Summary
- The Horizon Forbidden West sequel is set to feature more machines, according to a job listing for Guerrilla Games.
- The job posting is for a Senior Machine Gameplay Designer who will contribute to designing new machines for the game.
- The Horizon franchise has been praised for its presentation, combat, storytelling, and exploration.
The next Horizon entry is reportedly set to contain more machines than before, according to a new job listing for Guerrilla Games. The Horizon Forbidden West sequel was announced earlier this year.
The Horizon franchise first began in 2017 with the release of Horizon Zero Dawn, whose popularity and high sales led to Horizon Forbidden West in 2022. The series follows the exploits of Aloy, a young huntress who must traverse open-world maps in a post-apocalyptic version of the western United States and fight off the menacing machines that have conquered the region. Both games have been critically praised for their presentation, combat, storytelling, characterization, and exploration, and their success has already prompted the developers to make this into a trilogy.
According to a job listing on the official Guerrilla Games site, the studio is looking to fill a position titled Senior Machine Gameplay Designer. Whoever is hired will contribute the designs of brand-new Horizon machines to the next installment and work on them from the concept artwork stage to the final step of brushing up the in-game assets before the game goes gold. Likewise, the person who fills this position is expected to have good teamwork skills, a very creative, detail-oriented mind, and experience in various forms of art design, from sketches to 3D modeling.
Other job qualifications include at least five years of experience in game or combat design (specifically with the Unreal and Unity engines), as well as experience in writing design documents. A notable plus, albeit one that's not a strict requirement, is experience with level design and combat encounter design. Considering the Horizon series' commitment to sticking to only one melee weapon, this could be a sign that the team is looking to spice up the combat system in that upcoming third game. Guerrilla Games also noted that work for this new position will be mostly in-person, in Amsterdam, and it will provide visa, immigration, permit, and relocation support for any and all qualified candidates it considers.
The Horizon duology has garnered a fanbase for a multitude of reasons, and judging by some of the global ad campaigns done for the franchise, the machines are clearly a popular aspect of these games, so adding more is probably a good call. It would certainly explain why this job posting is specifically looking for someone to design more new ones, but only time will tell what these new designs will look like and how they'll function in combat.
A new Horizon game is in development.