They donвЂ™t have many weapons, but theyвЂ™re able to easily detect threats and report them back to larger, stronger machines. Watchers are some of the first machines you see in the game.

Once you know their role in the ecosystem, you can start designing what they look like, and how they behave. ThereвЂ™s a purpose for all of the creatures, and theyвЂ™re trying to do something very specific. Shell walkers carry resources between locations. Watchers are weak creatures but theyвЂ™re quick, so they serve as scouts for herds of other types of machines. Every animal has a unique function within the ecology. This robot species has their own societyВ with rules. Horizon is about the result of another species taking over. Why are the machines there? What are they aiming to do, and is that ecology self sustaining? The developers first decide the lore of the world that the creature lives in, then the function, and then the form comes. Creating machines is kind of in their wheelhouse. The developer of Horizon is Guerrilla Games, the studio famous for the Killzone franchise. The creature design is another element that breathes life into Horizon: Zero Dawn. You can see the result of the detailed research in the lore of the matriarchal Nora tribe. The writers of Horizon: Zero Dawn did a lot of anthropology research when creating the world of the game, thatвЂ™s what breathes so much life into it. She begins the game as an outcast, but you learn that she is a member of the вЂњNoraвЂќ вЂ“ one of the tribes in the gameвЂ™s world.

Heavy metal machines lore