A No-Nonsense Approach to Designing Horizon Zero Dawn's Robot Dinosaurs

In this 2018 GDC Art Direction Bootcamp session, Guerrilla Games' Jan-Bart Van Beek breaks down the process for creating the visual style that defines the robotic dinosaur enemies of Horizon Zero Dawn.
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[@Betortitas89]

The amount of research necessary to create a valuable and memorable product is astounding

[@Dethikah]

I cannot articulate just how much i appreciate the thought and passion that went into the designs and animation of the machines. They are so amazing and beautiful to watch, the designs are gorgeous. Thank you for posting this.

[@clumsytriangle2436]

I honestly felt bad everytime I killed a robot...especially the "herbivores" lol. You guys achieved your goals 100%

[@KeimpeJ]

Gimme those canisters!

[@dendk]

I'm always pleased to see an example that illustrates the sheer complexity, time and work that goes into even single aspects within such a grand design. It's too bad that the ones most prone and quick to criticize are the least likely to watch or appreciate these lectures.

[@wanderingyeehaw]

My favorite of all the designs in game are the Snapmaws because of their tail believe it or not. I love the design because when Hephaestus (in game lore designer of the machines) made the Snapmaw it took inspiration from animals specially animals like centipedes who have a false head. Both the Snapmaw and centipedes have a false head on their tail to trick predators into going for their tail instead of their real head.

[@InferisDCB]

completed the game on PC 4 times now, still finding new content. love this presentation, beautiful to see how it all came to be

[@Roxxo88]

57:38 "Its something BEGGI that we always push BEGGI, to make sure BEGGI..." I can't breathe🤣 really good talk btw, super valuable stuff!

[@Shackkobe]

I think that "beggi" is the dutch version of "like"(55:43)

[@HFDLI]

lol ....

[@Roxxo88]

@@Shackkobe nah I'm pretty sure he means to say basically, but too lazy to execute the pronunciation correctly😅

[@afropovic]

​@@Roxxo88 It's not 'basically'. He can say that kzbin.info/www/bejne/n3XUdYOpn9etb5Y. I think he is trying to say 'maybe'. I think Germans and Dutch use 'maybe' a lot between words as well as 'a little bit' when speaking English. It's a little annoying, but his English is better than my Dutch (I don't speak Dutch).

[@Rujewitblood]

I kept thinking wtf is he saying lol

[@notenlish]

I bought my ps4 in 2018 and horizon came bundled wiyh it and i remember being amazed by its graphics

[@gosu6594]

This is a really really good presentation. Just finished Horizon Zero down and Horizon Forbidden West, one after the other. I loved playing them, they're fantastic games. The improvements were very noticible, they've come a long way!

[@alexisfeurer2312]

He just sold me on this game. Can’t wait to get into it.

[@TheFloatingSheep]

I find it very damn tense. Every time I play it, just seems like there's no god damn place where I can feel safe from being spotted and getting attacked by some machine.

[@s1mplem4gic58]

Enjoy it. Maybe you'll enjoy the sequel!

[@e2rqey]

It's an absolutely fantastic game. If you are able to and have the PC that can do it justice I would highly highly recommend it. Especially on PC.

[@e2rqey]

@@TheFloatingSheep after a while you will just instinctively get a good feel for how far away you can be from enemies without aggroing them. That and there are a couple of perks you will pick up that help. It was like that for me at the beginning, but honestly your changing relationship with the robo dinos is paced pretty much perfectly with the plot of the game and Aloy's character development.

[@senshai1267]

These people are dope

[@stephenmeinhold5452]

The thing that stands out for me is its what they take out eg the first draft had other combatants like aloy but wisely they realised they needed the focus on one main charicter. at first the machines looked very hollywood and man made, but they changed there mind and went with a more organic feel. if they had gone ahead with ether of the first iterations it would have been forgoten in a heartbeat but its a classic a truly memorable game. if you look behind all of the great recent movies they have all had a lot of time in iteration. Disney it seems have zero iteration they just put a lot of random stuff in a hat and pull them out.

[@joshelderkin9592]

Goddd that trailer was so fire i forgot how fucking good it was

[@amirhmirzaee]

Wow! It's the Mountaineer!

[@e2rqey]

DOROK: ICON PUPPYGRINDER was such a good game.

[@Djeison_]

Thank you! Very good and informative video.

[@dreadfulman5191]

Ok now I wanna watch the lead designer's presentation. Has GDC uploaded that too? Does someone have a link or something?

[@TheTherapistGamer]

I think it's this: kzbin.info/www/bejne/ipLamZaNltRsotU&ab_channel=GDC

[@dreadfulman5191]

@@TheTherapistGamer Thanks a lot! Really appreciate it

[@austininflorida]

I've never heard Avatar called "high-concept sci-fi" before.

[@vectorfield]

take a shot everytime he attempts to say "basically"

[@Arthounot]

Oh no now i can't unhear it.

[@TheNheg66]

I'm *begey*, *begey* you So, put your loving hand out, baby I'm begey, begey you So, put your loving hand out, darling

[@banryu79]

Very intresting!

[@CidtheOutlaw]

awesome !Thank you so much I really appreciate :) SUB!

[@reimagineuniverse]

all that research and min character looks like niko avocado lol

[@malaizze]

What is love? Bagey don't hurt me!

[@TheNheg66]

I'm beggy, beggy you So, put your loving hand out, baby I'm beggy, beggy you So, put your loving hand out, darling

[@aaramchase3502]

Id love to work there i love the designs and i have a lot of designs and ideas for the robot animals i was thinking if we got a world travel and we go to like china we could get the Legendary 5 beast as a boss fight a giant tiger, dragon , pheonix, turtle (located in their respective sites being north south east and west and the other dragon who sits in the center which could be the final boss you need after collecting the 4 other robot beast key items thatll unlock the door. If we get africa we could get a giant lion where frontal attacks would be block by its shield like mane. Or a megalodon boss and some sharks like hammerhead and ither fish that clean the waters and oceans from pollution(some would live near underwater volcanos or trenches)

[@theamazingmarlbito6293]

23:00

[@VoidariumComic]

Who's Becky?

[@shiningstar737]

41:50 talking about better evolution and shows a lobster instead of a pseudo crab, the epitome of convergent fauna evolution, smh

[@aybekogobaev1087]

whats bagey?

[@TheNheg66]

Fuck the apocalypse, this is the real mystery

[@masahiroueno6146]

FIRST BOI

[@McHaven07]

I'm sorry, but if one one-hundred-twenty pound girl can kill a robo-doom-t-rex single-handedly, HOW exactly does the world belong to THEM? Everything's beautiful, don't get me wrong, but the entire concept is just so silly.

[@e2rqey]

It does seem ridiculous when you think about it like that but if you've played the game it honestly does a pretty damn good job of making everything seem plausible enough. The first time you take down one of those Thunderjaws it 100% feels like you earned it. Also canonically when they took over everything it was more due to the sheer numbers overwhelming any defenses. The swarm was making them faster than they could kill them (and they all consume biomass for fuel). The writers did a very good job of covering for all the "what if" scenarios that you would inevitably ask about how everything went down. The detail they go into was far beyond anything I was expecting.

[@samaBR333]

have you played the game? do you know the amazing script that wraps all this up?

[@johnben93]

Not sure if you played the game, but she can't just 1 v 1 a robo-doom-t-rex. You need to keep running/dodging and take out key components (like the CPU, eyes, or electrical components) with metal arrows, or bombs. They don't go down easy. And you really can't 1 v 1 most of them till you actually finish the game. Only towards the end of the game will you know how to play, dodge and attack.

[@mitkoogrozev]

Ever played video games? Generally speaking you are always the main character who gets great powers and defeats the bad guy or fixes some big problem single handedly.

[@linezgames3893]

killzone shadowfall was just bad. but killzone 1,2,3 were perfect. Don't think you guys never had something.