This talk is about how we improved the living world experience for Horizon Forbidden West. After we released Horizon Zero Dawn in 2017, one of our goals for the sequel was to showcase the tribes and their cultures even better in the world of Horizon. In order to do so, we required a whole new approach to our world and NPC development process. We will explain the thought processes and philosophy behind what we think makes a believable game world and what steps we took to implement it in Horizon Forbidden West

Espen Sogn is the Lead Living World Designer at Guerrilla and has been with the company over 17 years. With a strong multi-year background in Cinematics Animation, he switched to Living World Design during Horizon Forbidden West’s development and is still leading that team now. Espen has been involved in both Killzone and Horizon franchises, with the most recent release being Horizon Forbidden West (2022).