STACK #241 November 2024

GAMING FEATURE

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• LEGO Horizon Adventures is out Nov 14

NEW KIDS ON THE

simply polygons, it's actually LEGO bricks, and everything has been built from the ground up with bricks. Gameplay wise, how have you expanded upon the well-established LEGO game formula? TG: With LEGO Horizon Adventures , we wanted to create an experience that spoke to the franchise of Horizon. Previous LEGO games are normally about movies, or other IPs that are not necessarily games. So, when moving a game IP into the LEGO universe, we really wanted to make sure we conveyed what that IP would be in the LEGO universe. And I think, for that reason, the usual LEGO formula of TT Games, even though it's quite cool, didn't fit the Horizon franchise for us. We really wanted to bring that Horizon combat, but really put it in the light of the LEGO version of that combat. We had a lot of fun doing that, and hopefully people will really enjoy the game. You HAD to have the wonderful Ashly Burch back as the voice of Aloy - and you have! How did she take to voicing a somewhat more frivolous version of her character? SV: She loved it. It was a super-positive experience right from the beginning, and she was really, really enthusiastic about it. I think just adjusting the character and how she plays

The worlds of PlayStation’s Horizon games and LEGO collide in this month’s LEGO Horizon Adventures . In their only Australian pre-release interview, STACK chatted with Stéphane Varrault, design director at Guerrilla Games, and Tono Gonzalez, lead game designer at Studio Gobo, about their bricktacular new collaboration. Words Amy Flower

Who first came up with the idea of a combining the worlds of Horizon and LEGO in a game? SV: It was actually a great alignment of planets. We knew that LEGO were really open to a Horizon game - I think what they really, really

There are around 80 LEGO bricks for every person on Earth. DYK?

enjoyed was the world of Horizon. It's so strongly built - especially based on values, and those values are universal - that it was a perfect match with the values that LEGO was also built upon. I'm thinking

TG: Because we wanted to create a game for a wider audience there were certain topics that we weren’t too comfortable bringing in. But we thought that the core of the story of Horizon Zero Dawn , especially everything revolving around Aloy, was really well captured, and there are definitely key moments of the story that players will recognise looking back at the original game as well. But everything was done with keeping in mind that light-heartedness and that sort of… we used to call it a fairytale approach, which is the retelling of the Horizon story in a fairytale way, basically. How involved were LEGO in the project? SV: They've been really, really supportive of what we did and what we wanted to propose. They were really involved, if only because the entire game is built with actual LEGO bricks. So, everything you see in the game isn't

especially about the values of family, the values of creativity, the values of building a community. Also, just using what you have to solve the situations that are around you. How did you go about arriving at the right vibe for LEGO Horizon Adventures ? TG: We had a lot of inspiration looking at old LEGO games and also the LEGO movies. We wanted to capture that tone, but we also wanted to figure out what was the right level for the Horizon franchise in the LEGO world. And definitely the movies were a huge, huge inspiration for us. Story-wise, you’ve adhered quite closely to the Zero Dawn plot. How did you go about making an apocalyptic tale more family friendly?

and how she acts to match that The LEGO Movie kind of tone. She really went to 100% on board right from the start. I think we’re super privileged that Ashly accepted to follow us on that representation. What do you most hope that players gain from playing LEGO Horizon Adventures ? SV: We built the systems to reward curiosity and creativity. There was this idea all along the development that we wanted to create what we call ‘joyful chaos’. It's sometimes going to backfire or not go the way you expected, but every time you try something there is a reaction, and the game really, really encourages you to find your own approach, and your way to do things.

NOVEMBER 2024

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