Horizon Zero Dawn was one of my all-time favorite games, so imagine my joy when Guerrilla's Narrative Director Ben McCaw asked me to help the team working on Horizon Forbidden West. Summer 2021 I went to work on a set of in-game "data points" where Aloy would pick up information about the world's past and present. This meant deep-diving into the game world, its lore and history, and write material that would further boost a player's understanding of what goes on, in a tone matching the great, great work the writing team already put together.
My work focussed mostly on two areas in the game: the "Tenakth Memorial Grove" museum and Las Vegas, meaning I had to help imagine what a museum had looked like in the 2060s, before the apocalypse, and what stayed in Vegas after what happened with Vegas: turned into a desert first, then protected by a dome, and then flooded as a water repository. Seeing both areas come to life in the game after its February 2022 release was a huge pleasure for me, and finding my own Easter Eggs one of the best experiences in my writing carreer.
