want for that character to be there. Personality, charm, wit.

[@nathanokun8801]

@@delchavez I agree. Also, she was specifically designed by GAIA as the one person who could possibly figure out what to do to save everybody. Nobody else (except Sylens) could keep up with her and even Sylens was stopped cold by her ability to understand things (remember the spherical earth hiccup!). On top of that, as mentioned, she was physically "souped up" to handle injury and to respond to medication by GAIA (GAIA was putting "all its eggs in one basket" and did its best to up the odds) and nobody else comes close, as even she finally realized. How could she have a sidekick who would last more than one major confrontation?

[@dagon99]

Lovely vid

[@brianhale7528]

Great vid love this stuff

[@cooldead]

You need to fucking teach those players! (great video by the way)

[@BushLitter]

Fucking love this channel

[@DobbyPotterPS4]

Can’t wait to watch it when I’m free!

[@ArunabhaGoswami]

39:50 Nobel peace prize candidate, right here

[@TohirT]

You heard it here first folk - co op in Horizon 2!

[@Stimros_halabad]

I wish. Maybe horizon 3 :’)

[@redemption44]

These men an women are by far the smartest people I've ever seen in the gaming industry

[@AceBadguy]

Nice.

[@rubysmith765]

In all honesty I like the first game more than the second game. Everything was done better imo.

[@suryarakeshyerramsetti2998]

Who is here, after watching horizon zero dawn 2 trailer ?

[@johnnyfreetanga5506]

Lol the ending

[@ShellComics]

Woot!

[@robindunkel9834]

New to this channel and therefore don`t know, whether or not you already answered questions like this one, but did you think of putting these interviews or similar stuff to podcast apps/ sites?

[@12345JJBB]

exploring is the best part though, sometimes im reluctant to start a side mission because i know theres nothing new over there and its big enough to be tiresome but i liked far cry 2 so idk

[@gucciman9458]

Really I love all there games I love all KillZone And Horizon Zero Dawn 👍💗😂

[@posebukse]

"Very sensitive to anything that breaks immersion" *places a huge text saying your last save is loaded if you don't turn around from areas of the map*

[@Michael-fd1gx]

The DLC weapon ammo crafting cost is too high, making then too resource expensive to use.

[@captainbritain7379]

It’s so weird to hear swearing in such a professionally executed interview. Not bad, just weird.

[@marchaubenstock]

Such a big pet peeve of mine. Makes it look as if he is trying to be "cool"

[@supremeworld87]

Not even weird. All the best interviews I've heard involve swearing. It's not unprofessional

[@noneofyourbusinessthatswhat]

To be honest, all Dutch people speaking English swear every three to four words XD

[@roelf8044]

Really not true. maybe only people you know?

[@digodinn]

probably because english swearings doesnt have the same effect for non-native english speakers, so they swear more in english than in their first language. (like me)

[@Igoreshkin]

Damn. I don't played this game yet. Can you tell where is spoiler, so I can watch the video and skip spoiler part?

[@squali1930]

3:17

[@joystickblaze]

Enjoy ''Black Myth: Wukong'' 13min of gameplay: kzbin.info/www/bejne/d4W2h5qmhbpqg8k

[@wiidiwii]

This is the guy that came up with the horizon zero dawn pitch.

[@ninjadodovideos]

No, that was Jan Bart van Beek, the art director (it's mentioned in the other video).

[@NotErix]

Russian sub pls

[@luckyx360]

Wth fulton system adn the jet type loading fast screen travel sounded cool as hell,that's why japapnese dev rock they never ditch stuff like this but improve upon it and this type of things gave the games charm,horizon needs to have more things other than combat it was quite barebone gameplay wise

[@cybergamersx420]

You guys have no reason to talk on this game because you guys do not know the difference in your programme between water and land

[@leomeyer280495]

Funny how all of this seems so outdated with Monster Hunter World being around now. All of the challenges they faced, all the features they cut, all the ambitions they had to drop, they are all in MHWorld. And better. Funny how ambitions and visions change from one studio to another.

[@simonsp92]

Funny how MH has existed since 2004, and has been refined and perfected over 7 games, not counting spin-offs. Comparing the two isn't exactly a fair comparison.

[@Weldingization]

These games can really not be compared. One is an open world RPG with 3rd person shooter combat. The other is... well... Monster Hunter. I love Monster Hunter and really wanted Horizon Zero Dawn to be a western interpretation of that formula but it really isn't. That isn't a bad thing. They're just very different beasts.

[@jacob476]

The costume design in this game for the tribes was absolutely terrible. It made no sense that it was all Asian inspired