"We wanted to create a character who is agile, fast and badass at the same time; a female character very much like Ripley (Alien/ Aliens), Sarah Connor (Terminator) or even Ygritte from GoT." said Guerilla Games' Senior Producer, Mark Norris when asked about what was the main influence when it came to the design of the lead protagonist in Horizon: Zero Dawn, Aloy.
"The native American 'look' is purely coincidental", added Director, Mathis De Jong.
Delving a bit more into the conception of the Horizon, Norris revealed how the guys at Guerilla Games used several games as inspiration including Monster Hunter. "I guess you can say early on, we wanted to create some sort of a 'western Monster Hunter'" he remarked. But quickly added "This is no way of saying we were trying to emulate Monster Hunter - that is impossible. The original idea evolved after four and a half years and has taken a life of its own"
Horizon: Zero Dawn is a single player, 3rd person open world action RPG set in a post post-apocalyptic world where men is no longer the dominant species. In a world filled with familiar beast-like machines living freely in the wild, it is a battle between primitive humanity and high technology in Horizon as players sought to find out how things came to be.
Horizon: Zero Dawn is the first IP developed by Guerrilla Games since Killzone in 2004 and is their first attempt at RPGs. The game is set for release sometime in 2016.