Horizon Zero Dawn's lead principle designer Michael Andrew Nash passed away last week, prompting a colleague to share Nash's never-before-seen art in a touching industry tribute. In life, Nash was best-known for his tenure at Guerrilla Games, the developer behind the upcoming PlayStation-exclusive Horizon Forbidden West and the Killzone series, but he was a celebrated 3D artist outside of his work at Sony Interactive Entertainment.
Horizon Zero Dawn is known for its fairly original setting and world, with the open-world adventure takes place in a sci-fi future that has all but regressed into a pre-historic state of life. In this world, humans scrappy clothes and hunt with bow and arrows while also dealing with the threat of dinosaur-like Machines. Praised highly for its gorgeous natural vistas and unique character and enemy designs, the Horizon series has continued Guerrilla tradition of pushing Playstation tech to its limits, and it's now lost one of its most talented artists.
Michael Andrew Nash was a key individual in making Horizon Zero Dawn's world come to life. Nash designed many of the most notable mechanical creatures found in the world of Horizon Zero Dawn, including the towering Tallneck. Needless to say, he left an undeniable mark on the world of Horizon Zero Dawn that will surely be carried on in future installments. Former peer Gavriil Klimov shared some of Nash's work in a Twitter thread to pay a heartfelt tribute to his life and career, which can be seen below:
It's a fitting honor for a man that helped to set the visual bar of an entire console generation of 3D graphics, and the renders are in a highly polished state, only missing color and potential lighting or particle effects. Though it's not clear if the above art was intended for Horizon Zero Dawn, another project, or was simply a few of many examples of Nash exercising his artistic gifts, they stand as a testament to his talent and renown in the games industry.
With Horizon Forbidden West due out in 2021, players are likely to see many of Michael Andrew Nash's creations live on despite his passing. Many of his creatures are a integral part part of that universe, so his legacy will live on and continue to be marveled upon by fans for years to come.
Horizon Zero Dawn is available on PS4 and PC.
Source: Gavriil Klimov